Novels like Tales of the Strange in Jinmen: The Five Great Families
Books Chinese readers most often put in the same booklists as Tales of the Strange in Jinmen: The Five Great Families, best match first.
- 1 Legends of the Nine Rivers 九河怪谈 The nine rivers flow into a patchwork land, with three floating bridges and two passes. Here in Tianjin, the nine great rivers are said to be nine dragons, giving rise to the tale of Nine Dragons Governing the Waters. You may not know this, but those nine rivers are steeped in all kinds of eerie happenings. Just how eerie are they? Don’t rush. Sit yourself down nice and steady, sip your tea, and let me tell you all about Nine Rivers Strange Tales... 1.1kReads8.8Score11914d adds
- 2 The Unhappy Xiao Baisuo 不开心的肖白索 Cursed by a fox spirit, she is forced onto a strange and winding journey through life. After seeking help from a cunning charlatan, she thinks she'll escape her predicament and find happiness at last. Instead, through a series of misunderstandings, she becomes the "eyes" of his mysterious power and is tricked into taking a temporary job at his shop. Bizarre and eerie experiences, desperate petitioners in dire straits, and a public-interest investigation group fighting for justice... The search f —Reads—Score—14d adds
- 3 You Told Me to Take the Civil Service Exam, So Why Did I End Up at Bureau 749? 让你考公，你上岸749局？ [Rule-Bound Horror + National Destiny + God-Slaying + Ruthless Protagonist + Mastermind Behind the Scenes + Unstoppable] After three years of civil-service exams and seven failures, a twist of fate lands me in Bureau 749. Other people use peachwood swords and black donkey hooves to catch ghosts. I pull out a copy of the Administrative Penalties Regulations. A red-clad female ghost is out for blood? First, file for a replacement death certificate! Zombies are causing trouble at a construction —Reads—Score—14d adds
- 4 Tales of the Supernatural 人间灵异杂谈 Everyone has a colorful past, and what I’m about to tell you happened right here around me. It was strange and mysterious, so listen as I recount it all. 2Reads—Score—14d adds
- 5 Reborn from the Start in a Funeral Hall, I Became a Pallbearer 开局重生在灵堂，我成了送丧人 When I was reborn as a rogue Taoist priest performing a ritual in a funeral hall, the family’s wails nearly burst my eardrums. A bright red coffin stood in the center of the room. Thick blood seeped from beneath its lid, though no one else noticed. I was the only one who caught the stinging, rusty smell. The rogue priest’s memories flooded my mind: this wasn't a peaceful death in old age. This was the vengeful spirit of a pregnant woman who had died a violent death. “Reverend, it’s time. Nail th —Reads—Score—14d adds
- 6 Master Ma Jiu Hunts Demons 马九爷捉妖 Tianjin, where the Jiuriver meets the sea, has been home to strange tales since ancient times. If you don’t believe me, then listen as I tell you a ghost story from Tianjin: how Ninth Master Ma hunted demons. Speaking of Ninth Master Ma, he was truly a remarkable man. And before long, strange things began to happen... 1.3kReads9.1Score14514d adds
- 7 Strange Little Tales from the Folk 灵异民间小故事 These are folk tales of the strange and supernatural, some true, some not. Some are quite old and have grown more and more fantastical with each retelling, so don't overanalyze them or take them too seriously. Some may resemble stories you already know, but that's purely coincidental. 156Reads6.5Score—14d adds
- 8 I'm a Little Spirit Medium 我是小神婆 [Mysticism + supernatural + crime-solving + powerful protagonist + resolving mysteries + hidden origins + folk customs] I'm an abandoned baby, picked up from a trash can by my shaman grandmother. Growing up under her influence, I always wanted to become an even more powerful shaman than she was. Because of my unusual fate, strange and bizarre things, sometimes terrifyingly uncanny, are always happening around me... What happened to the female ghost who fell in love with someone else's body? Did 1Reads—Score—14d adds
- 9 Living Human Pillar 活人桩 Bridge and road construction inevitably disrupts the local feng shui. If a malign force is encountered, an expert must be called in to counter evil with evil at the site of the incident, driving two living human stakes into the ground. 650Reads8.7Score10014d adds
- 10 What Will the Next Story Be? 下一个故事会是什么？ A collection of episodic stories based on personal experiences. First person, rural life, the supernatural, mildly frightening, and terrifying when you think it over... episodic stories. The damp villages of the south conceal supernatural tales colder than snakes. Open this book, and you’ll enter a graveyard of memories: a forgotten puppy leaves muddy paw prints on a rainy night; the withered vines of gossip tighten around a young girl’s neck; a blond doll by the roadside carries a curse that cl 11Reads—Score—14d adds
