Stories from a Burning House

Stories from a Burning House

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What's Good?
Everything is awful, the dynasty is collapsing, and the vibes are fucked. Other people have been here before. Here's a few of Jin Shengtan's favorite…
11
The Naming of Cats, and an Offering
"Ferocious beasts." "Creatures of the baleful category." "Cicada-nommers." If you can read Classical Chinese, you can have a moderately good time…
13
The Heat
Critical support for Comrade The Scoffing Scholar of Lanling
3
The Emperor's So-Called Cats and the Manjurist Bat-Signal
Spoiler: The Qianlong Emperor's cats are (probably) fakety fake-fake-fake.
3
To the tune of "The Unbreakable Strings"
What use were all your kingly plans? How long endured the tyrant's scheme?
11
Song Dingbo Catches a Ghost
Quick thinking, sharp dealing, and the only thing ghosts are afraid of.
10
Tao Yuanming - “Home Again”
Motivation from medieval China's best-loved proponent of loud-quitting. How do we know what we know? And: Did history dudes hate Mondays?
19
Su Shi Discovers the Secret Ingredient
It turns out to be "having nothing better to do."
25
“A Failure as a Mouser. A Failure as a Cat!”
It's the 18th century. You're a bored schoolmaster. The cat isn't catching mice. Of course you realize this means war.
5
Yo Man, Mo Yan
When's the last time you wondered about Alice Munro's political stances?
2
Unidentified Flying Object Seen Over Yangzhou
My eleventh-century glowing orb is a million times cooler than your stupid balloons or whatever.
9
Susu Does the Dozens
What’s poetry good for? Have you ever owned someone so hard you changed the language?
3
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