The Caves of Mount Chaya
"The Caves of Mount Chaya" | |||
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Short story by Pu Songling | |||
Original title | 查牙山洞 (Chaya Shandong) | ||
Translator | Sidney L. Sondergard (2008) | ||
Country | China | ||
Language | Chinese | ||
Genre(s) |
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Publication | |||
Published in | Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio | ||
Publication date | 1740 | ||
Chronology | |||
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"The Caves of Mount Chaya" (Chinese: 查牙山洞; pinyin: Cháya shāndong) is a short story by Pu Songling, first published in Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio (1740).
Plot
While celebrating the
As some time has elapsed, the other two villagers return to check on their compatriot, only to discover him unconscious and with a bloodied head. Too afraid to rescue him on their own, they enlist the help of two more men; he regains consciousness a few hours later and recounts his harrowing experience. Upon learning of this, the county magistrate orders the cave entrance to be sealed.
In the epilogue, during the twenty-sixth or twenty-seventh year of the Kangxi Emperor, a Daoist priest claiming to be a disciple of Zhongli Quan enters the cave (a new entrance had been discovered after the collapse of the southern cliff face in Yangmu Valley)[a] to purify it but is impaled on a stalagmite. Thereafter, the magistrate has the cave permanently sealed off.
Publication history
Originally titled "Chaya Shandong" (查牙山洞), the story was first published in Pu Songling's 18th-century anthology Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio. It was fully translated into English as "The Zhaya (sic) Mountain Cave" in the fifth volume of Sidney L. Sondergard's Strange Tales from Liaozhai published in 2008.[2]
Literary significance and analysis
The French commentator Jacques Dar notes that the story (rendered in French as "La Grotte du mont Chaya") uses the motif of a cave to create an atmosphere creepier than the visual stimuli encountered by the man inside the cave; no supernatural activity is actually described, but Pu uses the power of suggestion to make both the protagonist and the reader feel otherwise.[3] Lei Qunming (雷群明) praises Pu's use of blank verse to conjure a cave environment that is both awe-inspiring and creepy.[4]
See also
References
Notes
Citations
- ^ Sondergard 2008, p. 1790.
- ^ Sondergard 2008, p. 1786.
- ^ Dar 1994, p. 377.
- ^ Lei 1990, p. 192.
Bibliography
- Dar, Jacques (1994). "Ji Yun et son Yuewei caotang biji. Les Notes de la chaumière de la subtile perception". Études Chinoises (in French). 30 (1–2): 361–377.
- Lei, Qunming (1990). 聊斋艺术通论 (in Chinese). Sanlian shudian. ISBN 9787542601209.
- Sondergard, Sidney (2008). Strange Tales from Liaozhai. Vol. 5. Fremont, Calif.: Jain Publishing Company. ISBN 9780895810496.