Liu Jingshu is an ancient Chinese author about whom very little biographical information is publicly available; his birth and death years, native place, and official career are all undocumented, so any account must rest on his surviving works. His best-known work, Yiyuan (Garden of the Strange), is a collection of zhiguai anecdotes recording ghosts, spirits, supernatural omens, and miscellaneous human stories. The entries are brief and plainly narrated, showing the distinctive style of Wei-Jin and Northern-Southern Dynasties supernatural writing. Two of his works are held in this catalogue, including an unannotated edition of Yiyuan, which indicates that the book was repeatedly edited and reprinted over the centuries. Modern readers often place such writings under Eastern philosophy, though they are closer to ancient notebook fiction and records of folk belief. Reading Yiyuan offers insight into early supernatural literature as well as the beliefs and storytelling tastes of its time.
