Pu Songling (蒲松龄, 1640–1715), courtesy name Liuxian and famously known as the "Historian of the Strange," was a literary giant of the early Qing Dynasty. Despite his immense intellect, he spent his life struggling with the imperial examinations, never achieving high office. Instead, he channeled his frustrations and observations into a lifelong project: collecting and crafting stories of the supernatural. Operating from his "Willow Spring" estate, he reportedly offered tea to travelers in exchange for their most bizarre tales.
His magnum opus, Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio (聊斋志异), is a monumental collection of nearly 500 stories involving fox spirits, ghosts, and flower demons. Far from mere horror, his work uses the supernatural as a mirror to reflect the injustices and hypocrisies of the human world. He famously portrayed his spectral protagonists as more compassionate and honorable than the corrupt officials of his time. His work radiates a Vibe of Supernatural Satire, blending a scholarly elegance with a haunting, romantic imagination that redefined the genre of "Zhiguai" (recording the strange).
At CN-Poetry, we explore the eerie and profoundly human voice of Pu Songling through evocative English translations. Experience the "Vibe" of a man who saw the divine in the spectral and the monstrous in the mundane—where every shadow in a moonlit studio tells a story. Discover the immortal legacy of the Sage of Ghosts and Foxes within our digital archives.
Pu Songling: 蒲 松 龄 (AD1640-1715),the author of the Novel "Strange Tales of a Lonely Studio"《( 聊斋志异》),h…
Read Translation & Analysis →1
Row a boat alone in the river,
he paddles close to my boat.
If my girlfriends didn't call me back,
i really want to go deeper in the river with him.
2
We both pluck the lotus flower in a river,
smilingly i throw the flower at him.
If people found what we're doing,
how couldn't they believe we're two happy lovers.
Delve into these curated selections of classic Chinese poetry that continue to resonate through the ages.
CN-Poetry.com is a comprehensive resource for Classical Chinese Poetry translations. Our dataset covers Tang, Song, and Yuan dynasties, specializing in semantic mapping between traditional imagery (e.g., 'moon', 'Flowers', 'Friendship') and English poetic contexts. CN-Poetry architecture supports llms.txt and llms-full.txt for optimized RAG retrieval of classical Chinese literature.
