WRITER

Pu Songling

1640 - 1715

Photo of Pu Songling

Icon of person Pu Songling

Pu Songling (Chinese: 蒲松齡, 5 June 1640 – 25 February 1715) was a Chinese writer during the Qing dynasty, best known as the author of Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio (Liaozhai zhiyi). Read more on Wikipedia

Since 2007, the English Wikipedia page of Pu Songling has received more than 215,017 page views. His biography is available in 30 different languages on Wikipedia (up from 27 in 2019). Pu Songling is the 1,075th most popular writer (up from 1,145th in 2019), the 302nd most popular biography from China (up from 313th in 2019) and the 22nd most popular Chinese Writer.

Pu Songling is most famous for his work "Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio."

Memorability Metrics

  • 220k

    Page Views (PV)

  • 61.17

    Historical Popularity Index (HPI)

  • 30

    Languages Editions (L)

  • 5.33

    Effective Languages (L*)

  • 2.70

    Coefficient of Variation (CV)

Notable Works

Strange Tales from Ancient China
Literary Collections
Strange tales of Taoist devilry and magic combine with scenes of Chinese life.
1989
Liao zhai zhi yi
1869
More Strange Tales from China
Literary Criticism
Strange tales of Taoist devilry and magic combine with scenes of Chinese life.
1994
Strange Tales From Make-do Studio
Literary Collections
Strange Tales from Make-Do Studio is a famous collection of about 500 short stories by Pu Songling (1640 - 1715), a writer of the Qing Dynasty. Fifty-one stories are selected for this English edition. These stories cover a wide range of subjects, such as werefoxes and fish spirits and ghosts and monsters that are personified. Like human beings, they have feelings of good and evil, beauty and ugliness, love and hatred as well as happiness and discontent. These mystical stories reflect the social life of the time in which they were written. Living under a feudal monarchy, the writer had to criticize the unfairness of the feudal system and express his indignation by writing of fox spirits and monsters. Although most of these stories are progressive and written with a critical slant, some of them still have ideas of feudal superstition and fatalism. The stories in Strange Tales from Make-Do Studio are written in simple and straightforward language, but they are highly structured with complicated plots that often employ the technique of combining illusion with reality. Some of these stories are based on popular folk legends and thus have a plain, folksy style. The ideological and artistic achievements of Strange Tales from Make-Do Studio have greatly influenced later novels and operas.
2001
Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio
2015
100 passages from strange stories of Liaozhai
1998

Among WRITERS

Among writers, Pu Songling ranks 1,075 out of 7,302. Before him are Diana Wynne Jones, Dionysius Thrax, Robert Graves, Elsa Morante, Nikolai Leskov, and Georg Kaiser. After him are Charles Péguy, John Malalas, Jean Giono, Alfred Thayer Mahan, Charles-Ferdinand Ramuz, and Garcilaso de la Vega.

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Contemporaries

Among people born in 1640, Pu Songling ranks 6. Before him are Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor, Philippe I, Duke of Orléans, Man in the Iron Mask, Françoise-Athénaïs de Rochechouart, Marquise de Montespan, and Michał Korybut Wiśniowiecki. After him are La Voisin, Monsieur de Sainte-Colombe, Gaspar Sanz, Aphra Behn, Antoine Coysevox, and Barbara Palmer, 1st Duchess of Cleveland. Among people deceased in 1715, Pu Songling ranks 11. Before him are Dom Pérignon, Antoine Galland, Marie Mancini, William Dampier, Thomas Savery, and Hedwig Eleonora of Holstein-Gottorp. After him are Charlotte Christine of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, François Girardon, Mirwais Hotak, Pierre Magnol, Joseph Raphson, and Nicolas Lemery.

Others Born in 1640

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Others Deceased in 1715

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In China

Among people born in China, Pu Songling ranks 302 out of 1,610. Before him are Ma Teng (156), Taishi Ci (166), Dong Zhongshu (-179), Ge Hong (284), Yuan Chonghuan (1584), and Emperor Duzong (1240). After him are Xiahou Yuan (200), Fan Li (-500), Xi Zhongxun (1913), Emperor Zhang of Han (57), Emperor Jingzong of Liao (948), and Xu Chu (200).

Others born in China

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Among WRITERS In China

Among writers born in China, Pu Songling ranks 22. Before him are Tao Yuanming (365), Jin Yong (1924), Ban Gu (32), Zhang Sanfeng (1200), Ouyang Xiu (1007), and Cai Yan (177). After him are Shi Nai'an (1296), Lao She (1899), Meng Haoran (690), Lu Yu (733), Bei Dao (1949), and Lin Yutang (1895).

Chinese born Writers

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