Original Text
In Taiyuan there was a scholar named Wang, who was walking along the road one morning when he encountered a young woman carrying a bundle, hurrying along alone with a weary step. Wang quickened his pace and caught up with her, and saw that she was a beautiful maiden of about sixteen or seventeen, and his heart was drawn to her. He asked her, "Why are you walking alone on the road before dawn?" The woman replied, "You are but a passing traveler, unable to share my burdens, so why must you ask?" Wang said, "What troubles you? Perhaps I can offer some help, and I will not refuse." The woman's face grew sorrowful as she said, "My parents, covetous of money, sold me as a concubine to a wealthy family. The principal wife there is exceedingly jealous, scolding me at dawn and beating me at dusk, and I could bear it no longer, so I fled far away." Wang asked, "Where do you intend to go?" She answered, "I am a fugitive with no fixed destination." Wang said, "My home is not far from here; pray come and rest there for a while." The woman gladly agreed. Wang then carried her bundle for her and led her back to his house. The woman looked around and, seeing no one else inside, asked, "How is it that you have no family?" Wang replied, "This is my study." The woman said, "This place is excellent. If you, sir, take pity on me and let me live, you must keep it secret and not reveal it to anyone." Wang promised her wholeheartedly. That night, they shared the same bed. Wang hid her in a secret chamber, and for many days no one knew of it. Later, Wang let slip a little of the matter to his wife. His wife, Chen, suspected that the woman was a runaway concubine from some wealthy household and urged Wang to send her away, but Wang stubbornly refused to listen.
One day, Scholar Wang happened to go to the marketplace and encountered a Taoist priest, who, upon seeing Wang, asked in great astonishment, "Have you met anyone recently?" Wang replied, "No, I have not." The priest said, "Your entire body is entangled with evil aura—how can you say you have not?" Wang vehemently denied it. The priest sighed and walked away, saying, "How incomprehensible! There are people in this world who are utterly deluded even when death is imminent!" Wang found his words unusual and began to suspect the woman. Yet he reconsidered: she was clearly a beautiful maiden—how could she be a demon? He thought the priest might be using exorcism as a pretext to extort money. Soon, he arrived at his study door and found it bolted from inside, unable to enter. Suspicious of this, he climbed over a broken wall into the courtyard, only to see the inner door also shut. He crept stealthily to the window and peered in, where he saw a hideous demon with a green face and teeth as long and sharp as saws, spreading a human skin on the bed and painting it with a colored brush. After finishing, the demon cast aside the brush, lifted the skin, and draped it over itself like a garment, transforming into the beautiful woman. Witnessing this, Wang was seized with terror and crawled out on all fours like a beast. He hurriedly sought the priest, but the priest had vanished. Wang searched everywhere until he found him in the outskirts, where he knelt and begged desperately for deliverance. The priest said, "Then let me drive it away. This creature has cultivated with no small effort; it has just found a substitute to be reborn as a human, and I cannot bear to take its life." He then handed Wang his horsetail whisk, instructing him to hang it at the bedroom door. As they parted, the priest also arranged to meet Wang later at the Temple of the Green Emperor.
After Scholar Wang returned home, he dared not enter his study but slept in the inner chamber of the house, hanging up the horsetail whisk. At the first watch of the night, he suddenly heard a rustling sound outside the door. Too terrified to even peek, Wang bade his wife to stealthily look. She saw the woman approaching, who, upon glimpsing the whisk hanging at the door, dared not enter but stood there gnashing her teeth in fury, lingering for a long while before departing. Yet soon she returned, and with a harsh voice cursed, "That Taoist seeks to frighten me! I will not be so easily thwarted. Must I spit out the morsel already in my mouth?" With these words, she snatched down the whisk, tore it to shreds, then burst through the bedroom door and charged inside. The ghost directly climbed onto Wang's bed, ripped open his chest and abdomen, tore out his heart, and left. His wife screamed in anguish. When the maidservant came with a candle to look, she saw that Wang was already dead, his abdominal cavity a ghastly mess of blood and flesh. His wife, Chen, was too terrified to cry out and could only swallow her grief and shed silent tears.
