This is the first book in English on the seventeenth-century Chinese masterpiece Liaozhai's Records of the Strange (Liaozhai zhiyi) by Pu Songling, a collection of nearly five hundred fantastic tales and anecdotes written in Classical Chinese.
Focusing on the experiences of lay Buddhist women in late imperial China, the book explores how these women connected with Guanyin by embodying her qualities. The author integrates empirical research with theoretical perspectives from art history and Buddhist studies, offering a unique examination of devotion and identity. This work sheds light on the intersection of gender, spirituality, and cultural practices in historical contexts.
Yuhang Li examines how lay Buddhist women in late imperial China forged a connection with the subject of their devotion, arguing that women used their own bodies to echo that of Guanyin. She combines empirical research with theoretical insights from both art history and Buddhist studies.
A companion volume to the exhibition of the same name at the Smart Museum of Art. With over eighty illustrated catalogue entries, it offers fresh insight into traditional Chinese culture, visual arts, and theater, and reveals how Chinese visual and performing traditions were aesthetically, ritually, and commercially intertwined.