- 11 The Underworld Decree 阴职令 A wedding invitation, a register of the dead, and a journey as a guide between worlds. Chen Du was an ordinary young man, until the yin-difference title inherited from his ancestors swept him into the conflicts between the worlds of the living and the dead. Old scores beneath the locust tree, lost souls in the paper city, every debt had to be settled by his own hand. This is not a story about becoming an immortal. It is a cycle of repaying debts. —Reads—Score—14d adds
- 12 One Hundred Thousand and One Folk Horror Stories 十万零一个民间恐怖故事 A collection of short horror stories in an episodic format, with a new story every chapter. No dragging things out! Haunted houses in the countryside, mountain spirits, urban legends, old customs and taboos... Every kind of Chinese-style horror is covered, with nonstop thrills and no filler. Anti-superstition disclaimer: This story is entirely fictional. Believe in science and read rationally. Please don’t apply it to real life~ 291Reads—Score1014d adds
- 13 Old Tales of Strange Happenings 民间旧诡事 The woman in red who knocks on doors late at night, the soul-binding bones beneath the locust tree, the copper-bell curse in an old house in an abandoned village... These old tales of the uncanny, scattered across the countryside, are the idle chatter of old folks and stories sealed away by time... 42Reads—Score—14d adds
- 14 Come Listen to a Ghost Story! 来听诡故事！ The chime of midnight is the switch that starts each story. Hidden here are 365 eerie legends from every corner of the world. Maybe it's the strange sobbing in the night-shift office during overtime, a stranger's long hair beside your pillow in an old residential complex, or a passenger in a white dress who vanishes in front of a cemetery. One short ghost story every night, tearing through the everyday facade to reveal the chilling truth beneath. Do you dare open this collection of midnight tale 42Reads—Score514d adds
- 15 Record of Folk Traditions 民俗传承录 My knowledge is limited! I’ve organized the memories of my working life into a memoir and written down some of them. If you’re interested in feng shui, geomancy, or the arts of fate and divination, take a look. It’s all practical information. If you’d rather hear stories, you can read the memoir. —Reads—Score—14d adds
- 16 A Snake's Many Pregnancies 蛇孕连连 My ancestors killed countless snakes, and generations of my family have had snake blood on their hands. A passing Taoist priest said we would have to pay for those blood debts. A fire burned my father to death. As I was collecting his remains, a snake on his body bit me. The village chief said it was a subterranean dragon snake from Hell, come to claim my life, and that I had less than three months to live. I refused to believe it, until one day a handsome young man came and insisted on marrying 79Reads8.7Score—14d adds
- 17 Tales of the Strange 怪谈 [A Born Ghost-Busting Saint vs. A Bewitching Beauty Bound by a Sinister Fate] [Case-by-Case Stories + Criminal Investigation + Folk Legends + Ghost Hunting + An Overarching Plot + Horror + Two Powerful Leads + Fighting Side by Side] "Corpses become curses, souls become gu; strange cases arise, and every road is hard to tread." Zhang Miao was short of water in his five elements, and before he was even born, he was given a "water ghost" as his godmother. As a result, he awakened a special constit 1.9kReads8.5Score12014d adds
- 18 Twenty Years of Walking Between Yin and Yang: A Memoir 二十年走阴串阳回忆录 [The Great Six Ren, Qimen Dunjia, Four Pillars of Destiny, Xuan Kong Flying Stars, Jin Suo Yu Guan, folk witchcraft, Southeast Asian black magic...] And much more: an abundance of divination arts and folk culture, all knowledge you can learn at a glance and put into practice right away. A wealth of practical information! Zhao Jun graduated straight into unemployment. Then, reeling from the double blow of losing his job and his girlfriend, he encountered something that even he, a staunch material 56Reads—Score—14d adds
- 19 The Midnight Restaurant 午夜饭店 I opened a restaurant that can only open in the middle of the night, and it has all sorts of rules. I'm starting to suspect that none of my customers are human. What should I do? Asking online. 41Reads7.7Score—14d adds
- 20 The Strange Arts of a Feng Shui Master 奇门相师 When the Nine Stars align, a supreme fiend descends from Heaven. A beggar raises an orphan; humanity nurtures Heaven’s fate. Also known as The Nine Stars Ascend to Dragonhood. The Mysterious Maiden of the Nine Heavens gave birth to the Green Satchel, while Fu Xi, the Great Bright One, created the Eight Trigrams. One is feng shui, the other the Book of Changes; together, they form the art of physiognomy. Shennong, the Flame Emperor, tasted a hundred herbs, and the Yellow Emperor, Xuanyuan, compil 54Reads8.8Score—14d adds
