Archive - Stories from a Burning House

Critical support for Comrade The Scoffing Scholar of Lanling

Jul 16

May 2024

Tao Yuanming Reads on a Summer Evening

Rest and quiet contentment, with monsters.

May 17

13th-century retirement parties, 9th-century ragers, and late 16th-century obscenities for early third-millennium eyes.

May 5

April 2024

Su Shi Discovers the Secret Ingredient

It turns out to be "having nothing better to do."

Apr 19

The Emperor's So-Called Cats and the Manjurist Bat-Signal

Spoiler: The Qianlong Emperor's cats are (probably) fakety fake-fake-fake.

Apr 7

When's the last time you wondered about Alice Munro's political stances?

Apr 4

March 2024

Li Bai to Du Fu: Wish You Were Here

On the friendship between Li Bai and Du Fu, the two greatest Tang poets

Mar 29

Babble and Cant and Flummery

Why settle for bullshit artists when you could have bullshit artistes?

Mar 26

Spring and Stone and the Total Perspective Vortex

Nice flowers you’ve got there. Be a shame if they turned out to symbolize the ephemerality of all things.

Mar 22

January 2024

Chen Cao'an Has Advice for Being Online in an Election Year

It's two words — one, if you use a contraction.

Jan 11

December 2023

Qiao Ji Explains Himself

I’m a demimonde valedictorian, transcendently boozy and far past reformation / Laughingly playing Imperial Historian...

Dec 28, 2023

In Defense of the 'Relatively Low Quality'

I've got a soft spot for sanqu 散曲, an overlooked little form from an embarrassing little dynasty.

Dec 26, 2023

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