Reflections | How most famous Chinese horror story collection was written by a clerk
Pu Songling’s collection of 491 short stories included goblins, ghosts, immortals and fox spirits
I spent several days binge-watching all six seasons of the television series American Horror Story, and thoroughly enjoyed the nightmarish tales, blood and guts, high production values and an ensemble cast who took every opportunity to ham it up with undisguised relish.
The horror genre is a popular one in literature and film perhaps because it offers its connoisseurs a harmless outlet for their darkest impulses and imaginations.
The most famous anthology of Chinese horror stories is Liaozhai Zhiyi (Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio), completed during the Kangxi Emperor’s reign (1662-1722) by Pu Songling, a scholar who repeatedly failed the imperial examinations and spent the rest of his life as a private tutor and clerk.
Strange Tales, whose 491 short stories cover the pantheon of goblins, ghosts, immortals and fox spirits, was a collection of both Pu’s original creations and folk tales he had expanded upon.