"My talents are not those of Kan Pao, elegant explorer of the records of the Gods; I am rather animated by the spirit of Su Tung-P'o, who loved to hear men speak of the supernatural. I get people to commit what they tell me to writing, and subsequently I dress it up in the form of a story; thus in the lapse of time my friends from all quarters have supplied me with quantities of material, which, from my habit of collecting, has grown into a vast pile."
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Variant translation: — Of tales told I have made a book. With time And my love of hoarding, The matter sent me by friends From the four corners Has grown into a pile. — "Author's Preface", lines 26–32, trans. John Minford in Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio (Penguin, 2006), pp. 30–31
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Pu Songling
Pu Songling (Chinese: 蒲松齡; 5 June 1640 – 25 February 1715) was a Qing Dynasty Chinese writer, best known as the author of Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio (Liaozhai zhiyi).
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