"Qitongren is perhaps Chinese fantasy’s lightest writer — I speak of the texture of the text. Reading him, you feel your spirit sprouting wings, shaking off gravity to soar beyond the nine heavens."
——Ma Boyong (Author of The Longest Day in Chang’an, China’s celebrated novelist)

"'Rising through ninefold skies on celestial winds' — this sentence captures Qitongren’s essence. His prose is ethereal, almost translucent, articulating the ineffable through delicate phrasing."
——Reader Review

"These stories, uniquely blending wuxia verve with phantasmagoria, plunge readers into wondrous dreamscapes."
——Reader Review

★A featured work by Qitongren — renowned Chinese fantasy author, pioneer of long-form wuxia fantasy, and a defining voice in China’s speculative fiction!
★Hailed as the "Chinese Kafka" in international fantasy circles, his works appear in "The Big Book of Modern Fantasy" (World Fantasy Award-winning anthology), alongside legends like Gabriel García Márquez and Haruki Murakami!
★Acclaimed by bestselling authors such as Ma Boyong and Jiang Nan, and praised by Hugo Award, World Fantasy Award, and British Fantasy Awards-winning editors Ann and Jeff VanderMeer as "a quintessential voice of Chinese fantasy literature."
★A fusion of wuxia and fantasy, bridging mythology and modernity through an Eastern literary lens.

This collection features 10 titles:
"Spring in Dongke Monastery" (Selected for The Big Book of Modern Fantasy, a "Global Top 100 Fantasy Works")
"The Dreamweaver" (Douban 9.2-rated, multi-time "Year’s Best Fantasy" pick)
"Chronicles of Liufeng River" (A wuxia fantasy masterpiece channeling Tang-Song dynasty elegance)
"The Leviathan and the Insect" (A mythic exploration of Chinese folklore and scholarly struggles)
"Biographies of Eight Sages" (An intimate chronicle of mortal transcendence)
"Songs of the Seasons" (Qitongren’s sole self-curated fantasy anthology)
"Novoland: Dragon’s Thorn" (A cornerstone of the Novoland fantasy universe)
"Serenity: The Highest Joy of Life" (A lyrical decoding of Eastern spiritual archetypes)
"Frog Song" (Original novel of Zhang Xiaoyu’s "Golden Elephant" Award-winning comic at France’s Chambéry International Comics Festival)
"The Floating Temple" (Source material for Zhang Xiaoyu’s latest award-winning comic "Cloud Temple")

This critically acclaimed collection by Qitongren — China’s preeminent fantasy author — gathers 20 masterful tales of spirits and marvels, including "House of Joy and Fortune", "Dream Slave Zhuzhu", "Chronicle of Crane River", and the titular "Spring in Dongke Monastery" (multiple Douban 9.0-rated gems). Weaving together uncanny realms, folkloric entities, and traditional mythos with the ease of a celestial sage recounting millennia-old legends, each story breathes new life into classical tropes — from ancient festivals to supernatural retribution.
Spanning themes of familial bonds, love, vengeance, and karmic justice, all but two tales ("The Baseless Child" and "Pigeons") unfold in ancient China. Selected alongside works by Gabriel García Márquez, Angela Carter, George R.R. Martin, Stephen King, and Haruki Murakami in "The Big Book of Modern Fantasy" (a global top-100 fantasy list spanning 22 nations), this anthology is essential for fantasy connoisseurs.

Qitongren (b. 1972), pen name inspired by Kafka’s "The Bucket Rider", is a celebrated Chinese short-story writer and fantasist, regarded as one of contemporary China’s most literary fantasy creators. He began writing while studying Chinese literature at Guangxi Normal University and gained prominence after publishing online in 2000. Former editor of "Fly Fantasy World" and executive editor of "Novoland Fantasy", he founded the e-magazine "Nine Songs" and edited "The Anthology of Chinese Fantasy".
Renowned for his visionary imagination and philosophical depth, he is a two-time "Douban Outstanding Author" and a defining figure in Chinese fantasy. His story "Spring in Dongke Monastery" was anthologized alongside works by Gabriel García Márquez, Angela Carter, George R.R. Martin, Stephen King, and Haruki Murakami in "The Big Book of Modern Fantasy" (World Fantasy Award-winning anthology). His stark prose has earned him the moniker "China’s Kafka."

1.Ah Zhi
2.The Baseless Child
3.Spring in Dongke Monastery
4.Pigeons
5.Chronicle of Crane River
6.The Monkey Venerable
7.Jian’s Silhouette
8.Goldfish
9.Pear Blossom Courtyard
10.Record of Kuairan Pavilion
11.Dragon
12.Ode to Qixi Festival
13.Tales of Qingxi’s Strangers
14.Kumbum Monastery
15.Dew on Shallots
16.The Head-Seeking Beast
17.Swallow Slave
18.Zhang Jinlian
19.House of Joy and Fortune
20.Dream Slave Zhuzhu