Encyclopedia of India–China Cultural Contacts v2.c10.s1.t1.1

v2.c10.s1.t1.1

*Zhiguai Xiaoshuo* refers to fictional narratives of the supernatural world in classical Chinese and in particular, to those of gods and ghosts, heaven and hell, karma and other themes that were written in the Jin, Northern and Southern dynasties. According to Lu Xun, in the Jin, Northern and Southern dynasties, fiction was not a conscious production by Chinese literati. At that time, the so-called “novels” could be divided into two categories; one “Zhiren tales” which narrates real deeds and episodes of literati and officials and may make up the deficiency of official records and the other called “Zhiguai Xiaoshuo”, which mainly includes various weird stories and are not considered literary production. The latter is usually called “Zhi”, “Ji” or “Lu”, since it is a truthful record of what is heard rather than a literary production such as ‘*Linggui Zhi, Yuanhun Zhi, Soushen Ji, Shiyi Ji, Youming Lu, Jinyi Lu* etc.