Description based upon print version of record.

Preliminary Material -- An Introduction to Zibuyu’s Concepts and Imagery -- Zibuyu Preface -- Zibuyu Chapter One -- Zibuyu Chapter Two -- Zibuyu Chapter Three -- Zibuyu Chapter Four -- Zibuyu Chapter Five -- Zibuyu Chapter Six -- Zibuyu Chapter Seven -- Zibuyu Chapter Eight -- Zibuyu Chapter Nine -- Zibuyu Chapter Ten -- Zibuyu Chapter Eleven -- Zibuyu Chapter Twelve -- Preliminary Material -- Zibuyu Chapter Thirteen -- Zibuyu Chapter Fourteen -- Zibuyu Chapter Fifteen -- Zibuyu Chapter Sixteen -- Zibuyu Chapter Seventeen -- Zibuyu Chapter Eighteen -- Zibuyu Chapter Nineteen -- Zibuyu Chapter Twenty -- Zibuyu Chapter Twenty-one -- Zibuyu Chapter Twenty-two -- Zibuyu Chapter Twenty-three -- Zibuyu Chapter Twenty-four -- Textual Analysis on Emotions and Imagery in Zibuyu -- Bibliography.

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Although the preface says that the tales in this collection of supernatural stories should not be taken seriously and just aim to dispel boredom, Zibuyu is a work with different reading levels, which allows to uncover several deep trends, taboos and fantasies of late imperial intellectual circles. Disgust, surprise and laughter are constantly evoked, by continually attracting and repulsing the reader. Yuan Mei’s approach guides the reader to an adventure in the dangerous recesses of the self. It is a sort of allegoric fantastic reflection on the relative and polyphonic essence of human beings, the multiplicity of selves from psychological perception, and a challenge to the traditional biographical and historical perspective for the unreliability of destiny. Dreams, madness, delusions and other extreme cognitive and affective conditions, abnormal events, gods and spirits, and the dark world of death lead to a reversal of perspective and destroy the Apollonian vision of the social-centered Confucian orthodoxy. With introduction, translation and comments.