The Project Gutenberg EBook of Some Chinese Ghosts, by Lafcadio Hearn
This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net
Title: Some Chinese Ghosts
Author: Lafcadio Hearn
Release Date: July 11, 2005 [EBook #16261]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SOME CHINESE GHOSTS ***
Produced by Bethanne M. Simms, Louise Pryor and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
[Transcriber's Note: The letter o with a caron
is indicated as [)o] in this text version.]
SOME CHINESE GHOSTS
BY LAFCADIO HEARN
_Copyright_, 1887, by ROBERTS BROTHERS
* * * * *
_To my friend_ HENRY EDWARD KREHBIEL
_THE MUSICIAN_
WHO, SPEAKING THE SPEECH OF MELODY UNTO THE
CHILDREN OF TIEN-HIA,--
UNTO THE WANDERING TSING-JIN, WHOSE SKINS
HAVE THE COLOR OF GOLD,--
MOVED THEM TO MAKE STRANGE SOUNDS UPON THE
SERPENT-BELLIED SAN-HIEN;
PERSUADED THEM TO PLAY FOR ME UPON THE
SHRIEKING YA-HIEN;
PREVAILED ON THEM TO SING ME A SONG OF THEIR
NATIVE LAND,--
THE SONG OF MOHLI-HWA,
THE SONG OF THE JASMINE-FLOWER
[Illustration: Line drawing of a man's head]
* * * * *
_PREFACE_
I think that my best apology for the insignificant size of this volume
is the very character of the material composing it. In preparing the
legends I sought especially for _weird beauty_; and I could not forget
this striking observation in Sir Walter Scott's "Essay on Imitations of
the Ancient Ballad": "The supernatural, though appealing to certain
powerful emotions very widely and deeply sown amongst the human race,
is, nevertheless, a _spring which is peculiarly apt to lose its
elasticity by being too much pressed upon_."
Those desirous to familiarize themselves with Chinese literature as a
whole have had the way made smooth for them by the labors of linguists
like Julien, Pavie, Remusat, De Rosny, Schlegel, Legge,
Hervey-Saint-Denys, Williams, Biot, Giles, Wylie, Beal, and many other
Sinologists. To such great explorers, indeed, the realm of Cathayan
story belongs by right of discovery and conquest; yet the humbler
traveller who follows wonderingly after them into the vast an
|