《聊斋志异》

《聊斋志异》 is the ghost-story collection used in 136. 春日明媚，聊聊鬼神 to show how underworld offices become literary situations. The episode mentions stories where a judge swaps a woman’s head and where Song Tao is examined for a city-god appointment but delays taking office so he can care for his mother.

In the source, these stories matter less as supernatural facts than as moral and social tests. They make Underworld Bureaucracy legible by turning divine offices into exams, appointments, favors, kinship obligations, and uncomfortable human choices. They also connect folk religion to literary satire: a ghost court can expose worldly assumptions about officialdom, filial piety, gender, and personal relationships.

Connections

• 136. 春日明媚，聊聊鬼神 - source episode.
• [[Chenghuang|城隍]] - city-god office dramatized through “考城隍”.
• Underworld Bureaucracy - administrative afterlife frame used by the stories.
• Local Deity Governance - city-god appointment as divine local office.
• Afterlife Moral Accounting - moral testing and judgment context.
• [[JourneyToTheWest|《西游记》]] - another literary source where the episode finds underworld bureaucracy and satire.