- 21 Memoirs of a Spirit-Medium Taoist 出马道士回忆录 First establish a spirit-medium altar, then head to Bayu to study the ritual arts. A Qingwei disciple, holding the rank of Dujiao, with a white crane in his cave. A book of real experiences, true stories, and popular science! Everything in this book comes from my own real experiences and true stories! This book only covers things that really happened. It contains no fantasy or cultivation tales! 7Reads—Score114d adds
- 22 Paper Cutting to Prolong Life 剪纸续命 Three days after his master's death, Chen Zhi's name was pressed into a paper-cut figure. Someone cut paper outside his door late at night. A paper figure bearing his name appeared at the doorstep, and from then on, the blue-black mark on his hand began to seep inward along his veins. Paper can ward off evil and bind souls. And the darkest art of the Paper-Cutting Sect is called Name Binding. To stay alive, Chen Zhi can only follow the torn pages his master left behind, the black sand beneath t 12Reads—Score—14d adds
- 23 Taoist, Spare Us! Zombies, Ghosts, and Monsters Are Freaking Out! 道士请饶命，僵尸鬼妖慌麻了！ [Supernatural] [Feng Shui and Folk Customs] [Ghost Hunting and Corpse Suppression] [Transmigration] [No System] Chen Yang, a Taoist who used to sweep temple floors, transmigrates to a world without Taoist priests and discovers that he has become the village idiot tasked with guarding the village. The village chief says, "My dead father is causing too much trouble. You have to get in the coffin and keep him company!" Chen Yang replies, "Trouble? That's right up my alley. I'll have your dad settle 109Reads—Score914d adds
- 24 I’m Going to Lure 100 Lost Souls 我要勾满100个亡魂 Sequel to I Guide Souls at Wangxiang Terrace Lin Jiaojiao, 24, an overworked office worker, suddenly dies on the Nth night in a row of staying up all night revising proposals. When she opens her eyes again, she has already completed every step of the underworld’s procedures. But just as she reaches Wangxiang Terrace, the guide Zhou Yi stops her. “Your attachment remains unresolved. You can’t be reincarnated.” Judge Li Muzi offers her a way forward: work as a soul reaper under him, and she can be 11.2kReads—Score4k14d adds
- 25 365 Nights of Corpse Tales from the Gorge 峡江尸话365夜 The poorer and more desolate the land, the stranger the tales; deep in the gorges along the river, there are stories of the supernatural. My hometown lies in the mountains of the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, in an area where several ethnic minorities live together. Before Liberation, it was a backward wilderness beyond the reach of government control. Over the long course of history, many baffling things happened here. After I was born, I heard plenty of chilling tales of strange happeni 130Reads8.0Score—14d adds
- 26 The Feng Shui Master of Qingwu 青乌风水师 My grandfather tells the fortunes of the living. I tell the fortunes of the dead. One day, my grandfather forced me to read his fortune... 1.2kReads8.8Score13214d adds
- 27 The Book of Lu Ban 鲁班书 My whole family was cursed with a spell of loathing. My parents attacked each other for no reason, and my grandmother died trying to break up the fight. The next day, my parents were in a car accident. My grandfather told me our family was being targeted, and that we had to leave if we wanted to survive. I was forced to leave home and live under someone else’s roof. But he still wouldn’t leave me alone. All I could do was take up the Luban Book my grandfather left behind and fight my way to surv 2kReads8.0Score22714d adds
- 28 The Northeast Paranormal Investigator 东北灵异先生 Fangshi, spirit mediums, exorcists: these professions are famous, but their abilities are limited. There is one calling that stands above them all: its practitioners are known as paranormal masters. My name is Huo Jie. When I was nine, I encountered a vengeful spirit and nearly died of fright. To survive, I became a paranormal master! From then on, I roamed between the worlds of yin and yang, wielded the art of feng shui, and guided ghosts and gods through their trials! 235Reads8.5Score—14d adds
- 29 My Career in Funeral Services and the Supernatural 我的殡葬灵异生涯 After graduating, I joined the funeral industry and learned about its many secrets. I also encountered all kinds of terrifying, bizarre supernatural incidents. Let me tell you about some truly unusual tales of terror and the taboos of the funeral trade... The latest work by a free-spirited programmer. As always, the promise stands: suspense and horror taken to the extreme. 2.9kReads8.4Score24314d adds
