Pu Songling

Pu Songling (Chinese: 蒲松齡, 5 June 1640 – 25 February 1715) was a Qing dynasty Chinese writer, best known as the author of Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio (Liaozhai zhiyi).

Biography

Pu was born into a poor merchant family from Zichuan (淄川, in Zibo, Shandong). At the age of 18, he received the Xiucai degree in the Imperial examination; it was not until he was 71 that he was awarded the Gongsheng degree for his achievement in literature rather than for passing the Imperial examinations.

He spent most of his life working as a private tutor, collecting the stories that were later published in Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio in 1740. Some critics attribute the Vernacular Chinese novel Xingshi Yinyuan Zhuan to him.

Translations of his work

• Strange Tales from Liaozhai (tr. Sidney L. Sondergard). Jain Pub Co., 2008. ISBN 978-0-89581-001-4.
• Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio (tr. John Minford). London: Penguin, 2006. 562 pages. ISBN 0-14-044740-7.
• Strange Tales from the Liaozhai Studio (Zhang Qingnian, Zhang Ciyun and Yang Yi). Beijing: People's China Publishing, 1997. ISBN 7-80065-599-7.
• Strange Tales from Make-do Studio (Denis C. & Victor H. Mair). Beijing: Foreign Languages Press, 1989.
• Strange Tales of Liaozhai (Lu Yunzhong, Chen Tifang, Yang Liyi, and Yang Zhihong). Hong Kong: Commercial Press, 1982.
• Strange Stories from the Lodge of Leisure (George Soulie). London: Constable, 1913.
• Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio (tr. Herbert A. Giles). London: T. De La Rue, 1880. ISBN 1-4212-4855-7.

Movies

• The Knight of Shadows: Between Yin and Yang 2019, Jackie Chan as Pu Songling