Life is full of strange ironies. Some people spend their entire lives pursuing a goal with blood, sweat, and tears, only for future generations to deem it unworthy. Meanwhile, works created simply by following one's heart—written with a cup of wine in hand and pouring out genuine emotions—often immortalize the author in the annals of history.
Pu Songling belongs to this very category.
Pu Songling, whose courtesy name was Liuxian (or Jianchen) and who styled himself as the Layman of Liuquan, was a native of Pujiazhuang Village in Zichuan, Shandong Province. He was born in 1640 and passed away in 1715, living to the ripe old age of 76.
Pu Songling was born during the tumultuous dynastic transition from the Ming to the Qing, an era plagued by war, chaos, and frequent natural disasters. Yet, the ultimate pursuit of the intelligentsia—the Imperial Civil Service Examinations—remained unshaken. The Pu family in Zichuan was a respectable scholarly clan. During the Wanli era of the Ming Dynasty, out of the eight government-supported scholars in the entire county, six were from the Pu family. His great-grandfather was a stipend student, and his grandfather was a county student. However, when it came to his grandfather Pu Shengrui's generation, the family fortunes began to decline as he failed to pass the county-level exams.
Pu Songling's father, named Pan (courtesy name Minwu), also failed to become a xiucai (a successful candidate in the county exams) and eventually abandoned the civil service path to become a merchant. Yet, even as a businessman, he continued to study the Confucian classics and history, possessing a breadth of knowledge that even seasoned scholars could not match. Having reached his forties without a son, Pu Pan eventually gave up business entirely. He became indifferent to money, using it instead to aid the poor and build temples, devoting himself to Buddhism. In his later years, despite financial hardships, Pu Pan was blessed with many children. He had one wife and two concubines: Lady Dong, Lady Sun, and Lady Li. Pu Songling was the second son born to the primary wife, Lady Dong, making him the fourth son in the family.
Due to financial difficulties, the family could not afford a tutor, so the education of Pu Songling and his brothers was shouldered entirely by their father. Consequently, Pu Songling was deeply influenced by his father's merchant sensibilities and Buddhist beliefs.
When Pu Songling was in his early teens, his father arranged a marriage for him. His father-in-law, Liu Jitiao, was an elderly xiucai known for his integrity and uprightness. When the Pu family proposed the match, some tried to dissuade Liu due to the Pu family's poverty. However, Liu was impressed by their scholarly heritage and deeply admired Pu Pan's character, so he firmly agreed to the marriage.
In 1655, when Pu Songling was 16, rumors spread that the imperial court was selecting young women to fill the harem. Panic ensued, and families rushed to marry off their daughters. Liu Jitiao thus sent his daughter to the Pu home for refuge. Two years later, Pu Songling formally married her. The theme of a daughter from a scholarly family marrying a poor scholar, who then strives to repay her devotion, is a prominent motif in Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio. Pu Songling's lifelong, desperate attempts at the civil service exams were driven not only by family and societal pressures but likely also by a desire to repay the wife who had pledged her life to him.
In 1658, the 19-year-old Pu Songling took the county, prefectural, and circuit exams for the first time, achieving first place in all three and earning the title of xiucai.
At that time, Fei Yizhi, the magistrate of Zichuan County, and Shi Runzhang, the provincial education commissioner and a renowned poet, both praised Pu's essays. Shi Runzhang wrote on his exam paper: "A rare fragrance wafts from the void; the pen moves as if possessed by a god," and "Reading his work is like viewing the moon; his brushwork is as swift as the wind." The praise from these two men was the first—and, as it turned out, the last—recognition Pu Songling would ever receive from officials. He never forgot it for the rest of his life.
Fresh from passing the exams, the young Pu Songling was full of vigor and hope, believing that higher officialdom was within easy reach. He studied day and night, desperate for the next degree. To focus, he left his wife and family, first finding a quiet room in the east of the village to study, and later moving to his friend Li Ximei's "Xingxuan" studio, where they burned the midnight oil together, hoping to achieve success. He revered the "eight-legged essay" (the rigid format required for the exams) as a deity, once stating: "Now that the civil service exams test candidates on eight-legged essays, poetry has become a demonic path, something entirely extraneous."