- 30 Anomaly Containment: Why Am I Already on the Containment List? 异常收容：怎么我先上收容名单了 [Supernatural + military. No clichés, no invincibility, no System, no transmigration, no face-slapping.] Midnight square dancing, ghost monks offering living sacrifices, corpse puppets performing ghost operas... This world is full of anomalies! My name is Xu Fei, and I've had an exceptionally stable mind since childhood. A pack of cigarettes gave me the ability to block evil spirits from sensing me. With the nation and my teammates at my back, I do everything I can to uncover the truth behind th 13Reads—Score—14d adds
- 31 Northern Horse Notes 北马笔记 The Five Immortals of the Northeast are chiefly the Hu, Huang, Chang, Mang, and Hui. After cultivating their powers and attaining the Dao, they descend the mountains to take disciples, borrowing their bodies to do good deeds among humans and earn their way to ascension. This story is told in the first person. 415Reads8.8Score—14d adds
- 32 Demons of the Northern Mountain 北山有妖 When I was twenty, someone killed me. My killer dumped my body at Beishan, a thousand miles away… 2kReads7.5Score24314d adds
- 33 The Corpse in the Cave Pool Can Kill 洞穴深潭里的尸体会杀人 The Corpse in the Cave Pool Can Kill 1Reads—Score—14d adds
- 34 The Outcast Ghost of Wancun Village 万丛村的边缘鬼 Some say death, the end of life, is the fairest thing of all because everyone dies. But in truth, unfairness is absolute, fairness is relative, and even the end can be unfair. There are homeless wanderers with nowhere to live and no place to call home, and there are the rich, with mansions everywhere. The same goes for ghosts: some are lonely spirits with "nowhere to be buried," while others are wealthy ghosts with burial grounds bigger than a kingdom... Wanderers are pitiful, and lonely ghosts 3Reads—Score—14d adds
- 35 The Bronze Coffin Seals the Soul: The Yin Corpse 铜棺封魂·阴尸 The Bronze Coffin Seals the Soul: The Yin Corpse 2Reads—Score—14d adds
- 36 Tales of the Supernatural Among the Common Folk 感灵之民间异事 In the old days, there were all kinds of strange happenings in the villages of northern China: ghost stories, tales of immortals appearing, and encounters between humans and monsters. Here, you can read about the people and stories of the past. What kind of mischief will the intriguing huangpizi get up to? What stories did the elders tell children during the quiet nights of that bygone era? This book will take you back in time to see those curious old tales. The huangpizi aren’t the only ones he 4Reads8.3Score—14d adds
- 37 Yin and Yang: The Book of Life and Death 阴阳：生死簿 Lin Zhao spent ten years as an outer disciple Taoist at Longhu Mountain and learned only one spell: the Soul Summoning Art. > Until one night, the voice of Heaven rang out in his mind: “Ten zhang ahead, a wronged spirit seeks help.” > Following the voice, he found an old woman clutching a black cat and sobbing that her son had gone missing. > He formed a hand seal to investigate and discovered that the cat's eyes reflected the scene of her son's death: the neighbor butcher's hideous face. > When —Reads—Score—14d adds
- 38 The Female Spirit Medium 女出马仙 We read the fortunes of the dead and the living, settle debts with aggrieved spirits, and handle lost souls, hysteria, and demonic possession! If it’s anything out of the ordinary, there’s nothing our shamanic spirit medium, Wu Mei, can’t handle! Jealous colleagues come by to challenge us? No problem. We have powerful connections up above... Lord Tu Tanyue, emperor of the Qingqiu Nine-Tailed Fox Clan and so handsome he has no rivals, spoils his wife without limit. His half-fox spirit medium brid 841Reads8.8Score10014d adds
- 39 Grandma’s Ghost Stories 听奶奶讲灵异故事 I was raised by my grandmother. The bedtime stories I heard as a child were all supernatural events she had experienced herself. They scared me so badly I was afraid to go to the bathroom, but I could never resist listening to the end. What I didn't know was that the more stories I heard, the more likely they were to come true, and that I had plenty of secrets of my own. 146Reads6.7Score—14d adds
- 40 Tales of a Northeastern Spirit Medium 东北出马仙见闻 Strange things began happening around Li Yaoyao while she was still in school. Later, all sorts of baffling images kept appearing in her life. Had she really seen them with her own eyes, or had she imagined them? Perhaps neither you nor I can tell. It was only after she met her master that everything became clear through her explanations. Yet these so-called truths were only the opening chapter of the story of what happened to her. The road a spirit medium must travel is long, very long. Over th 42Reads—Score—14d adds
