Zhiguai, Glitch in the Matrix Tales, and Notes on the Strange
I don’t remember all the details, but my roommate in college, Liaoyang, who comes from the city next to mine, once told me about a strange occurrence in her high school. At this high school, because of increasing enrollment, the administration decided to build a new building in an empty part of the school grounds. There was one big problem, however. A thousand-year-old tree stood in the way. Students quickly heard about the plan for the new building and also …
Note by Yi Izzy Yu: Classical zhiguai included both true weird tales and strange fictions–both of which were meant to induce in the reader a sense of horror and uncanny awe. Pu Songling, the original author of this tale wrote both types of zhiguai, but he was ultimately more interested in the second kind of zhiguai—which as the following famous story shows is quite effective at stirring up some of the same feelings as its nonfiction sibling. …
A long time ago I had a conversation with an old workmate who described [the following]: The detail is hazy, but he said one day he was in his house when he felt a sudden need to go outside and stand on his lawn. He claimed it was the strongest, clearest feeling ever, and on doing so he experienced a sort of “wobble”; he just said everything was screwed up for moment, and he experienced a feeling of detachment/outside-ness. When …
Lady Zhao, the wife of my second son, Ruchuan, was a sensitive and enchanting young woman—one of those people who make you glad to be near them. My wife, Mistress Ma, continually boasted to others about Lady Zhao’s character and literary talent, as well as her needlework. She said that Lady Zhao talked with such charm that one could happily listen to her for a whole day. This was all true. We could not have hoped for a better daughter-in-law. …
Note by Yi Izzy Yu: Classical zhiguai included both true weird tales and strange fictions–both of which were meant to induce in the reader a sense of horror and uncanny awe. Pu Songling, the original author of this tale wrote both types of zhiguai, but he was ultimately more interested in the second kind of zhiguai—which as the following famous story shows is quite effective at stirring up some of the same feelings as its nonfiction sibling. …
I went to high school in a lonely, relatively normal town. Often, a few of my friends in the grade below my own would tell some interesting, haunting stories at lunchtime. By my sophomore year, I had heard it all; but I wasn’t ready for a haunting story about a ghost girl in school. My friend Carlos’ geography class was very late in the day. The heat was often blistering as school had just started back up, and this was …