The next morning, Chen instructed Wang's younger brother, Erlang, to hasten to the Taoist and inform him. The Taoist said angrily, "I had pity on the creature, but this vile ghost dares to be so insolent!" He immediately followed Wang's brother to Wang's home. The woman had vanished without a trace. The Taoist raised his head and looked around, saying, "Fortunately, it has not fled far." He then asked, "Whose house is that in the southern courtyard?" Wang Erlang replied, "It is my dwelling." The Taoist said, "The ghost is now in your house." Wang Erlang was greatly astonished, thinking it impossible. The Taoist asked him, "Has any stranger come to your home?" Wang Erlang said, "I went to the Green Emperor Temple early this morning to find you, so I truly do not know. Let me go home and inquire." With that, he departed, and after a short while, he returned and said, "Indeed, there is. This morning, an old woman came, seeking employment as a servant in my household. My wife kept her, and she is still there." The Taoist said, "That is the creature." So they all went together to Wang Erlang's house. The Taoist, holding a wooden sword, stood in the courtyard and shouted loudly, "You wicked ghost who has done evil, return my whisk!" The old woman inside the house was greatly startled, and upon coming out, she attempted to flee. The Taoist pursued her and struck her with the wooden sword. The old woman fell, and her human skin split open with a loud tearing sound, falling to the ground, revealing the ghost's true form, which lay on the ground squealing like a pig. The Taoist cut off its head with the wooden sword, and its body turned into a thick smoke, swirling around and gathering into a heap on the ground. The Taoist took out a gourd, removed its stopper, and placed it within the smoke. A whistling sound was heard, as if someone were inhaling, and in an instant, the smoke was completely drawn into the gourd. The Taoist stoppered the gourd and placed it in his bag. They then looked at the human skin on the ground, which had eyebrows, eyes, hands, and feet, all complete. The Taoist rolled up the skin, making a rustling sound like rolling a scroll, and also placed it in his bag. Then he bid them farewell and prepared to leave.
Chen Shi knelt before the gate, weeping bitterly as she begged the Taoist to use his arts of resurrection to restore Wang Sheng to life. The Taoist declared himself powerless. Chen Shi grew even more sorrowful, prostrating herself on the ground and refusing to rise. The Taoist pondered for a moment, then said, "My skills are shallow indeed, and I cannot raise the dead. But I can direct you to one who might succeed. Go and beseech him; perhaps it will prove effective." Chen Shi asked, "Who is this person?" The Taoist replied, "In the marketplace there is a madman who often lies amidst filth and mire. Try kneeling before him and pleading. Should he insult you in his frenzy, do not take offense." Wang Erlang knew this madman well, so he bid the Taoist farewell and accompanied his sister-in-law Chen Shi to seek him out. When they arrived, they saw a beggar staggering along the road, singing wildly, with a trail of mucus three feet long, his body so foul and stinking that none could approach. Chen Shi knelt and shuffled forward on her knees. The beggar laughed and said, "Does the beauty love me?" Chen Shi told him the whole story. The beggar laughed again and said, "Any man could be your husband—why trouble to revive him?" Chen Shi persisted in her pleas. The beggar then said, "How strange! A man dies, and you come to me to bring him back. Am I the King of Hell?" With that, he angrily struck Chen Shi with his begging staff, and she endured the blows without complaint. By now, the crowd of onlookers had gathered like a wall. The beggar coughed up phlegm and spittle, filling his palm, and thrust it toward Chen Shi's mouth, saying, "Eat it!" Chen Shi's face flushed crimson, and she hesitated, but recalling the Taoist's warning not to fear humiliation, she forced herself to swallow the foul mess. As it passed down her throat, it felt like a lump of stiff cotton, grating as it descended, and lodged itself in her chest. The beggar laughed loudly again and said, "The beauty loves me!" Then he rose and walked away, paying her no further heed. Chen Shi and Erlang followed him to a temple, hoping to approach and beg again, but they could not find him. They searched everywhere, front and back, but there was no trace, so they returned home, ashamed and resentful.
