TU STUDENTS INVITED TO PARTICIPATE IN FREE 5 NOVEMBER ZOOM WEBINAR ON PU SONGLING AND EDGAR ALLAN POE

Thammasat University students interested in literature, China, American studies, fantasy, horror stories, and related subjects may find it useful to participate in a free 5 November Zoom webinar on Disturbing Proximities: Encounters with Animals in the Short Stories of Pu Songling and Edgar Allan Poe.

The event, on Tuesday, 5 November 2024 at 8am Bangkok time, is presented by the School of Humanities, Centre for the Study of Globalization and Cultures and Centre for the Study of Globalization and Cultures, The University of Hong Kong (HKU).

Students are invited to register at this link:

https://hkuems1.hku.hk/hkuems/ec_regform.aspx?guest=Y&UEID=97159

The TU Library collection includes several books by and about Pu Songling and Edgar Allan Poe.

Pu Songling was a Chinese writer during the Qing dynasty, best known as the author of Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio (Liaozhai zhiyi).

He spent most of his life working as a private tutor, collecting stories that were later published in Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio in 1740.

Liaozhai zhiyi, sometimes shortened to Liaozhai, known in English as Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio, Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio, Strange Tales from Make-Do Studio, or literally Strange Tales from a Studio of Leisure, is a collection of Classical Chinese stories by Qing dynasty writer Pu Songling, comprising close to 500 stories or “marvel tales”, which according to some critics, served to implicitly criticize societal problems.

Written over a period of forty years from the late 1600s and ending in the early 1700s, it circulated in manuscripts that were copied and recopied among the author’s friends but did not appear in print until 1766. Since then, many of the critically lauded stories have been adapted for other media such as film and television.

Unlike much Chinese and Western horror fiction, the scary stories in Liaozhai are not intended to be frightening, but to blur the borders between the supernatural and everyday reality, using physical and psychological detail to make the move between these realms seem natural.

These tales, which are “works rich in romanticism”, explore the philosophical concept of qing, the passionate and emotional entanglement of the world, be it human or supernatural.

One modern critic said of Liaozhai that “the writing of ghosts and demons is superior to all others; the satire on corruption and tyranny is penetrating to the marrow.”

Edgar Allan Poe was an American writer, poet, editor, and literary critic who is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales involving mystery and the macabre.

The event website explains:

The past decade has witnessed a “darker” shift in ecocritical interests, with a growing body of works examining the more disturbing aspects of the interactions between human and nonhuman nature. This trend is particularly evident in the expanding body of research seeking to theorize concepts such as ecohorror, ecophobia, and ecogothic. These ongoing discussions offer a fresh and robust perspective for the cross-cultural analysis of the works of Pu Songling (1640-1715) and Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849), two esteemed writers renowned for probing into the unsettling facets of human experience that intersect with ecological concerns.

This talk specifically focuses on how the works of Pu and Poe exhibit a provocative sensitivity towards nonhuman animals, deviating from the prevailing ideas of interspecies reciprocity during early Qing China and nineteenth-century America. Through close readings of selected stories, I argue that they lay bare the marginalization, exploitation, and oppression of animals that underpin the anthropocentric idealism of absolute harmony between species. I also investigate the parallels between the concept of the “strange” (“guai”) in Chinese “tales of the strange” (“zhiguai”) and the Gothic tradition in the Western world, entangled with the two writers’ comparable explorations of a wider, inscrutable ecology existing beyond human dominion.

Jenny Wan Ying Chak is a final year MPhil student studying Comparative Literature at the University of Hong Kong. Her research interests include cross-cultural ecocriticism and Gothic theories, with a particular focus on the literary works of Pu Songling and Edgar Allan Poe in her current project.

Caroline Levine is David and Kathleen Ryan Professor of Humanities in the Department of Literatures in English at Cornell University. […]

Here is a brief excerpt from Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio in a translation that is now in the public domain:

EXAMINATION FOR THE POST OF GUARDIAN ANGEL.

My eldest sister’s husband’s grandfather, named Sung Tao, was a graduate. One day, while lying down from indisposition, an official messenger arrived, bringing the usual notification in his  hand and leading a horse with a white forehead, to summon him to the examination for his master’s degree. Mr. Sung here remarked that the Grand Examiner had not yet come, and asked why there should be this hurry. The messenger did not reply to this, but pressed so earnestly that at length Mr. Sung roused himself, and getting upon the horse rode with him.

The way seemed strange, and by-and-by they reached a city which resembled the capital of a prince. They then entered the Prefect’s yamên, the apartments of which were beautifully decorated; and there they found some ten officials sitting at the upper end, all strangers to Mr. Sung, with the exception of one whom he recognised to be the God of War.

In the verandah were two tables and two stools, and at the end of one of the former a candidate was already seated, so Mr. Sung sat down alongside of him. On the table were writing materials for each, and suddenly down flew a piece of paper with a theme on it, consisting of the following eight words:–“One man, two men; by intention, without intention.”

When Mr. Sung had finished his essay, he took it into the hall. It contained the following passage:

“Those who are virtuous by intention, though virtuous, shall not be rewarded. Those who are wicked without intention, though wicked, shall receive no punishment.”

The presiding deities praised this sentiment very much, and calling Mr. Sung to come forward, said to him, “A Guardian Angel is wanted in Honan. Go you and take up the appointment.” Mr. Sung no sooner heard this than he bowed his head and wept, saying,

“Unworthy though I am of the honour you have conferred upon me, I should not venture to decline it but that my aged mother has reached her seventh decade, and there is no one now to take care of her. I pray you let me wait until she has fulfilled her destiny, when I will hold myself at your disposal.”

Thereupon one of the deities, who seemed to be the chief, gave instructions to search out his mother’s term of life, and a long-bearded attendant forthwith brought in the Book of Fate. On turning it over, he declared that she still had nine years to live; and then a consultation was held among the deities, in the middle of which the God of War said,

“Very well. Let Mr. graduate Chang take the post, and be relieved in nine years’ time.”

Then, turning to Mr. Sung, he continued,

“You ought to proceed without delay to your post; but as a reward for your filial piety, you are granted a furlough of nine years. At the expiration of that time you will receive another summons.” […]

(All images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)