Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio

"Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio" is a collection of short stories written by Pu Songling in the Qing Dynasty. It is full of all kinds of strange stories, many of which are related to monsters, ghosts, fox fairies and elves. Although it talks about gods and ghosts, it actually reflects all kinds of human beings. The stories in the book cover a wide range of topics. Some stories revealed the darkness of feudal rule at that time, such as "Promoting Weaving", which tells that during the Xuande period of the Ming Dynasty, the emperor loved to fight crickets, so the government assigned the task of turning in crickets. The protagonist becomes famous and cannot afford to be recruited, so he is beaten to death by the government. A family managed to catch one, but the son accidentally killed it. The son was so scared that he committed suicide by throwing himself into a well. After his death, he turned into a powerful cricket. It was thanks to this cricket that the family got out of trouble. This clearly demonstrated the ugly face of the feudal ruling class in oppressing the people. Some stories criticize the decadence of the imperial examination system. Pu Songling himself suffered deeply from the imperial examination, so his writing is particularly profound. For example, in "Ye Sheng", Ye Sheng was particularly talented, and his writing and poetry were outstanding at the time, but he never passed the exam. Later, he met his confidant Ding Chenghe. With the help of Ding Chenghe, his article was appreciated by others, but then he realized that he had died long ago. Everything that happened before was experienced by his soul, which profoundly exposed the burying of talents by the imperial examination system. There are also many stories about love, about young men and women rebelling against feudal ethics and pursuing free love. Like "Ying Ning", the scholar Wang Zifu falls in love with Ying Ning at first sight. Ying Ning is a fox girl who is innocent and loves to laugh. She and Wang Zifu fell in love, but because of