Lieu Trai Chi Di

In search of stress relief I was looking for completely escapist
reading materials. Searching the internet I came across an old
classic. After one page I was hooked. I read the Lieu Trai Chi Di as a
teen-ager; now rereading it I was struck by the richness of the
structure and the meaning. Back then, used to kiem hiep, I was rather
disappointed at the lack of action although I was a little intrigued
at the ghost stories. But now after a little bit more life experience
I just love the stories. This is definitely adult reading material.

The first meaning of adult material is of course SEX. And there is
plenty of it. Basically all stories in the LTCD involve sex, most of
the unnatural kind, meaning with vixen (female foxes) and ghosts.
Sometime there are couplings with male foxes too. Reading the stories
the latin words incubus and succubus (look them up yourself or ask the
many latinists on the forum) kept recurring in my mind. Most of the
encounters are not gruesome or unpleasant. As a matter of fact many of
the stories are true love stories: tales of devotion, sacrifice,
fidelity. It almost looked like the author, showing that the technique
is quite old, used sex as a hook to get readers to read further.

The second meaning of adult material is that it is subtle stuff, to be
understood in light of life experience. And that is to me the main
attraction. The different tales of the book produces an entire
portrait of society, with its richness and contradictions. There are
good and bad people; beautiful and ugly men and women; heroes and
villains. An entire 'Comedie humaine' a la Balzac enfolds itself. We
see the preoccupations of the literati: diplomas, good marriage, male
children, and the shortcomings of society: corruption, oppression,
prejudice, all masterfully evoked with a light touch.

The best part is this: a lot of this sound very familiar. The
interaction among some of the characters would not be out of place in
the Southern suburbs of Paris or in Orange County. It shows that a lot
has changed and a lot has not since the 17th century when the book was
written. To the extent our own culture took from China, some attitudes
and values have endured into present day Vietnamese society.

Which means that I fell in love with some of the female characters in
the book. Some of them are paragons of beauty and virtue whom one
definitely wishes to meet in reality. Alas that is why they are
described as spirits in the book. The author definitely loved women
and he seems to have delineated a series of female ideals.

Anyway for those of you (male) guys who have to stay late sometimes at
the office, maybe one night when you are alone a strange and exquisite
woman will appear in the middle the night and without further ado
engage in mind-blowing sex. If that happens report it to me. (It's OK
but just remember not to overdo it so as not to drain your vital
forces with the vixen). I will write an addendum to the LTCD. In the
meantime just enjoy the book.