A Collection of Modern Strange Tales

Introduction to Modern Liaozhai

I live at the southernmost tip of mainland China, a “borderland” steeped in mountain mist, where legends and everyday life intertwine. Here lies another world, hidden alongside our own: “Rice Children” born with the gift of protecting homes, “Ferry Maidens” who keep the waterways peaceful, gravekeepers who can speak with ancestral spirits, and herb gatherers who wander through the mountains and fields…

I, Xiaobai, am the chronicler of these stories. I’ve been fascinated by tales of the supernatural since childhood, and I’ve made a habit of recording the stories of spirit guardians passed down by word of mouth in the countryside. In the secret little group I joined, these modern myths of immortal children, Rice Children, mountain spirits, and water sprites are disappearing at an ever-faster pace.

Modern Liaozhai is not a collection of bizarre ghost stories, but a record of attentive listening from the edge of our times. As bulldozers roar and torrents of information wash everything away, I want to use words to preserve those ways of “seeing” and “believing” that are on the verge of being lost. Even today, when technology illuminates every corner, the human heart’s deep reverence for the unknown still breathes quietly in a mist-shrouded village, beneath an old tree, or in the calm gaze of a spirit guardian.

These are the “wonders” of our age, the final echo of ancient spirituality in the modern world.