The manuscript of the Strange Tales of Liaozhai, a famous classic collection of ancient Chinese short stories in the early Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), was recently published for readers at home and abroad.

The manuscript of this collection is the only one left of all the Chinese classics. It is hard for one to imagine that the manuscript would still be found to this day.

Pu Songling, the author reputed as one of the best short story writers in the world, treasured his manuscript to a great extent and cautioned his offspring to take great care of it.

However, the eighth generation grandson of Pu lost the manuscript when fleeing to northeast China during the war around the year 1900.

Half a century later, the manuscript was accidentally spotted in a farmer's house. It is very easy to read with very few mistakes.

(People’s Daily 05/07/2001)