A Rip Van Winkle by Pu Songling — Read

Note on the title: This being a long and tedious story, I have given only such part of it as is remarkable for its similarity to Washington Irving's famous narrative.

[The story runs that a Mr. Chia, after obtaining, with the assistance of a mysterious friend, his master's degree, became alive to the vanity of mere earthly honours, and determined to devote himself to the practice of Taoism, in the hope of obtaining the elixir of immortality.[1]]