THE READING ROOM
The story is not the shelf.
This is the site’s public source guide. The posts let Zhong Kui speak in the first person; this page says where the ground beneath his feet comes from. Most links lead to Chinese-language texts or collection records. The short English descriptions are an invitation to read the record, not a replacement for it.
How to read a source note
- Literary text means a later author gives Zhong Kui a scene, a childhood, or a companion. It can explain a tradition of storytelling; it does not verify a Tang-dynasty event.
- Custom record tells us that a practice was recorded in a place and period. It should never be stretched into “all Chinese people did this.”
- Museum object establishes a particular work’s maker, material, date, and collection history. It does not prove every story attached to its image.
- Editorial narration is the contemporary voice of this site. It connects evidence with feeling and is never presented as a translated ancient passage.
Core textual shelf
- Tang Zhong Kui quan zhuan (唐钟馗全传). A Ming vernacular narrative and the continuous literary source for Season 01. The serial treats it as a tale, not biography.
- Sui shi guang ji (岁时广记). A later seasonal anthology preserving the imperial dream account associated with Zhong Kui; used here as a transmitted tradition with clear limits.
- Kengqing lu, “Zhong Kui xiaomei” (坑青录·钟馗小妹). A text that argues against reading a familiar companion image as Zhong Kui’s literal sister.
- Huhai shi zhuan (湖海诗传). A later poetic witness for the Zhong Kui wedding-procession motif.
Seasonal and door-guardian records
- Jingchu suishiji (荆楚岁时记). An early record of seasonal practice in the Jingchu region; it helps frame the fifth month without claiming national uniformity.
- Qing jia lu (清嘉录). A Qing-era record of Suzhou custom, including a fifth-month Zhong Kui practice. Its local setting is part of the evidence.
- Lushi (路史). A later textual route for Shenshu and Yulei, two older door-guardian names discussed in Season 03. It does not make them Zhong Kui’s relatives or subordinates.
Objects: look, then return to the record
- National Palace Museum, Zhong Kui’s sister’s wedding (钟馗嫁妹). A catalogued collection object used to discuss image tradition and performance, not family history.
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Ren Yi (Ren Bonian), Zhong Kui, 1883, 2002.208.2. A specific nineteenth-century hanging scroll.
- Smithsonian National Museum of Asian Art, Zhong Kui taming the Five Pestilences, F1909.164. A collection record that keeps image, title, and holding institution together.
One practical promise
Every new substantial post will include its own “Keep me honest” trail or a Source compass link, with the source type and the boundary of the claim. If an episode needs imagination to bridge between records, the bridge will remain visible.