Pu Songling (1640–1715) was a Chinese writer of the early Qing dynasty, best known for Liaozhai zhiyi, commonly translated as Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio. Born in Zichuan, Shandong Province, into a declining gentry family, he received a classical education and passed the lowest level of the civil-service examinations but repeatedly failed to gain a higher official degree. He therefore spent much of his life as a private tutor, schoolmaster, and literary dependent of wealthier families. Pu Songling wrote poetry, essays, plays, and vernacular works, but his lasting reputation rests on Liaozhai zhiyi, a large collection of supernatural and satirical tales. Its stories feature ghosts, fox spirits, demons, scholars, corrupt officials, unlucky lovers, and ordinary people confronting an unjust social order. Although fantastical in form, the collection sharply criticizes examination culture, bureaucratic corruption, social hypocrisy, and restrictions on personal freedom, especially in love and marriage. Pu Songling died in 1715, and his major collection achieved wide recognition after its posthumous publication.
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