Between 300 and 600 C.E., Chinese writers compiled thousands of accounts of the strange and the extraordinary. Some described weird spirits, customs, and flora and fauna in distant lands. Some depicted individuals of unusual spiritual or moral achievement. But most told of ordinary people’s encounters with ghosts, demons, or gods; sojourns in the land of the dead; eerily significant dreams; and uncannily accurate premonitions. The selection of such stories presented here provides an alluring introduction to early medieval Chinese storytelling and opens a doorway to the enchanted world of thought, culture, and religious belief of that era. Known as zhiguai, or “accounts of anomalies,” they convey a great deal about how people saw the cosmos and their place in it. The tales were circulated because they were entertaining but also because their compilers meant to document the mysterious workings of spirits, the wonders of exotic places, and the nature of the afterlife.
A collection of more than two hundred tales, A Garden of Marvels offers an authoritative yet accessible introduction to zhiguai writings, particularly those never before translated or adequately researched. This volume will likely find its way to bedside tables as well as into classrooms and libraries, just as collections of zhiguai did in early medieval times.

本书是建筑学家、园林学家曹汛先生多年研究成果的首次结集。本书收录《陆游〈钗头凤〉的错解错传和绍兴沈园的错认错定》《石涛叠山“人间孤品”，一个媕浅而粗疏的园林童话》等曹汛先生的代表性文章，材料翔实，证据充分，纠正了流传数十年、数百年甚至上千年的历史大错案。“破旧”之外更长于“立新”。本书不仅对中国古代造园艺术进行了精到的介绍，还将园林建筑纳入艺术的视角加以审视，对园林建筑艺术进行总结，提纲挈领地论述了中国园林的历史脉络、艺术特征和国际地位，奠定了风景园林历史理论的基础。更难能可贵的是，本书还对一些造园名家加以介绍，本书收录的对计成、张南垣、叶洮和戈裕良等造园名家的研究，展示了中国园林艺术“千岩竞秀、万壑争流”的蓬勃气象，议论精湛，见解高妙，从中可领略一代学人“铁肩担道义，妙手著文章”的淳雅古风。