This book was published in two volumes, of which this is the first. The second volume was released as Project Gutenberg ebook #43628, available at http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/43628. Referenced content not present in this electronic text can be found in Volume II. Cross-volume links function correctly only when this electronic text is viewed online.
Obvious typographical errors repaired. Punctuation, spelling, hyphenation, use of accented characters and stylistic presentation standardized when a predominant preference was found in this book. Capitalization and hyphenation of Chinese personal names has been standardized. Otherwise left as printed.
Missing page numbers are numbered blank pages in the original text.
Footnote numbers were re-indexed in this electronic text, internal references renumbered correspondingly.
For less common abbreviations and Roman numerals, title attributes have been provided for the convenience of screenreader users.
Footnote 46, ‘old’ changed to ‘odd’ (presenting a very odd appearance).
Footnote 109, ‘Marriages’ changed to ‘Marriage’ (Marriage between persons of the same surname is forbidden).
Footnote 267, ‘CVI’ changed to ‘CVII.’ (later story (No. CVII.),).
Page 36, ‘villanous’ changed to ‘villainous’ (he writes a villainous hand).
Page 86, ‘dare’ changed to ‘dared’ (nobody dared go near her).
Page 306, ‘grottos’ changed to ‘grottoes’ (from each of the holes or grottoes on the stone).
Page 378, ‘Shan’ changed to ‘Shan-hu’ (Shan-hu held out her arms).
Page 408, ‘watching’ changed to ‘watched’ (watched the moon rising in the east).
Page 411, ‘bid’ changed to ‘bade’ (Wang’s father bade him hide).