Pu Songling

Also known as Zi Liuxian · Hao Liu Quan Ju Shi

Pu Songling, courtesy name Liuxian, also Jianchen, styled himself the Retired Scholar of Willow Spring and came from Zichuan in Shandong. In 1658, aged nineteen, he took first place in the county, prefectural and circuit tests and was praised by the education commissioner Shi Runzhang, but he then failed the provincial examination again and again. He spent about a year in the south as secretary to Sun Hui, magistrate of Baoying, and afterwards worked for over thirty years as a tutor in the household of Bi Jiyou in his home county. From stories he collected he wrote Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio (Liaozhai zhiyi), adding to it after writing its preface in 1679, and he also left folk songs and miscellaneous works. Only in his seventies did he become a tribute student, and he died in February 1715. The Tales circulated in manuscript until Zhao Qigao printed the Qingketing edition at Yanzhou in 1766.