However, Pu Songling's artistic temperament stubbornly manifested itself even at this time. Since his youth, whenever he was alone, he "privately practiced writing in the ancient prose style," revealing his true passion. At the age of 20, Pu Songling, along with his close friends Zhang Liyou, Li Ximei, and Wang Luzhan from the same county, founded the "Yingzhong Poetry Society," agreeing to "use the leisure time remaining after banquets and gatherings to cultivate a life of artistic expression." This marked the true beginning of Pu Songling's literary career and was clear proof of his inescapable nature as a writer. The members of the "Yingzhong Poetry Society" remained his lifelong friends. Judging from his surviving early works, he was deeply influenced by Qu Yuan and Li He during his youth; he not only worshipped them but also imitated their poetry. In terms of ancient prose, he was heavily influenced by Zhuangzi and Sima Qian. It can be said that the romantic literary traditions of these writers nourished and inspired Pu Songling from a young age.
On one hand, he was an artist with a conscious pursuit of beauty and an irrepressible passion for literary creation; on the other, he was obsessed with civil service honors, diligently drilling into eight-legged essays and bowing before the altar of the examination system. This was the internal conflict of the young Pu Songling—a struggle that would, in fact, haunt him for his entire life.
Shortly after the birth of Pu Songling's eldest son, Pu Ruo, his extended family underwent a division. According to Pu Songling's own account in Account of Lady Liu, the cause was the quarreling of his eldest sister-in-law. She was indeed a fierce woman who deeply affected Pu Songling, later serving as the prototype for the shrewish wives in Strange Tales stories like The Daughter of Minister Sun, Jiang Cheng, and Lu Wubing. However, this family division also had profound economic roots. Because Pu Songling devoted all his energy to the exams and literature, neglecting productive labor, he became a heavy burden on a declining large family. Yet, Pu Songling was reluctant to touch upon this, as in feudal society, brothers falling out over money and splitting the family was not considered honorable.
In 1670, driven by financial necessity and an invitation from his friend Sun Hui, the magistrate of Baoying County, Pu Songling left his hometown to work as a private secretary for Sun. This was the only time in Pu Songling's life that he left Shandong. Although the trip was brief (lasting just over a year), it had a significant impact on his life and thoughts, transforming him from a bookish student who only knew how to recite poetry and write exam essays into someone who faced and engaged with society. While assisting Sun Hui with official duties, Pu Songling gained an intimate understanding of the corruption and darkness of officialdom, observing the cunning and vicious tricks of clerks and bailiffs. He gained firsthand experience of the people's hardships and the conditions of various social strata.
It was during this time that he either began creating or at least preparing for Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio. He wrote in his poem Indignation: "New stories are always collected into the Records of the Listener; a gallon of wine is hard-pressed to dissolve the block of sorrow in my chest." This sentiment also appears in his poem On the Road: "Lonely on the road, I might as well speak of ghosts; swaying on the boat, I feel like an immortal." Furthermore, in the "Postscript" of the Lianxiang chapter of Strange Tales, he explicitly states: "In the Gengxu year, I traveled south to Yi. Delayed by rain, I rested at an inn. A man named Liu Zijing, a cousin of mine, took out a manuscript titled The Tale of Mr. Sang, written by our fellow scholar Wang Zizhang, totaling over ten thousand words, which I read to the end. What follows is merely a brief outline of it."
During his time in the Jiangnan region, Pu Songling traveled extensively. He visited Huaiyin and paid respects at the Temple of the Overlord, boated on Shaobo Lake, climbed Beigu Mountain, and toured Yangzhou, realizing that "the north and south each have their own distinct customs." His investigation into the folk customs of Jiangnan injected vitality into the southern stories narrated in Strange Tales. The rich atmosphere and flair of the Jiangnan water towns found in chapters like The Frog God, The Five Spirits, The Evening Glow, and Wang Gui'an were all derived from his journey to the south.
