"Every tremor in scholars’ social standing refracts obliquely through their fiction. These fractures birthed 'The Leviathan and the Insect'."
——Qitongren

"His face betrays honesty, his mind sprawls vast — yet the texts he gestates are fantastically bizarre. A decade hence, we may realize this era’s most uncanny writings all crawled from his pen. This book is no exception."
——Feng Ge (Wuxia novelist)

★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 cultural essay collection by Qitongren — China’s most literary fantasist — explores "the imprisoned Chinese mythos and literati" through a dual lens. The Leviathan* and the insect serve as potent symbols: one embodying scholars’ yearning for intellectual freedom, the other their shackles of timidity. Tracing the evolution of Chinese speculative fiction, the book reveals how shifts in literary ghosts and fox spirits mirror the soul of China’s intellectual class across dynasties.
Masterfully weaving traditional philosophy and mythic archetypes into speculative frameworks, Qitongren’s prose dances between cosmic grandeur and intimate psychological struggles.

*"Leviathan" translates the original Chinese "鲲" (Kun), originating from the Daoist classic Zhuangzi's "Free and Easy Wandering", in which "Kun" refers to the cosmic fish, which transforms into the roc bird.

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."