3 h 7 minAudiobook14 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 3 h 7 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
On a rain-soaked night, a ghost may bring more than fear: an unpaid debt, an injustice, or a promise.
In Tales of the Night Rain and Autumn Lamp, Ding Xuan gathers short supernatural stories of ghosts, fox spirits, and unusual people. The collection belongs to the Chinese traditions of zhiguai and chuanqi: strange accounts told as though passed from person to person. Its title suggests rain outside, a burning lamp, and listeners drawn close.
Here, lovers meet across the boundary between life and death, while loyalty faces hardship and families live under the weight of duty. Scholars hope for success, travelers take lonely roads, and neighbors trust in omens. These tales offer more than a chill: eerie events carry moral questions about what people owe one another.
What you’ll discover
- Ghosts with unfinished business Discover spirits whose returns turn unpaid debts and broken promises into sources of unease.
- Love beyond the living Follow lovers whose attachments cross the divide between human lives and the spirit world.
- Loyalty under strain See how hardship tests devotion, with strange events bringing human duties into sharper focus.
- A world of omens Meet scholars, travelers, families, and neighbors in tales shaped by late Qing imaginings.
- Small tales, lingering questions Take each story on its own, and linger over the moral questions beneath its eerie events.
Who will love it
Readers who love ghost stories, clever women, sly swindlers, and tales where kindness is tested and rewarded will feel at home here. It suits anyone drawn to Chinese folklore and wit with a moral.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A beggar returns lost jewels and walks away
- A cruel aunt and a kind nun shape a girl's fate
- Quick thinking saves a whole clan from rebels
- A proud painter walks into a quiet trap
- Kindness to a forgotten grave brings strange allies
- A courtesan sets a dice game as her marriage test
- Swindlers prey on greed with patient stagecraft
- Women meet danger with courage, wit and loyalty
- Heaven records good deeds and rewards them
- The storyteller's voice, humor and shifting forms
Who’s who
- Nangong Ren'anA young beggar who plays a flute for his meals and returns a lost bundle of jewels, then faces a harder test.
- JuanA quick-witted maid who risks her life carrying a secret letter and jewels for her mistress, and receives the beggar's help.
- YinyanAn orphaned girl beaten by her aunt, who finds shelter with an old nun and faces a changing fate.
- Du XiangcaoA geomancer who chooses a grave site, sees his friend's family decline, and searches the mountains for a woodcutter.
- Wang DaguA widow devoted to her parents who plans the escape of her whole clan when rebels draw near.
- Zheng BanqiaoA proud painter and calligrapher who sells his work dear and keeps one vulgar merchant away from it.
- Jie BichangA poor scholar who honors a nameless grave and gains a ghost lover and a knight-errant brother.
- Little LeperA cunning pickpocket of Yangzhou who wins bets on stolen treasures and wants one day to serve his country.
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- Read by Lucas Linden, complete. It opens once the recording is online.
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- The key ideas in about 14 minutes, to read today.
- Paperback
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- Hardcover
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- Large print hardcover
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Cuentos de la lluvia nocturna y la lámpara otoñal
by Ding Xuan (Xuan Ding) · 1877
A beggar finds a maid's lost bundle of jewels and a secret love letter, and must choose what to do with them.
Challenging10–20 hours to readEspañol
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In short
Picture a young beggar leaning against a temple gate, picking lice in the sun. A maid walks past and drops a brocade bundle on the path.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A beggar returns lost jewels and walks away
Nangong Ren'an is a boy from Zhejiang who has lost both his parents. He carries their ashes to Suzhou, buries them, and lives beside the grave in a thatched hut.
One day a maid named Juan drops a brocade bundle near an old temple. Inside are gold and jade ornaments and a letter from a rich girl to her fiancé, who has fallen into poverty. Ren'an sees that the maid will lose her life if a stranger finds it. When Juan comes back pale and searching the brambles, he hands the bundle over. She asks how she can repay him, and he names a reward that a beggar should not ask.
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Which edition is right for me
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas of the whole book in about 14 minutes. A good first look, or a refresher.
Details
- First published
- 1877
- Language
- Español
- Reading time
- 2 h 0 min
- Level
- Challenging
Cite this edition
Xuan, Ding. Tales of the Night Rain and Autumn Lamp. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/tales-of-the-night-rain-and-autumn-lamp.
Xuan, D. (2026). Tales of the night rain and autumn lamp. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/tales-of-the-night-rain-and-autumn-lamp (Original work published 1877)
Xuan, Ding. Tales of the Night Rain and Autumn Lamp. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/tales-of-the-night-rain-and-autumn-lamp.
@book{xuan2026tales,
author = {Xuan, Ding},
title = {Tales of the Night Rain and Autumn Lamp},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/tales-of-the-night-rain-and-autumn-lamp},
note = {First published 1877}
}
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What is Tales of the Night Rain and Autumn Lamp about?
It is a collection of short Chinese stories about ghosts, spirits, bandits, swindlers, scholars and courtesans. Most tales end with a comment by the author's voice, Aonong, which draws a lesson about honesty, loyalty, greed or courage.
Who is Aonong in these stories?
Aonong is the name signed to the comments at the end of most tales. It is the voice of the storyteller, who jokes, praises, scolds and adds a second story or a thought on what the tale means.
Is Tales of the Night Rain and Autumn Lamp a true story?
No. The tales are folk and literary stories from nineteenth-century China, mixing real places such as Yangzhou and Suzhou with ghosts, spirits and magic. Some are presented as heard from friends, which adds a feel of truth.
The author
Ding Xuan
Ding Xuan, also given as Xuan Ding, was a Chinese writer of the nineteenth century. This collection belongs to the tradition of Chinese strange tales, in which ghosts, spirits and moral lessons share a page. Its stories end with comments signed Aonong, and its later pages record courtesans and poems of the Qing era.
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