What is Zhiguai?
The 'records of the strange' — a plain-language introduction to the two-thousand-year-old Chinese genre that this entire website is built on.
Guides · 指南
Reading Guides
Everything a new reader needs: what this genre is, how its universe is built, the vocabulary it runs on, and how we bring it into English.
A Beginner's Guide to the Chinese Mythic Universe
The five-minute orientation: the map, the cast, and the rules you need before your first story.
Key Concepts: Qi, Karma, Cultivation and the Tribulation
The working vocabulary of the universe — the ten terms that unlock every story in the library.
How We Translate: A Note on Method, Names and Terms
What you are reading, what we change, and what we refuse to change.