The Beast Bandits of Shanfum

“Those who are not of our kind must have different hearts.”

Also known as The Tale of Thirteen Beastly Men. An ancient-style story with furry elements, a large ensemble cast, a long time span, and mostly male characters.

In the late Ming dynasty, a Li-surnamed assistant prefect serving in Qingzhou experiences a series of strange events: a funeral song with no apparent source, the bizarre deaths of local officials, and repeated glimpses, in dreams and waking visions, of uncanny beings who seem beastlike yet are not quite human. As he investigates these mysteries, he meets a young man of unknown identity who seems to be plotting something. Long-buried events gradually come to light: a history that began in the mid-Tang dynasty and unfolded beyond the bounds of human history. Now “they” have returned, and old grudges and entanglements are once again coming to the fore.