"Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio" is a collection of classical Chinese short stories written by Pu Songling, a novelist in the Qing Dynasty. There are nearly five hundred chapters in the book. The content can be roughly divided into the following categories:
- Revealing the darkness of feudal rule: For example, "Promoting Weaving" tells the story of the Ming Dynasty's Xuande period. The emperor loved to fight to promote weaving, so the government assigned tasks to hand in promoting weaving. The protagonist became famous and could not afford to be recruited. Cricket was punished for his duties, and after his son died, he turned into promoting weaving. It was a blessing in disguise for the family; in "Xi Fangping", Xi Fangping tried to avenge his father who was killed by the officials of the underworld in collusion with the rich man. He went through many levels, including the city god, the county magistrate, and the king of hell.
- Opposition to feudal marriage etiquette: like in "Ying Ning", the scholar Wang Zifu and the fox girl Ying Ning fell in love after meeting at the Lantern Festival Lantern Festival. Ying Ning was innocent and loved to laugh. After returning home with the prince, she was scolded by her mother-in-law because the son of her west neighbor coveted beauty and set up a trap to kill each other, and she stopped laughing; "Qing Feng" describes the fox girl Qing Feng and Geng Qubing fell in love, regardless of etiquette and danger, and finally achieved happiness.
- Criticizing the decadence of the imperial examination system: Ye Sheng in "Ye Sheng" was "unparalleled in his essays and poems at that time", but he died of depression after repeatedly failing in the exams. His soul followed his confidant Ding Chenghe into the capital to teach Ding Zi. Ding Zi was in high school and Ye Sheng also passed the exam before he knew he was dead; "Si Wenlang" uses a blind monk to sniff and burn articles to judge the merits, which bitterly satirizes the examiner's lack of knowledge and skill.
- Praise for the spirit of resistance and struggle: In "Shang Sanguan", Shang Sanguan avenges his father, a woman disguises herself as a man and sneaks into the enemy's banquet and kills the enemy before committing suicide; in "Xiang Gao", Xiang Gao avenges his brother and transforms into a tiger to kill his enemy.
- Moral admonishment: "Pear Planting" warns people not to be stingy; "Painted Skin" warns people not to be fooled by appearances. Wang Sheng nearly died when he brought the painted-skinned ghost home because of his greed for beauty; "Laoshan Taoist" tells people not to do things halfway and not to show off.
Concept: The concept of "Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio" is profound and diverse, mainly reflected in:
- Criticism of social reality: profoundly expose the decadence and darkness of feudal rule through stories. "Promoting Weaving" used the emperor's love for fighting crickets, which led to the death of people's families in order to meet the collection tasks, showing the debauchery of the feudal ruling class and the miserable situation of the people at the bottom under the tyranny; "Xi Fangping" used the underworld to allude to the corruption and favoritism in the officialdom of the underworld, showing the dark reality of officials protecting each other.
- Promote the truth, goodness and beauty of human nature: depict many sincere love stories, such as the pure and simple love between Wang Zifu and Ying Ning in "Ying Ning", and the deep love between Qiao Sheng and Liancheng in life and death in "Liancheng", praising free love and the beauty of human nature. There are also many fox fairies and ghosts who appear as kind-hearted, affectionate and righteous characters. In "Red Jade", the fox girl Hong Yu helps Feng Xiangru overcome the difficulties in life, which reflects the warmth and mutual help of human nature.
- Reflection on feudal ethics: Against the constraints of feudal ethics on human nature. In "Ying Ning", Ying Ning is an innocent and laughing girl who no longer laughs freely due to the discipline of feudal ethics. This deeply reflects the suppression and distortion of beautiful human nature by feudal ethics.
- Satire on the shortcomings of the imperial examination: The scholar's story is used to criticize the corruption of the imperial examination system. In "Ye Sheng", Ye Sheng was talented but died in depression because of repeated failures in the imperial examination; in "Si Wenlang", the blind monk used his nose to smell articles to judge the merits, satirizing the examiners' blindness and failure to recognize true talents, and revealing the problems of the imperial examination system burying talents and unfair selection.