This is a collection of novels that records magical and weird stories in ancient folklore. Most stories are superstitious, but they reflect the thoughts and feelings of the ancients to some extent.
The search for God has been lost. This book was compiled and acquired by later generations. Twenty volumes. * * * There are 454 stories. Most of the records are strange things of immortals, and some of them belong to folklore. Among them, Li Ji and his wife, Han Ping, the daughter of the prince of Wu, and so on. Exposing the cruelty of the ruling class and praising the struggle of the rebels are often quoted by later generations.
Most stories are short in length, simple in plot, fantastic in imagination and full of romanticism. Later, Tao Qian's Epilogue of Searching for God and Binwen Zhang's Search for Mystery, both of which have a volume of 10, are imitations of Searching for God. Searching for the Gods has a far-reaching influence on later generations, such as The Story of the Tang Dynasty, Strange Tales from a Lonely Studio by Pu Songling, Fairy Tales, and many later novels and operas, all of which are closely related to it.
Gan Bao, a native of Xincai, Shanxi, was a theist at first, and made great contributions to equalizing Du Fu's achievements and sealing off customs. In his preface, he said, "His works are enough to invent the truth of Shinto." I just want to prove that ghosts and gods really exist by collecting previous writings and legends. Therefore, "Searching for God" narrates many strange things about God, and there are also many folklore and fairy stories. The protagonists are ghosts, monsters, immortals, and mixed with Buddhism and Taoism. Most of them are short in length, simple in plot, fantastic in imagination and full of romanticism.