Strange Tales
Kuo Yi Zhi): First English Edition
Strange Tales (Kuo Yi Zhi, 括異志) is a remarkable Song-dynasty collection of supernatural accounts, moral anecdotes, and extraordinary events - now presented in English for the first time.
Written in the 11th century by the scholar-official Zhang Shizheng, this work belongs to the classical Chinese tradition of zhiguai (“records of the strange”), blending historical observation with ghosts, omens, karmic retribution, prophetic dreams, and unexplained phenomena. Court officials, monks, soldiers, villagers, spirits, and wandering immortals all appear in brief yet vivid entries that reflect a world governed by fate, moral consequence, and unseen forces.
Unlike later fictionalized ghost stories, Kuo Yi Zhi occupies a liminal space between history and the supernatural. Many accounts are presented as sober records rather than imaginative tales, revealing how educated Song-dynasty readers understood Heaven’s will, justice, and cosmic order. The collection was cited in official bibliographies of the Song dynasty and survives today in multiple fragmentary editions, some preserving unique and otherwise lost material.
This first English edition is based on the modern critical Chinese text, collated from Song, Ming, and Qing sources and supplemented with recovered entries preserved in encyclopedic compilations. It offers English-language readers direct access to an influential but little-known classic of Chinese literature.
Ideal for readers of:
- Classical Chinese literature and history
- Ghost stories and supernatural folklore
- Daoist, Buddhist, and karmic traditions
- Scholars and general readers seeking primary sources
- Fans of Liaozhai Zhiyi, Soushen Ji, and early East Asian weird fiction
This edition preserves the concise, record-like style of the original while remaining accessible to modern readers - allowing the strange, the moral, and the uncanny to speak for themselves.
At a glance
About the series
Rediscover the great epics, mysteries and chronicles of dynastic China: gods and generals, swindlers and scholars, courtesans, ghosts and emperors, in complete English translations.