During this southern trip, Pu Songling met a songstress named Gu Qingxia (who later became Sun Hui's concubine). She could sing and was skilled at reciting poetry. Pu Songling greatly admired her recitation technique, praising it: "Her soft voice and delicate chanting enter the ear and seep into the heart and spleen." He specially selected a hundred Tang Dynasty "boudoir poems" for her to recite. We can see the shadow of this poetry-loving girl in stories like The White Autumn Loach and Lian Suo. Pu Songling had a deep connection with her; when Gu Qingxia passed away, he wrote a poem to mourn her: "The sound of her chanting seems to remain in my ears, but I will never again hope to see her at the gate of song and dance. In the Swallow Tower, her leftover rouge remains; beneath the Peony Pavilion, I mourn her fragrant soul." His emotions were truly sincere.
Pu Songling's life as a private secretary in Baoying lasted only a little over a year, as he needed to return for the provincial exams in hopes of advancing his career. In the late summer and early autumn of 1671, he bid farewell to Sun Hui and returned to Zichuan.
Driven by the pressures of livelihood, Pu Songling began a life of teaching shortly after returning home. Around the age of 33, he became a private tutor in the household of Bi Jiyou. Bi Jiyou was the son of Bi Ziyan, a Minister in the Ming Dynasty, and had served as the Prefect of Tongzhou in Yangzhou Prefecture during the Qing Dynasty. He was related by marriage to the then-prominent figure and great poet Wang Yuyang, making him the top local gentry in Zichuan. His estate featured gardens like "Shiyin Garden," "Chuoran Hall," and "Xiaofan Hall," and housed a large collection of books. The Bi brothers and nephews all loved poetry and associating with scholars, and they treated Pu Songling with great respect. They exchanged poems with him, and some even participated in the creation of parts of Strange Tales. Therefore, Pu Songling felt very satisfied teaching at the Bi home. It can be said that Pu Songling spent the bulk of his teaching career at the Bi residence, and Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio was also largely completed there.
This period was the poorest in Pu Songling's life and the most spiritually depressed, yet it was also the time when his spirit of "solitary indignation" was strongest and his creative energy was most vigorous.
In 1679, Pu Songling was 40 years old. While Strange Tales was still a work in progress but had already taken substantial shape, he wrote the Preface to Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio. The aesthetic philosophy expressed in the preface, and the pursuits revealed in the book, reflect Pu Songling's mental journey in his middle age and his creative purpose at that stage. The preface emphasizes that Strange Tales has realistic goals of moral encouragement and clear targets of criticism, while also revealing Pu Songling's financial distress, his frustration at unrecognized talent in the examination system, and his longing for a kindred spirit.
In the year Pu Songling turned 51 (1690), he failed the provincial exams once again. At the persuasion of his wife, he finally put an end to this struggle, which was both meaningless and hopeless.
As he entered the age of "knowing the will of heaven" (50), Pu Songling's financial situation gradually improved. At the age of 58 (1697), his "Liaozhai" (Studio of Leisure) was completed, though it wasn't called that at the time—it was named "Mianbi Ju" (The Face-the-Wall Study). This was because the room was so small that it could only fit a bed and two stools; as soon as one entered, one had to "face the wall."
In his spare time while tutoring at the Bi residence, besides continuing to write and polish Strange Tales, Pu Songling successively wrote many popular readings directly serving the farmers of his hometown, such as Everyday Vernacular Characters, Manual of Agriculture and Sericulture, Book of Medicinal Curses, and Calendar Text. In the preface to Manual of Agriculture and Sericulture, he stated, "The essential tasks of running a household are farming on the outside and sericulture on the inside," aiming to "ensure that silk-pants children (rich idlers) and book-clutching scholars all know the hardships of sowing and reaping." This demonstrates the elderly Pu Songling's emphasis on agriculture and reflects his further intellectual alignment with the peasantry.
Around the time Pu Songling turned 63, the Bi family bought a blind girl who could sing local folk songs to entertain Lady Wang, Bi Jiyou's wife, in celebration of her 80th birthday. The arrival of the blind girl delighted Pu Songling, who already loved creating local songs; his works now had a performer, and the annual birthday celebrations provided a larger audience. From the celebration of Lady Wang's 80th birthday in 1702 until Pu Songling left the Bi family in 1710, he wrote the most local songs of his life.
Liaozhai Local Songs differ from Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio. Strange Tales were primarily works from the author's middle and prime years, when he was full of hope and ideals regarding the civil service exams. Due to the coldness and darkness of reality, he had to seek kindred spirits and comfort among ghosts, foxes, and flower spirits; the works were filled with solitary indignation and loneliness, characterized by intense emotion and a romantic tone. Liaozhai Local Songs, on the other hand, were mostly written in the author's later years. By then, he had shifted his early passion for statecraft toward popularizing knowledge of daily life and agriculture, as well as preaching ethics and morality. Consequently, the emotions in the local songs are humorous and detached, and the tone leans towards realism. Although the local songs occasionally include works expressing personal feelings like The Happy Tune and The Poor Man's Song, or playful works like The Ugly and the Handsome, their main content is to "warn against vulgar customs and uphold moral teachings." As Pu Ruo pointed out in Account of the Gentleman of Liuquan: the popular local songs were meant to "break through the delusions of the rustic mediocre and greatly awaken the dreams of the market women," stemming from Pu Songling's "compassionate heart to save the world."
In 1710, Pu Songling, at the age of 71, ended his teaching career of nearly forty years and returned home. Much like sports competitions have consolation prizes, after struggling and competing in the examination arena for a lifetime, Pu Songling was "granted the status of a tribute student by special precedent," becoming a "Sui Jinshi" (Annual Graduate). That spring, Zichuan held a village drinking ceremony, and Pu Songling was selected as a guest of honor. The other two important members of the "Yingzhong Poetry Society," Zhang Liyou and Li Ximei, also participated. Having shared writing desks in their youth, meeting again in old age filled them with immense emotion. Pu Songling wrote a seven-character ancient poem, saying: "Recalling our wild singing and morning gatherings, we hoped to leap over the Dragon Gate. Who knew we would achieve nothing, and together become white-headed men at this banquet." It was a poignant summary of his lifelong pursuit of the civil service exams.
At the age of 74 (1713), his wife, Lady Liu, passed away, which was a severe blow to Pu Songling's spirit. Perhaps realizing that Pu Songling's vitality was waning and sensing that his end was near, his children and grandchildren invited the painter Zhu Xianglin to paint his portrait at the end of September that year. This portrait now hangs in the Pu Songling Memorial Hall in Zichuan, Shandong. In the painting, Pu Songling is dressed in the court attire of a tribute student, sitting upright in a chair. One hand rests on the armrest, while the other strokes his beard, as if he is lost in thought or perhaps telling a story to someone. The portrait shows that Pu Songling was tall and burly, possessing the imposing manner of a Shandong man, with high cheekbones, a large nose, and a face dotted with freckles. His eyes, however, shone with the brilliance of lightning under a cliff, flashing with intelligence. Pu Songling inscribed the portrait himself, saying: "Your appearance is plain, though your body is tall. You have lived seventy-four years, these twenty-five thousand and more days. What have you accomplished, that suddenly your head is white? Facing future generations of your descendants, this is a great shame." From this inscription, it is clear that Pu Songling was very dissatisfied with his life; his failure in the civil service exams always weighed on his mind, making him feel even ashamed.
Two years later, on the 22nd day of the first lunar month in 1715, Pu Songling finally leaned against the southern window of his Liaozhai studio and passed away peacefully in the afterglow of the setting sun.