The Chinese Fairy Book gathers a dazzling range of Chinese tales—ghost stories, legends, animal fables, love stories, and magical adventures—retold for English readers with an eye for their exotic beauty and imaginative sweep. Frederick H. Martens presents a world where cleverness can outwit fate, greed brings ruin, and hidden powers shape the lives of emperors, peasants, princesses, and spirits alike. Among its many stories are moral folktales of brothers divided by envy, miraculous helpers born from loss, and brief episodes in which thunder, fortune, and justice expose human folly. Elsewhere, comic contests, perilous mountain journeys, and eerie caves filled with jewels and beasts reveal the mix of humor, danger, and wonder that animates the tradition. The collection also includes larger supernatural romances: a loyal princess waiting for her beggar husband to return as an emperor, Liu I's passage into the dragon kingdom beneath the sea, and encounters with fox-fire, dragon battles, and immortal courts. Richly varied and vividly retold, these stories offer a broad panorama of Chinese storytelling in all its mystery, wit, and enchantment. This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design.