“Liaozhai's Strange Tales”: A New Complete Annotated Translation

FAIN: RQ-292688-23

University of Chicago (Chicago, IL 60637-5418)
Judith Tamar Zeitlin (Project Director: November 2022 to present)

Preparation for print and publication of an annotated translation of Liaozhai’s Chronicles of the Strange written by Pu Songling (1640–1715), a well known Chinese writer. (36 months)

Our project—“‘Liaozhai's Strange Tales’: A New Complete Annotated Translation”—will produce the first accurate, annotated, and illustrated English translation of Pu Songling’s “Liaozhai zhiyi (Liaozhai’s Chronicles of the Strange).” This collection of nearly 500 stories, first published in 1766, is unquestionably the most famous in literary Chinese, with a profound influence on the Chinese fantastic imagination. Although anthologies of selected tales have been translated into English and other languages, the full extent and artistry of the collection remains inaccessible to non-Chinese-reading audiences because existing editions exclude most of its stories, and many tales require significant annotation to recuperate their full meanings. By undertaking a complete and annotated English translation—which meets the highest scholarly and literary standards—we aspire to make the riches of Pu Songling’s world masterpiece available both to the general public and the specialized reader.