When Chen Shi returned home, she grieved bitterly over her husband's tragic death and regretted the humiliation of having licked another's spittle, crying out to heaven and stamping the earth in her sorrow, wishing only for her own immediate death. She wanted to wipe the blood from her husband's body and prepare it for burial, but the household members were all terrified and stood far off, none daring to approach. Chen Shi had to lift Wang Sheng's corpse herself, gathering the intestines that had spilled from his belly, sobbing loudly as she cleaned them. When her weeping reached the point of exhaustion, she suddenly felt the urge to vomit, and the hard lump that had been lodged in her chest and abdomen abruptly surged up from her throat; before she could turn her head aside, the thing fell directly into Wang Sheng's chest cavity. Startled, Chen Shi looked and saw it was a human heart, beating with a thumping sound within Wang Sheng's chest, emitting a steaming vapor like smoke. Greatly astonished, she quickly pressed his chest together with both hands, striving to close the wound; at the slightest loosening, wisps of hot air could be seen escaping through the gap. She tore a piece of silk and hastily bound his chest and abdomen tightly. Then, when she touched the corpse with her hand, she found it had gradually grown somewhat warm, so she covered Wang Sheng with a cotton quilt. At midnight, she rose to check and discovered that there was already some breath coming from his nostrils. By dawn the next day, Wang Sheng had actually revived. He only said, "It was as if I were in a daze, dreaming, and I just felt a dull pain in my belly." When they examined the torn spot, a hard scab the size of a copper coin had formed; not long afterward, Wang Sheng was fully healed.
The Chronicler of Strange Tales remarks: How foolish are the people of this world! Clearly a demon, yet they mistake it for a beautiful woman. How stubbornly deluded are the foolish! Clearly a sincere warning, yet they take it for deceit and falsehood. However, when a man covets another's beauty and pursues it insatiably, his own wife may come to lick another's spittle and savor it as a delicacy. The good and evil deeds of men are recompensed according to the laws of heaven, yet the dull and muddled never awaken to this truth. Truly lamentable!
Commentary
Similarly, when a married man expresses affection to a woman, in "The Green Phoenix," the wild scholar Geng Qubing is romantic and passionate, winning the favor of the fox maiden Qingfeng; in "The Painted Skin," Wang Sheng is deemed by the author to have committed an illicit act and is punished. Why such different treatment? The reason is simple: Qingfeng is an unmarried woman, and in the patriarchal society of polygamy, Geng Qubing's behavior is not illegal; whereas the woman transformed from a ghost claims to be married, thus belonging to another. Wang Sheng, coveting her beauty, preys on a married woman's charms, violating a major taboo of feudal society, and thus his punishment is just and reasonable—this is also what the work particularly emphasizes: all who are deceived have fatal flaws, either greed for wealth or lust for beauty, and calamity arises from cause. However, while Wang Sheng's punishment for lust is deserved, his wife suffers humiliation as a result, as the saying goes, "He who preys on another's beauty will have his wife savor another's spittle," which is somewhat unsettling. This likely serves the needs of plot development on one hand, and on the other reflects Pu Songling's ideas of karmic retribution and implicating the entire clan.
The moral admonitions contained within "Painted Skin" are exceptionally abundant, such as the ghost transforming into a beautiful woman to deceive, the scholar falling into the trap due to his lust for beauty, the retribution of the fisherman's lust ultimately falling upon his own wife, and the necessity of eradicating evil thoroughly without leniency. At the same time, the story is also a masterpiece of artistic technique, with its intricate plot twists, vivid and lively language, and especially the description of the evil ghost "spreading human skin on the bed, taking up a colored brush to paint it," which is rich in imagination, startling and awe-inspiring, and highly allegorical, to the extent that "Painted Skin" later became a fixed term in Chinese to describe the demonic tricks of seductive beauty, and "Painted Skin" has become the most frequently adapted and transplanted story in "Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio."