Why a collection of ghost stories became the pinnacle of Chinese supernatural literature

Art · Published 3 October 2026 Swipe more like this →

In short: Pu Songling spent forty years crafting nearly five hundred tales of fox spirits and supernatural encounters. Though initially circulated only in private manuscripts, this work evolved into a cultural phenomenon that blurred the lines between reality and the uncanny, eventually earning its place as a masterpiece of world literature.

Written between the early 1670s and the early 1700s, Pu Songling’s Liaozhai zhiyi—or Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio—represents a landmark in the zhiguai and chuanqi traditions. Pu, a Qing dynasty writer, compiled these stories in his Studio of Leisure, creating a narrative space where the supernatural and the everyday coexist. Unlike conventional horror, these tales prioritize the philosophical concept of qing, exploring the deep emotional entanglements that bind both human and spirit worlds.

The work’s path to publication was complex. While Pu declined a significant offer of a thousand taels for his manuscript around 1693, the collection remained in private circulation until its first print edition in 1766. This Hangzhou edition, produced by Zhao Qigao, was heavily edited; Zhao admitted to removing dozens of stories he deemed dull and censoring passages he considered sensitive. The original manuscript, which once spanned twenty volumes, suffered further losses over time, with only four volumes surviving to be transferred to the Liaoning Provincial Library in 1950.

Liaozhai’s influence has been profound, sparking a nineteenth-century craze for wonder tales and inspiring countless adaptations in film and literature. However, its reception in the West was long colored by the 1880 translation of Herbert A. Giles. Critics have noted that Giles’s Victorian sensibilities led him to bowdlerize the text, stripping away sexual and visceral elements to suit contemporary morality. Modern scholars, such as John Minford and Tong Man, have critiqued these omissions, advocating for a re-evaluation of the work that honors Pu’s original, unvarnished intent.

Today, the collection is recognized as a pinnacle of ghost literature, praised by figures ranging from Guo Moruo to Jorge Luis Borges. Whether viewed as a biting satire of corruption or a profound act of self-expression, the stories remain a vital bridge between classical Chinese fiction and modern global imagination, continuing to challenge readers to perceive the strange within the mundane.

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