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Audiobook editionPaperback · 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
This book is for readers who love fairy tales, ghost stories and legends from other lands, and for anyone drawn to jewelled language, old temples, silk, porcelain and tea.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A bell opens onto the supernatural
- A daughter seeks her father's rescue
- Hidden love carries signs of danger
- A son's devotion meets quiet kindness
- Courage means refusing to bend
- Desire returns through a monk's prayers
- An emperor asks art for life
- Sound and colour shape the legends
- Loyalty carries a great price
Who’s who
- Ko-NgaiThe beautiful daughter of the official Kouan-Yu, who loves her father so deeply that she will do anything to save him from the emperor's anger.
- Kouan-YuA worthy mandarin ordered by the emperor to cast a bell of unmatched sound, who faces death if he fails a third time.
- Ming-YA gifted young tutor from Kwang-tchau-fu who falls in love with a lady living in a lonely house beside a forest road.
- SiëA lovely, learned widow who sings the songs of the Thang poets and asks the young man to keep their meetings secret.
- Tong-yongA poor, devoted son who sells himself into slavery to give his father a proper burial.
- TchiA silent, radiant weaver who arrives at the sickbed of the slave Tong and promises to provide for him.
- Yen-Tchin-KingA fearless judge of the Thang court whom the emperor sends to read a letter of warning to a rebel chief.
- PuA humble potter of great skill who is ordered to make a vase that looks like living flesh stirred by a thought.
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Some Chinese Ghosts
by Lafcadio Hearn · 1887
In Pe-king, a bell sobs a girl's name, and in five more tales ghosts and gods walk among the living.
ChallengingUnder 2 hours to read20 languages
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In short
What if a bell could call out a name? Every day in Pe-king, the great bell sounds a crash, then a golden moan, then a silver sob that sounds like the word Hiai.
Some Chinese Ghosts at a glance
- Reading time
- About 1 h 25 min1 h 5 min fast, 1 h 40 min slow
- Length
- 19,800 words
- Library level
- Challenging long sentences, a rich vocabulary
- First published
- 1887by Lafcadio Hearn
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
An emperor's bell refuses to be cast
The first tale, The Soul of the Great Bell, begins with sound.
The emperor Yong-Lo orders an official named Kouan-Yu to make a bell whose sound can be heard for one hundred li. Its voice must be strengthened with brass, deepened with gold and sweetened with silver. Holy words from the sacred books must cover its surface.
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Which edition is right for me
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas of the whole book in about 15 minutes. A good first look, or a refresher.
Details
- First published
- 1887
- Language
- English
- Reading time
- 1 h 40 min
- Level
- Challenging
Cite this edition
Hearn, Lafcadio. Some Chinese Ghosts. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/some-chinese-ghosts.
Hearn, L. (2026). Some Chinese ghosts. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/some-chinese-ghosts (Original work published 1887)
Hearn, Lafcadio. Some Chinese Ghosts. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/some-chinese-ghosts.
@book{hearn2026some,
author = {Hearn, Lafcadio},
title = {Some Chinese Ghosts},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/some-chinese-ghosts},
note = {First published 1887}
}
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What is Some Chinese Ghosts about?
It is a collection of six Chinese legends retold by Lafcadio Hearn. They deal with ghosts, goddesses and miracles, and each centres on love, loyalty or sacrifice, from a great bell in Pe-king to the origin of tea and porcelain.
What are the six stories in Some Chinese Ghosts?
Notes and a glossary follow six legends about a great bell's soul, Ming-Y, Tchi-Niu, Yen-Tchin-King's return, the tea plant's origins and a porcelain god.
Are the stories in Some Chinese Ghosts real Chinese legends?
Yes, Hearn based them on Chinese and related sources such as the Kin-Kou-Ki-Koan and the Kan-ing-p'ien, mostly through French translations. He retold them in his own ornate style, and his notes name where each came from.
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.
More by Lafcadio Hearn
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