Some Chinese Ghosts

by Lafcadio Hearn

Ghost stories aren't always the province of creaky old Victorian hotels and medieval palaces. This fascinating collection brings together some traditional tales of the supernatural from China. If you're a horror buff who's looking to expand your horizons a bit, Some Chinese Ghosts is a must-read.

This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.

Genres: China, Fiction, Horror, Short Stories, Classics, Folklore, Asian Literature

53 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1887

About the author

Greek-born American writer Lafcadio Hearn spent 15 years in Japan; people note his collections of stories and essays, including Kokoro (1896), under pen name Koizumi Yakumo.

Rosa Cassimati (Ρόζα Αντωνίου Κασιμάτη in Greek), a Greek woman, bore Patrick Lafcadio Hearn (Πατρίκιος Λευκάδιος Χερν in Greek or 小泉八雲 in Japanese), a son, to Charles Hearn, an army doctor from Ireland. After making remarkable works in America as a journalist, he went to Japan in 1890 as a journey report writer of a magazine. He arrived in Yokohama, but because of a dissatisfaction with the contract, he quickly quit the job. He afterward moved to Matsué as an English teacher of Shimané prefectural middle school. In Matsué, he got acquainted with Nishida Sentarô, a colleague teacher and his lifelong friend, and married Koizumi Setsu, a daughter of a samurai.
In 1891, he moved to Kumamoto and taught at the fifth high school for three years. Kanô Jigorô, the president of the school of that time, spread judo to the world.

Hearn worked as a journalist in Kôbé and afterward in 1896 got Japanese citizenship and a new name, Koizumi Yakumo. He took this name from "Kojiki," a Japanese ancient myth, which roughly translates as "the place where the clouds are born". On that year, he moved to Tôkyô and began to teach at the Imperial University of Tôkyô. He got respect of students, many of whom made a remarkable literary career. In addition, he wrote much reports of Japan and published in America. So many people read his works as an introduction of Japan. He quit the Imperial University in 1903 and began to teach at Waseda University on the year next. Nevertheless, after only a half year, he died of angina pectoris.

Reviews

[eva · Rating 3 out of 5]

la historia de ming-y mi favorita sin duda!

[Gaspar Alvarez · Rating 3 out of 5]

Los dos últimos textos son brillantes, en especial "La tradición de la planta del té"

[Cristian1185]

Compilado de historias que tienen como protagonistas a fantasmas y apariciones, entes puestos en el mundo de los vivos con distintas finalidades y motivos. Las narraciones se encuentran vinculadas de una u otra forma con valores y principios inscritos en las costumbres de la milenaria Tian Xia, posibilitando encontrar alegorías implícitas al terminar la lectura de los cuentos.

Cuentos que comparten historias donde la presencia del fantasma se convierte en la condición ineludible para el desarrollo de los acontecimientos de la narración, ya sea como presencia alojada en objetos, o en directa relación con el mundo de los mortales. Las narraciones comparten la idea de que los distintos planos de existencia comparten instantes donde se conjugan y posibilitan fenómenos que no pueden ser explicados sólo con las respuestas que arroja la lógica racional.

Un texto interesante, que si bien se nutre de textos y documentos chinos, el autor también utiliza traducciones y versiones occidentalizadas de estos últimos, por lo que el libro podría ser utilizado como un puntapié inicial para la búsqueda de lecturas relacionadas con la temática que cruza todo su contenido.

La edición presenta un diseño cuidado e imágenes características de la cultura china, sin embargo tiene algunos errores de ortotipográficos.

[Elizabeth Aguilera · Rating 4 out of 5]

Compilación de cuentos cortos recopilados por Lafcadio, donde se narran leyendas chinas relacionadas con fantasmas y espíritus. Su fluidez y poetica es encantadora, la manera que se aborda cada historia es perfecta a mi parecer. Para mi los mejores cuentos son:
-la historia de Ming Yi: nos narra la historia de un joven erudito (Ming Yi) y de cómo se encuentra con Xue Tao.
-historia del dios de la porcelana: Nos relata del sacrificio que es capaz de realizar Bu, un humilde obrero chino, en pro de su obra y trabajo; este cuento deja mucho que pensar y analizar.

[spoon · Rating 2 out of 5]

not the one

[Snail in Danger (Sid) Nicolaides · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really like the first story. But after that, none were grabbing me. (You can read them all for free here.

This version has a nice introduction. Okay, mainly it sticks out in my mind for its quotation of Sir Walter Scott on the supernatural in stories. I'm tempted to try to track down the full work, assuming it came from an essay. (Possibly "On the Supernatural in Fictitious Composition"?)

[tineke · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book almost did it for me. The last two stories, were, as some other reviews here have mentioned, a bit of a drag for me personally. But reading not only the short stories themselves, but also the stories behind them, was interesting. Finding out how the author crafted these tales based off of traditional folk tales, and gave them detail and certain twists, was pretty nice.
As for the stories themselves, the first few were enjoyable.

[Hiipatiia · Rating 4 out of 5]

El secreto de la muerta
Jikininki
La doncella del espejo
El espíritu de la gran campana
La historia de Ming-Y
Aullido
...

Son mis relatos favoritos de este interesante libro. Estos espectros orientales son muy curiosos y a la par inquietantes; no te darán un infarto de muerte, pero te dejarán la sospecha oscura.

[Jordan]

I am actually reading this and other Hearn in the Library of America edition and loving it.

[Olivia · Rating 3 out of 5]

like any short story collection, the quality and impact varies throughout but i read the Story of Min Ying last and it brought me to tears. truly gorgeous prose

[Eduardo Boris Muñiz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lafcadio Hearn fue autor griego que vivió en Estados Unidos y tuvo mucho éxito como reportero, pero cuando tenía 40 años (en 1890) se fue a vivir a Japón.
Vivio durante 15 años (hasta su muerte) en tierras niponas, incluso se casó con la hija de un samurái.
Durante esos años escribió muchos libros sobre mitos y leyendas niponas, muchas de ellas de terror.

Este libro que les traigo hoy fue publicado en 1887, tres años antes de irse de Estados Unidos y cuenta algunos mitos y leyendas de China.

La estructura del libro es un prefacio más 6 relatos cortos que giran en torno a fantasmas o seres sobrenaturales.
Mis favoritos fueron los dos primeros, uno habla de una campana “embrujada” y el segundo de un profesor que en medio de su camino se encuentra con una hermosa mujer que le cambiara la vida.

Hay dos que no me gustaron, uno de ellos habla del sacrificio de un budista atreves del cual nace la planta del té, y el otro es un relato sobre los dioses de la alfarería.

Los otros dos cuentos están bien, pero no son de mis favoritos.

Se que hay otras ediciones más completas de este libro que tienen más cuentos, pero la que llego a mis manos solo cuenta con estos 6 cuentos.
No son de terror, ni miedo, tampoco de suspenso, son leyendas que al final suelen dejar una enseñanza.

Creo que el fuerte de este autor son los relatos de Japón, estos de China fueron de una calidad desigual y me dejaron con un poco de gusto a poco.

[Gala · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lafcadio reconstruye estas leyendas a partir de algunos otros libros y enciclopedias. Mis favoritas fueron las de Ming-Y y la del Dios de la Porcelana. En esta última le encargan a un obrero muy genio de la alfarería que construya una vasija que imite el aspecto de la carne y que se mueva cuando alguien le diga cosas. Lo que es diferente de estas leyendas es que no son todas sobre el origen de algo de la Naturaleza (como por ejemplo las leyendas americanas sobre los ríos, las flores, el colibrí) sino que muestran como el origen de la figura de un fantasma o un dios, la creencia sobre un fantasma o un dios.

[Javier Fontecilla · Rating 5 out of 5]

Una bella, cuidada y hermosamente traducida colección de cuentos chinos sobre apariciones y espíritus. El lenguaje melódico es una delicia para el lector y el ritmo de los textos conjuga adecuadamente la velocidad con la atención. Mis historias favoritas fueron: “El espíritu de la campana” y “La historia de Ming Yi”

[Dani · Rating 3 out of 5]

Desde que vi la película "Kwaidan" que quería leer a Lafcadio Hearn. El libro me pareció interesante, sobre todo los primeros cuatro cuentos, ya que los dos finales no son tan narrativos. Sin embargo, me parece muy valorable el ejercicio del autor de querer traer a Occidente relatos míticos que dan a entender un poco sobre la cultura del país (su relación con el honor, el esfuerzo, el sacrificio, la belleza, etc.)

[Mattia · Rating 3 out of 5]

While these stories are entertaining, I don't think they're very Chinese. The book was published in 1887, while Lafcadio Hearn was living in New Orleans and working as a journalist, years before he ever went to Asia - he never went to China, although he lived in Japan for many years, where he wrote Kwaidan, a book of supposedly Japanese folktales and the work he's best known for. I don't know enough about Japanese folktales to be sure how faithful Kwaidan is to them, but there are a lot of elements in Kwaidan that are also in Hearn's earlier non-Japanese work, so I have doubts.

Hearn admits, in his notes at the end of the book, to basing these "Chinese" stories on translations of Chinese tales by early Orientalists, and on his own imagination. Mostly, I think, the latter.

Almost all of the ghosts (and other supernatural beings) are female, and they work miracles for those (men) who deserve them. A girl throws herself into a vat of molten metal for her father's sake and lives on; a young tutor falls in love with an enchantress, but is not punished for it; a young man is rewarded for his piety and selflessness with a supernatural wife and riches and a son. These stories remind me strongly of English translations of Alf Layla wa Layla (not Burton's, thank God. Mostly Lane's).

There are a few other stories that don't fit that mold: a faithful official's corpse, saint-like, does not decay; an origin story for the tea-plant (seemingly not a story known in China); an origin story for porcelain.

The descriptions are vivid and flowery and the places and characters leap off the page. There are a lot of transliterated Chinese words which I think are there for decoration and to give these very Victorian stories an "Asian" flavour and authenticity, but he cuts down on them after the first page or so of each story. He does give explanations of them in the glossary (this book is nearly one-third appendices); as far as I can find out he didn't understand any Chinese language, but he liked the sound and the exoticism of the foreign words.

From the opening of the first story, The Soul of the Great Bell:

The water-clock marks the hour in the Ta-chung sz',—in the Tower of the Great Bell: now the mallet is lifted to smite the lips of the metal monster,—the vast lips inscribed with Buddhist texts from the sacred Fa-hwa-King, from the chapters of the holy Ling-yen-King! Hear the great bell responding!—how mighty her voice, though tongueless!—KO-NGAI! All the little dragons on the high-tilted eaves of the green roofs shiver to the tips of their gilded tails under that deep wave of sound; all the porcelain gargoyles tremble on their carven perches; all the hundred little bells of the pagodas quiver with desire to speak. KO-NGAI!—all the green-and-gold tiles of the temple are vibrating; the wooden goldfish above them are writhing against the sky; the uplifted finger of Fo shakes high over the heads of the worshippers through the blue fog of incense! KO-NGAI!—What a thunder tone was that! All the lacquered goblins on the palace cornices wriggle their fire-colored tongues! And after each huge shock, how wondrous the multiple echo and the great golden moan and, at last, the sudden sibilant sobbing in the ears when the immense tone faints away in broken whispers of silver,—as though a woman should whisper, "Hiai!"

You can read the whole book for free via Project Gutenberg.

[Eustacia Tan · Rating 2 out of 5]

I borrowed this book thinking it was going to be scary (from the cover, and experience reading True Singapore Ghost Stories), and Chinese, but it turned out to be decidedly non-scary, and not that Chinese after all. This is what I get for not looking at the author name when picking stories.

Chinese Ghost Stories is actually Lafcadio Hearn's version of certain Chinese legends (which according to him are actually Chinese), written before he came to Asia. I think. That's what the introduction said anyway. And since it's written in 1886, according to the preface, the language is very flowery, and does not remind me of Chinese in any way.

There are six stories in this book, and I think my favourites were the first few. The last few books, especially the last two - The Tradition of the Tea Plant and The Tale of the Porcelain God, were rather confusing and uninteresting to me. Anyway, a short rundown of each book:

The Soul of the Great Bell: I liked this story. It's about filial piety, and rather sad, thought completely not scary. It's about sacrifice and making a huge bell with metals that don't mix; if I say anymore, I'll give away the entire story.

The Story of Ming Yi and The Story of Zhi Nu: These are both love stories of humans with the not-quite human. It's a bit like Madam White Snake, but short and perhaps not as famous in Chinese lore.

The Return of Yan Zhenjing: This is about loyalty to country. Actually a ghost story (the others just involved death or non-humans, and not actually ghosts), but again, not scary.

The Tradition of the Tea Plant: This is a retelling of the legend of how tea came to be, which is a monk cutting his eyelids off and throwing them to the ground, from which the tea leaf appears. There's a love story in here, which I don't get, and where is the ghost?

The Tale of the Porcelain God: I did not get this. It's a bit like the The Soul of the Great Bell, but less clearly written. I kinda skipped the first three or four pages, which were lists of porcelains.

The glossary too, is suspect. I skimmed through it, but I saw an entry which said:

"JIA - "House"; but especially the house of the dead - a tomb"

Now, I'm just guessing, but the character is probably 家 (jia). It just means house, and I've never heard it being used as a house of the dead, much less "especially" used as the house of the dead. I asked my family, and the closest we got was that according to my grandma, people in Singapore in the past (when she was young) didn't really have places to live, so some people lived above the cemeteries and used tombstones as tables. But the definition after the semi-colon seems to be very off.

In the author's defence, this was written before he went to Asia. He did eventually make it to Japan, marry a Japanese girl and write a lot of famous ghost stories. I will probably give them a go, if I come across them, though after this experience, I can't say that I'll intentionally seek them out.

This review was first posted at Inside the mind of a Bibliophile

[Helmut · Rating 2 out of 5]

Schwülstig und veraltet

Ich bin ein großer Verehrer der alten chinesischen Literatur, und insbesondere des Liaozhai Zhiyi des Pu Songling, einer Sammlung von Geistergeschichten aus der ausgehenden Ming-Zeit. Hearns Sammlung ist zwar deutlich neueren Datums, aber keineswegs als modern zu bezeichnen - während der Plot dieser Erzählungen sich zwar durchaus an diese alten Geschichten anlehnt, so ist der Stil doch durch und durch viktorianisch verquast und heutzutage kaum mehr lesbar. Schwülstig, laberig und exotisierend wirkt dieser Text aus dem 19. Jahrhundert dadurch viel älter und verbrauchter als Pus klarer, reiner Stil aus dem 16. Jahrhundert. Zwischendurch schimmert ab und zu etwas wie Atmosphäre durch, die dann aber im nächsten Absatz zu tode geplappert wird.

Sogar für Leser, die gerne so alte chinesische Geistergeschichten lesen, ist dieser Titel überspringenswert. Dazu kommt eine eBook-Aufbereitung, die zu wünschen übrig lässt und die Einzelgeschichten einfach so aneinanderklatscht ohne eine einzige Zeile Weißraum.

[Madeline · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was quite surprised when I read the forward to find out that Chinese Ghost Stories is a lot older than I thought. As a result, the language definitely required more focus and attention to understand, but nonetheless, I liked the collection.

I particularly liked the first four stories, especially The Return of Yan Zhenjing. However, I found the last two stories dragged on and were a bit boring, moreso The Tradition of the Tea Plant, though. I did find them all to be interesting, overall, and was fascinated the recurring idea of one sacrificing themselves for their art or beliefs.

In the end, I wouldn't say the title "Tales of the Supernatural" accurately reflects the contents of the collection, but it is still very interesting, particularly from a cultural perspective.

[Benja Calderon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Colección de cinco relatos de corte fantastico, donde los espíritus sinoistas hacen de las suyas, ya sea llevando el arte a un nivel superlativo o como amantes en tiempos de necesidad

Una pequeña puerta a la cultura china, con sus décadas de antigüedad, que de una u otra forma, se viste de fabula, ya que algo podemos aprender de cada de relato, como el valor que dan los dioses a la abnegación con los padres, la relevancia del sacrificio en post de la excelencia, entre otros elementos de honra para el hombre común

Edición preciosa, con notas sobre los cuentos y un pequeño glosario para contextualizar algunos personajes y/o lugares poco conocidos para el lector occidental

EDIT: Solo quiero agregar que ahora le daría 4.5 estrellas.

[Bonnie · Rating 3 out of 5]

The stories in this book were probably groundbreaking when they were first released in the late 1800s. The amount of time and care to translate these stories must have been amazing; with so many translated works at our fingertips today, I think that we forget how small and insulated the world was a few hundred years ago.

However, time and technology has pretty much rendered this pedestrian. That being said, the selected works here are not all of the same quality; only a couple held my interest.

[robyn · Rating 2 out of 5]

No scary ghosts in this one. Not even all ghosts, really, not in the traditional sense. People committing suicide and being made into the substance of bells and vases made up two of the stories.

There were two I quite liked about supernatural brides. But a very brief and somewhat unsatisfactory read overall. I expect when Hearn translated these, they had the virtue of originality for his audience.

[Saara · Rating 2 out of 5]

In all honesty, I expected more from this book. The stories were interesting, sure, but the execution simply did not resonate with me. I shan't let this turn me off from oriental horror, however.

The volume includes a glossary at the back, which is nice.

[Erin Bracken · Rating 4 out of 5]

absolutely fascinating author. I'm going to continue reading his work and try to find a copy of his biography THE WANDERING GHOST.

[Daveinnova · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great fun. Yes, it is a cultural relic. Let it go and enjoy it as a period piece.

[Anthony]

I enjoyed this, some interesting mythical tales from China. The story of the author - Lafcadio Hearn - sounded fascinating in the short forward. Someone to find more about in the future. :)

[Kabila Thiagaraj · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ghost stories in the title is a little bit misleading. It is not in the horror genre, it a book with mythological a tales.

[Glenn Hammer · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted to like this, and one of the stories was OK. The subtitle "Curious Tales..." would have been a better title the chinese ghost stories.

[Kiran · Rating 2 out of 5]

Boring!

[Nela · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bellas historias de fantasmas, algunas románticas, otras con sacrificios, pero todas muestran respeto a las tradiciones, a la lealtad, al amor y a valores tradicionales que se han ido perdiendo

[Ashley✨ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Feels more like folk tales than horror stories to me