P‘u Sung-ling

“ Of ox-headed devils and serpent Gods, he of the long nails [2] never wearied to tell. Each interprets in his own way the music of heaven; and whether it be discord or not, depends upon antecedent causes. As for me, I cannot, with my poor autumn fire-fly’s light, match myself against the hobgoblins of the age. I am but the dust in the sunbeam, a fit laughing-stock for devils. ”

“ Human beings, I would point out, are not beyond the pale of fixed laws, and yet there are more remarkable phenomena in their midst than in the country of those who crop their hair; [6] antiquity is unrolled before us, and many tales are to be found therein stranger than that of the nation of Flying Heads. [7] “Irrepressible bursts and luxurious ease,” [8] ―such was always one enthusiastic strain. “For ever indulging in liberal thought,” [9] ―thus spoke another openly without restraint. Were men like these to open my book, I should be a laughing-stock to them indeed. ”

“ I am rather animated by the spirit of Su Tung-P‘o, [4] who loved to hear men speak of the supernatural. I get people to commit what they tell me to writing, and subsequently I dress it up in the form of a story ”