2 h 31 minAudiobook6 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What if a bell, a length of cloth, or a porcelain vessel holds more than human hands can make?
In Some Chinese Ghosts, Lafcadio Hearn gathers six tales drawn from Chinese legends, where love, duty, and sacrifice meet the supernatural. The Soul of the Great Bell begins with an imperial demand: cast a magnificent bell. When the work fails, the official responsible faces terrible consequences. Skilled work becomes a matter of survival, and family love carries an unbearable weight.
The Story of Ming-Y explores attraction and the unsettling presence of the dead. The Legend of Tchi-Niu joins filial duty with heavenly help, while The Return of Yen-Tchin-King considers a presence that death cannot simply erase. The Tradition of the Tea-Plant turns to religious discipline and a plant's legendary origin. Throughout, familiar objects bring the marvelous close to daily life.
What you’ll discover
- A bell with stakes Enter a tale where an imperial command places a craftsman's work under terrible pressure.
- Love beyond certainty Follow Ming-Y into a mystery where attraction unsettles the boundary between living and dead.
- Duty meets heavenly help Discover how The Legend of Tchi-Niu brings family obligations into contact with the marvelous.
- Wonder in familiar things See bells, cloth, tea, and porcelain become meeting places for human effort and supernatural mystery.
- Color, sound, and beauty Savor rich descriptions that give these compact legends their vivid sense of material beauty.
Who will love it
You will love this if you enjoy ghost stories, folk legends and fairy tales from other cultures, and if you like prose that sounds like music, full of colour, incense, silk and fire.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A great bell is ordered and the metals refuse
- A young tutor meets a lady in the woods
- A silent bride arrives and promises to provide
- A judge rides alone toward a rebel camp
- A wandering monk fights one memory all night
- An artist is told to make clay feel a thought
- Duty and love bind every tale together
Who’s who
- Ko-NgaiA loving daughter of the bell-maker Kouan-Yu, she wants to save her father from the Emperor's anger.
- Kouan-YuAn official ordered by the Emperor to cast a huge bell, who risks his life when the metals will not mix.
- Ming-YA gifted young tutor who falls in love with a lady in the woods and hides it from his patron.
- Sië-ThaoA beautiful singer and poet who receives Ming-Y in a lovely house among the peach trees.
- Tong-yongA poor, devoted son who sells himself to pay for his father's tomb and keeps the rites of mourning.
- TchiA silent, wonderful weaver who comes to Tong in a fever dream and promises to provide for him.
- Yen-Tchin-KingA fearless Supreme Judge who rides alone into a rebel camp to read the Emperor's letter.
- PuA humble potter who must make a vase that looks like flesh moved by a thought.
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- Large-print eBook
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- Audiobook
- 2 h 31 min, complete, read by Lucas Linden.
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas in about 6 minutes, to read or to hear.
- Paperback
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Hardcover
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print paperback
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print hardcover
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
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Alcuni fantasmi cinesi
by Lafcadio Hearn · 1887
A great bell in Pe-king sobs a girl's name, and a young tutor meets a mysterious woman among peach blossoms.
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In short
Why does the great bell of Pe-king end each stroke with a sob? Lafcadio Hearn begins with that mystery in a collection of six retold legends about love, duty and the unseen world.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A great bell is ordered and the metals refuse
Hearn begins in Pe-king, in the Tower of the Great Bell. The bell speaks with a deep golden moan and then a soft, sobbing cry, and every child in the city knows why.
Five hundred years ago the Emperor Yong-Lo orders the official Kouan-Yu to cast a bell that can be heard for one hundred li. Brass will strengthen it, gold will deepen it and silver will sweeten it. Twice the metals refuse to blend, and the bell comes out cracked and split. The Emperor sends a letter on lemon-coloured silk and threatens Kouan-Yu with death if a third casting fails.
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What is Some Chinese Ghosts about?
It is a collection of six legends retold by Lafcadio Hearn. They follow a bell-maker's daughter, a young tutor, a devoted son, a loyal judge, a Buddhist monk and a potter facing an emperor's demand.
Are the stories in Some Chinese Ghosts real Chinese legends?
Most draw on Chinese books and traditions, such as the Kin-Kou-Ki-Koan and the Kan-ing-p'ien. The tea-plant tale draws on a Japanese legend that Hearn thinks may have come from China. His sources include works in French and English, and he retells the tales in his own style. The book first appeared in 1887.
Who is Ko-Ngai in The Soul of the Great Bell?
Ko-Ngai is the daughter of the official Kouan-Yu, who is ordered to cast a giant bell for the Emperor Yong-Lo. She loves her father deeply and goes to an astrologer to save him.
The author
Lafcadio Hearn
1850–1904 · Greek-Irish writer on Japan
Lafcadio Hearn was a writer, translator, and teacher born on the Greek island of Lefkada in 1850. He lived in Ireland and the United States before moving to Japan in 1890. He wrote Some Chinese Ghosts (1887), Shadowings (1900), and Kwaidan (1904). He died in Tokyo in 1904.
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