SOME CHINESE GHOSTS
BY LAFCADIO HEARN
Copyright, 1887, byROBERTS BROTHERS
HENRY EDWARD KREHBIEL
THE MUSICIAN
WHO, SPEAKING THE SPEECH OF MELODY UNTO THE
CHILDREN OF TIEN-HIA,—
UNTO THE WANDERING TSING-JIN, WHOSE SKINS
HAVE THE COLOR OF GOLD,—
MOVED THEM TO MAKE STRANGE SOUNDS UPON THE
SERPENT-BELLIED SAN-HIEN;
PERSUADED THEM TO PLAY FOR ME UPON THE
SHRIEKING YA-HIEN;
PREVAILED ON THEM TO SING ME A SONG OF THEIR
NATIVE LAND,—
THE SONG OF MOHLÍ-HWA,
THE SONG OF THE JASMINE-FLOWER
PREFACE
I think that my best apology for the insignificant size of this volumeis the very character of the material composing it. In preparing thelegends I sought especially for weird beauty; and I could not forgetthis striking observation in Sir Walter Scott's "Essay on Imitations ofthe Ancient Ballad": "The supernatural, though appealing to certainpowerful emotions very widely and deeply sown amongst the human race,is, nevertheless, a spring which is peculiarly apt to lose itselasticity by being too much pressed upon."
Those desirous to familiarize themselves with Chinese literature as awhole have had the way made smooth for them by the labors of linguistslike Julien, Pavie, Rémusat, De Rosny, Schlegel, Legge,Hervey-Saint-Denys, Williams, Biot, Giles, Wylie, Beal, and many otherSinologists. To such great explorers, indeed, the realm of Cathayanstory belongs by right of discovery and conquest; yet the humblertraveller who follows wonderingly after them into the vast andmysterious pleasure-grounds of Chinese fancy may surely be permitted tocull a few of the marvellous flowers there growing,—a self-luminoushwa-wang, a black lily, a phosphoric rose or two,—as souvenirs of hiscurious voyage.
L.H.
New Orleans, March 15, 1886.
CONTENTS
- The Soul Of The Great Bell
- The Story Of Ming-Y
- The Legend Of Tchi-Niu
- The Return Of Yen-Tchin-King
- The Tradition Of The Tea-Plant
- The Tale Of The Porcelain-God
- Notes
- Glossary
