Smelling Essays by Pu Songling
At a temple, a blind priest judges essays by smelling their smoke, approving Wang’s work and an old master’s essay but retching at a young scholar’s composition. When the young scholar passes the examination and Wang fails, the priest questions the examiners’ discernment and distinguishes composition from destiny.
By Pu Songling · Genre: Short Story, Satire, Supernatural Fiction · 663 words
First lines
Note on the title: The following extract from a long and otherwise tedious story tells its own tale. Wang is the modest man, and the young man from Yü-hang the braggart. Sung is merely a friend of Wang's.
Genres
- Short Story — A brief temple encounter develops into a reversal when examination results contradict the priest’s judgments.
- Satire — The priest’s disgust at a successful candidate’s essay makes the examiners’ literary judgment the target of the closing joke.
- Supernatural Fiction — The blind priest distinguishes literary merit by smelling the smoke of burning essays.
Tags
literary examinations · essay criticism · supernatural smell · boastfulness · satire
What this Textopian page supports
Smelling Essays is listed on Textopian as a short story by Pu Songling, dated Date unknown.
This source record anchors work identity, reading entry points, and catalog context for checking claims about the work.
- Work type: Short story
- Author: Pu Songling
- Date: Date unknown
- Language: English
- Genres: Short Story, Satire, Supernatural Fiction
- Length: 663 words
- Structure: 1 section, 3 paragraphs
- Reading fit: Standard (8th-9th Grade)
Good citation fit
- Work identity for Smelling Essays by Pu Songling
- Canonical title URL and first readable passage URL
- Genre and topic classification from the Textopian catalog
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