《夷坚志》是宋代著名志怪小说集，为洪迈晚年所撰，记载了传闻的怪异之事，是宋代志怪小说中篇幅最大的一部。原书420卷，搜罗丰富，举凡神仙鬼怪、冤狱报应、幻象异闻，甚至习俗风尚等等，无不收录。《夷坚志》在文学史上有重要价值，宋元以来，有不少话本和戏曲都取材于其中的故事；它也为研究宋代社会生活保存了不少可贵资料。然而，原书以多为胜，不加抉择，因此难免芜杂。《夷坚志选》由美国波士顿西蒙兹大学阿历斯特·英格尔斯教授选译了其中的代表性篇目，共113篇。这些篇目故事性强，读来饶有趣味；读者也可以藉此进一步了解北宋末、南宋初的社会状况。Record of the Listener(rijian zhi)is a renowned zhiguai collecfionfrom the Song Dynasty written by Hong Mai during his later years．Recording stories of the strange circulated by word of mouth，it is thelargest zhiguai pilation of the Song period——originally prising420 chapters．Its rich content includes topics such as gods and ghosts，injustice and retribution，fantasy and the uncanny，as well as regionalcustoms．The Record ofthe Listener has enjoyed a privileged place inChinese literary history；indeed，numerous vernacular short stories anddramas have sought inspiration from its storylines．It also preservesmuch precious research material on daily life during the Song．Nevertheless，the value placed on quantity and minimal selectivityin the original work led to an unwieldy，rambling corpus．For thisvolume，Professor Alister Inglis of Simmons College，Boston USA，has selected and translated a total of 113 stories which typify thecollection'S overall nature．All the stories encapsulate a channingnarrative quality which will hold readers spellbound while，at the sametime，heighten understanding of society during the late Northern／earlySouthern Song era．