Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio, Vol. 1

To the European eye, I claim only as much authority as is due to the opinion of one qualified observer who can have no possible motive in deviating ever so slightly from what his own personal experience has taught him to regard as the truth.

II.—BIOGRAPHICAL

The barest skeleton of a biography is all that can be formed from the very scanty materials which remain to mark the career of a writer whose work has been for the best part of two centuries as familiar throughout the length and breadth of China as are the tales of the Arabian Nights in all English-speaking communities. The author of Strange Stories was a native of Tzü-chou, in the province of Shan-tung. His family name was P‘u; his given name was Sung-ling; and the designation or literary epithet by which, in accordance with Chinese usage, he was commonly known among his friends was Liu-hsien, or “Last of the Immortals.” A further fancy name, given to him probably by some enthusiastic admirer, was Liu-ch‘üan, or “Willow Spring”; but he is now familiarly spoken of simply as P‘u Sung-ling. We are unacquainted with the years of his birth or death; however, with the aid of a meager entry in the History of Tzü-chou, it is possible to make a pretty good guess at