Zibuyu, “What The Master Would Not Discuss”, according to Yuan Mei (1716 - 1798): A Collection of Supernatural Stories (2 vols)

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Although the preface says that the tales in this collection of supernatural stories should not be taken seriously and just aim to dispel boredom, Zibuyu is a work with different reading levels, which allows to uncover several deep trends, taboos and fantasies of late imperial intellectual circles. Disgust, surprise and laughter are constantly evoked, by continually attracting and repulsing the reader.
Yuan Mei’s approach guides the reader to an adventure in the dangerous recesses of the self. It is a sort of allegoric fantastic reflection on the relative and polyphonic essence of human beings, the multiplicity of selves from psychological perception, and a challenge to the traditional biographical and historical perspective for the unreliability of destiny. Dreams, madness, delusions and other extreme cognitive and affective conditions, abnormal events, gods and spirits, and the dark world of death lead to a reversal of perspective and destroy the Apollonian vision of the social-centered Confucian orthodoxy.
With introduction, translation and comments.

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Preliminary Material
Pages: i–xii
An Introduction to Zibuyu’s Concepts and Imagery
Some Reflections and Hypotheses
Pages: 1–160
Zibuyu Preface
Pages: 161–162
Zibuyu Chapter One
Pages: 163–206
Zibuyu Chapter Two
Pages: 207–256
Zibuyu Chapter Three
Pages: 257–298
Zibuyu Chapter Four
Pages: 299–340
Zibuyu Chapter Five
Pages: 341–381
Zibuyu Chapter Six
Pages: 383–424
Zibuyu Chapter Seven
Pages: 425–467
Zibuyu Chapter Eight
Pages: 469–512
Zibuyu Chapter Nine
Pages: 513–552
Zibuyu Chapter Ten
Pages: 553–595
Zibuyu Chapter Eleven
Pages: 597–635
Zibuyu Chapter Twelve
Pages: 637–672
Preliminary Material
Pages: i–xii
Zibuyu Chapter Thirteen
Pages: 673–715
Zibuyu Chapter Fourteen
Pages: 717–760
Zibuyu Chapter Fifteen
Pages: 761–798
Zibuyu Chapter Sixteen
Pages: 799–829
Zibuyu Chapter Seventeen
Pages: 831–871
Zibuyu Chapter Eighteen
Pages: 873–915
Zibuyu Chapter Nineteen
Pages: 917–958
Zibuyu Chapter Twenty
Pages: 959–1000
Zibuyu Chapter Twenty-one
Pages: 1001–1053
Zibuyu Chapter Twenty-two
Pages: 1055–1109
Zibuyu Chapter Twenty-three
Pages: 1111–1170
Zibuyu Chapter Twenty-four
Pages: 1171–1223
Bibliography
Pages: 1267–1283
Paolo Santangelo, is Professor of the History of East Asia at Sapienza University, Roma, and has published on social, intellectual and anthropological history of Late Imperial China.
Yan Beiwen, born in 1971, holds an M.A. Degree in Comparative Literature from Peking University (2004). She is an editor of the Foreign Literature Review, which is part of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
All those interested in sinology, comparative literatures, lexicology, psychology,intellectual history and anthropological studies.
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