top of page
Search
Rachelle
Sep 232 min read
The Moon on Demand
Some useful tricks for a moonless Mid-Autumn Festival.
Rachelle
Jul 12 min read
A Quirky Indicator of Summer Solstice
A fifteenth-century account
Rachelle
May 203 min read
A legendary louse
An anecdote about Wang Anshi from an eleventh-century biji collection.
Rachelle
May 132 min read
Xie Lingyun 謝靈運 (385-433) and his hiking clogs
An ancient Chinese hiker and his gear.
Rachelle
Apr 292 min read
How to get your cat pregnant... without a male cat
An excerpt from the Bencao gangmu 本草綱目.
Rachelle
Apr 223 min read
A Joke About Speaking Mandarin
From the 19th-century collection Xiaolin guangji 笑林廣記.
Rachelle
Mar 182 min read
A joke for the planting season
A reminder for those who work with others in the field/garden.
Rachelle
Feb 52 min read
An Anecdote about Zhu Yuanzhang's 朱元璋 (1328-1398) Magic Power
相傳高皇帝時初起太學，上臨視之，顧學制宏麗，聖情甚悅。行至廣業堂前，偶發一言云：“天下有福兒郎，應得居此。”迄今百四十年來，學生居此堂者，往往占魁選，躋位通貴，他所不及也。又諸堂中都無蜘蛛云。上來時，見蛛布網屋隅，曰：“我纔建屋，爾輒據之耶？”顧叱之出，語訖而蛛遯，從茲遂絕...
Rachelle
Jan 152 min read
On the Importance of Good Handwriting
A joke from the Ming-dynasty collection Jieyun ji 解慍集.
Rachelle
Jan 13 min read
On the Jiujiu xiaohan tu 九九消寒圖 (nine-by-nine winter-repelling design)
A little spring-summoning game.
Rachelle
Dec 4, 20232 min read
樊增祥《爽翁惠咖啡余誤為鼻煙》“Old Shuang gave me some coffee as a gift; I mistook it for snuff”
An amusing incident about coffee in China.
Rachelle
Nov 27, 20232 min read
An Omen on a Moonlit Night
An anecdote from an 11th-century history.
Rachelle
Nov 13, 20232 min read
A pillow tale
A quirky little story from the Soushenji 搜神記.
Rachelle
Oct 30, 20233 min read
人鬚筆 Beard Brush Pen
Another joke from Feng Menglong's collection Gujin tangai 古今譚槩.
Rachelle
Oct 23, 20232 min read
A Cat with Five Virtues
A Ming dynasty joke.
Rachelle
Oct 2, 20234 min read
Yet another model son
Lu Xun's review of the story about Guo Ju burying his son.
Rachelle
Sep 4, 20232 min read
Cat the hunter
A 14th-century tale from Yulizi 郁離子.
bottom of page