Anecdotes about Spirits and Immortals in the two volume hardback book from Library of Chinese Classics. This book is in English and simplified Chinese and is a wonderful addition to any library. Anecdotes about Spirits and Immortals was published by the Foreign Languages Press in 2004 and there are 1131 pages. It was translated into English by Huang Diming.
Anecdotes about Spirits and Immortals
Anecdotes about Spirits and Immortals is a collection of myths, legends and stories of strange and wonderful occurences. Anecdotes about Spirits and Immortals is a treasure trove of Chinese folklore prior to the third century A.D. Gan Bao, who compiled this book, was a historian of the Eastern Jin Dynasty (317-420). Gan Bao was a believer in fate and the occult and applied the historian’s method of recording to the fantastic stories which were current in his time. Anecdotes about Spirits and Immortals has a far-reaching impact on Chinese literature of later generations and provided a fountain of inspiration for writers.
Anecdotes about Spirits and Immortals is part of Library of Chinese Classics and there are over 80 books in the series so far. Library of Chinese Classics is a ‘mirror’ format which means that there is a page of Chinese followed by a page of English. As they are bilingual, the books are extremely suitable for Western readers interested in Chinese culture, people learning Chinese and native Chinese readers who want to read an accessible version of the classics. Since their publication, they have been immensely popular and Library of Chinese Classics has also been translated into Spanish, French, German, Russian and Arabic.