Pu Songling

Pu Songling (simplified Chinese: 蒲松龄; traditional Chinese: 蒲松齡; pinyin: Pú Sōnglíng; Wade–Giles: P'u² Sung¹-ling², 5 June 1640 – 25 February 1715) was a Qing Dynasty Chinese writer, best known as the author of Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio.

Biography

Pu was born into a poor merchant family from Zichuan (淄川, in Zibo, Shandong). At the age of 18, he received the Xiucai degree in the civil service examination; it was not until he was 71 that he was awarded the Gongsheng degree for his achievement in literature rather than for passing the Imperial examinations.

He spent most of his life working as a private tutor, collecting the stories that were later published in Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio in 1740. Some critics attribute the Vernacular Chinese novel Xingshi Yinyuan Zhuan to him.

Translations of his work