Ghost Stories, Strange Tales from the Liaozhai Studio (¿¿¿¿, Liao Zhai Zhi Yi), is a collection of classical Chinese short stories inspired by the work of Pu Songling (¿¿¿), a renowned Qing Dynasty (¿¿) novelist. These stories expose the darkness of feudal society, attack the decay of the imperial examination system and resist the shackles of feudal ethics and education. The original work of Pu Songling contains total 491 (divided into 24 volumes) short stories and have rich and profound ideological content of Chinese culture. The stories often depict the theme of love. Some of these tales express ideal romance and love between supernatural ghosts and human beings. The book has 4 chapters in the following order:Chapter 1: Wall Painting (¿¿¿¿¿¿)Chapter 2: Bai Qiulian (¿¿¿¿¿¿¿)Chapter 3: Liancheng (¿¿¿¿¿¿)Chapter 4: Eunuch (¿¿¿¿¿¿) The current book volume, Chinese Short Stories 9, is a Level 1 Chinese reading practice book. It would introduce you to the famous Chinese story, Ghost Stories: Strange Tales from the Liaozhai Studio (¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿), a popular literary treasure from China's imperial past. The 9th volume in the Selected Chinese Short Story Series (¿¿¿¿¿¿¿¿) includes both the Chinese text (simplified characters) and pinyin Romanization. With about over 500 unique Chinese characters, the volume would be suitable for the beginners, lower intermediate and advanced level Chinese language learners (HSK 1-6). Overall, the reading series offers you a variety of elementary level books (Level 1/2/3/4/5/6) to understand China as well as practice Chinese reading fast.