“Oh, are the transformations of gods and faeries truly thus, or is it all the bewitchment of charlatans plying their art? For it is not a thing that the common knowledge touches on. As to sparrows becoming clams, pheasants becoming oysters, people becoming tigers, the rotted grass becoming fireflies, dung beetles becoming cicadas, and sea beasts becoming rocs… For the transformations of all things, those who write and compose their records cannot reach them with their knowledge, and it is all beyond their eyes and ears.”

Never before translated into English, An Account of Marvels and of Beasts is a collection of forty-four supernatural tales from ninth-century China. Ghosts, spirits, vanishings, epic drinking bouts, and visions of hell are to be found in these premodern stories. This edition includes a robust textual apparatus by translator Maxwell Massa that gives the historical context of the Tang dynasty. Included are an introduction, a biographical and a topographical appendix, and many footnotes.

Niu Sengru (c. 780–848) was a native of Titao, Lunghsi, who moved to Honan. When Emperor Mu Tsung came to the throne, he was gradually promoted to the position of vice-minister of finance and deputy prime minister. Under Emperor Wu Tsung he was demoted to a minor post in Hunchow; but in the reign of Emperor Hsuan Tsung he was recalled to court as junior tutor to the crown prince. He died at the age of sixty-nine, receiving the title of high marshal and the posthumous title Wen-chien. His life appears in the Tang Dynasty History.

Maxwell Massa gave up computer science in college to major in avant-garde Chinese literature and wound up as a TV personality during the Beijing Olympics in 2008. He later received a master’s degree from Nanjing University, where he studied the Cultural Revolution. His novel, House of Apollo, was published by Whisk(e)y Tit Books in March 2020; he has also written for Small Wars Journal, Third Factor, and Arts Fuse.

Format: Paperback

Author: Sengru, Niu | Massa, Maxwell (translator)

Publisher: Empyrean Series

ISBN: 9781969287077

Evening House Books

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An Account of Marvels and of Beasts