张读

Zhang Du was a Tang dynasty writer of biji xiaoshuo, or notebook tales. Very little is known about his life, and public records are limited, yet the four works attributed to him show considerable skill in classical Chinese narrative. His best-known work, Xuanshi Zhi, is mainly a collection of strange tales about gods, ghosts and retribution, mixed with anecdotes of the time. The pieces are short and the style plain and concise, inheriting the tradition of Six Dynasties zhiguai and influencing Tang chuanqi and later notebook fiction. It is important material for understanding Tang beliefs and narrative taste. A combined edition, Xuanshi Zhi · Pei Xing Chuanqi, places him alongside Pei Xing, showing both writers' standing in Tang and Five Dynasties notebook fiction, while the two-volume Tang and Five Dynasties Notebook Fiction Survey presents his work within a larger documentary context. His writings are often read as classical literature and for literary appreciation, best approached through the zhiguai tradition and the evolution of classical notebook writing.