Strange Tales From A Chinese Studio - Hupo Standard2025

The Strange Tales From A Chinese Studio Playing Cards draw inspiration from the eerie and enchanting tales of Liaozhai Zhiyi (聊齋誌異), a 18th-century collection of supernatural stories where the boundaries between the human world and the spirit realm blur. Compiled into 491 chapters by Qing Dynasty scholar Pu Songling (蒲松齡), these stories weave together ghostly romances, fox spirits (huli jing 狐狸精), and moral fables, reflecting the tensions between Confucian ideals and the mystical undercurrents of Chinese folklore. Some of the notable characters from these tales have been immortalized in these cards, the accompanying booklet (for Collectors and Half-Brick Sets) has a more in-depth introduction to each of their stories. To stay on theme, the editions are named after archaic descriptions of the colors Gold/Amber (HUPO 琥珀) and Silver/Grey (GAOYU 縞⽻). The Liaozhai (聊齋), or "Studio of Conversations," was Pu Songling’s own retreat, where he gathered oral tales from travelers and reimagined them into literary masterpieces. These stories often unfold in moonlit courtyards, mist-shrouded temples, and dreamlike encounters where humans are lured, or tested, by otherworldly beings.

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