- 41 My Years as a Daoist Master 我当方士那些年 With five fingers, he divines the fate of all under heaven; with a single reading, he plots the destiny of dynasties for generations to come. Uncover a mysterious and unfathomable world of Daoist arts. His predictions are always spot-on, and his word is absolute! 2.3kReads8.7Score42114d adds
- 42 I'm a Bar Owner, Forced to Catch Ghosts 我，酒吧老板，被迫营业捉鬼 [Horror + supernatural + semi-invincible + no System + not brainless + ruthless decisiveness] I’m Heibai, an utterly ordinary bar owner. I only wanted to live a quiet life, but one commission and one problem after another keep landing on my doorstep. Curse magic, a drug-induced dreamless sleep, a yin-yang wedding, a deadly text message... As the Underworld descends, little Jiangcheng becomes a den of danger, and one strange incident after another unfolds. Well, looks like I can’t hide my abiliti 1.2kReads8.8Score11014d adds
- 43 Legends of the Strange in Beiling 北岭怪谈 Legend has it that deep in the Greater Khingan Range lies a tomb for the living. Every year, people venture into the remote, treacherous mountains under the pretext of digging for ginseng: knife fighters from Hebei, bandits from the Northeast, treasure seekers from Shanxi... But I know they all have just one goal: the Immortal Tai Sui. 1.5kReads8.0Score19314d adds
- 44 Not a Daoist Priest, but a Mage 不是道士是法师 Beat the drum and swing the whip. With a shiver, I emerge from the mountains. I open my mouth and speak like a human: I'm the half-mad Li Xiaoxian! Ever since I was born, bad luck has followed me everywhere. I've nearly died time and again. To fight against the fate laid out for me, I believed in the Lord, recited Buddhist scriptures, and even worked at a wholesale market. But Heaven played a cruel joke on me. Misfortune kept piling up until I became completely dazed and unhinged. Desperate to g 384Reads9.5Score—14d adds
- 45 Divine Art of Reading the Heavens 窥天神测 Words spring from the heart, and writing gives the heart form. The characters a person writes are intricately connected to their fortunes, misfortunes, and fate. Thus, the art of fortune-telling through written characters came into being. My journey down this path began when I accidentally fell into my grandmother's coffin, only to discover a young woman inside, her clothes in disarray… 985Reads8.8Score10614d adds
- 46 The Yin-Walking Incense Master 走阴女香师 Ever since I can remember, there has been a paper doll on my bed every night. With straight bangs and a bob, a pale face with rosy cheeks, a round face and almond-shaped eyes, it was clearly made to look just like me. As I slowly grew up, the paper doll “grew up” too… 316Reads9.0Score10514d adds
- 47 Terror in the Forbidden Zone of Hoh Xil 可可西里之禁地惊魂 The Hoh Xil region on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau is as beautiful as it is cruel! A team of seven adventure enthusiasts will transmigrate into the mysterious, uninhabited region of Hoh Xil to explore it. Along the way, a series of bizarre, terrifying supernatural events unfold. Will they make it out of the wilderness? And yet... the ending turns out to be... utterly unimaginable... 1.8kReads—Score12314d adds
- 48 The Incense of the Underworld 走阴香 [Spirit Medium + Supernatural] The year I turned ten, my grandmother passed away. Not long after, I came down with a strange illness. Days of injections and medicine did no good, and every night I became unusually alert, often babbling incoherently. After five days of continuous fever, my parents had no choice but to take me to the countryside to see a woman they called Auntie, who they said could treat me. Here, “Auntie” didn’t mean a relative on my father’s side. It was the respectful title we 989Reads9.1Score16914d adds
- 49 A Collection of Ancient Folk Tales of the Supernatural 古代民间灵异故事合集听来的故事 A hugely popular collection on Tomato Listen, featuring rule-based horror, infinite-loop survival, folk customs and taboos, deranged killers, deadly survival instances, feng shui, livestreaming, modern technology, and many other kinds of horror. Volume One: Classical ghost stories. A blend of modern and classical taboos: never look in the mirror at midnight, someone is under the bed... A wedding sedan, an old well, an ancestral shrine, a nighttime opera... Any ordinary thing can become a spirit; 4Reads—Score—14d adds
- 50 The Daoist's Notebook 道门笔记 On a rainy night in Suzhou, a night watchman comes across a barefoot, waterlogged corpse. Its face is blue, its fangs bared, and beneath the black chrysanthemum mark between its brows, something writhes under the flesh, making the skin bulge in terrifying waves. The Thunder Talisman from Longhu Mountain has barely warmed in his hands when the corpse vanishes, leaving only a sickly-sweet black mist curling around an old Daoist at the street corner. Hong Ying, a Miao woman, watches her golden sil 14Reads8.8Score—14d adds
