Pu Sung-Ling

P’u Sung-Ling 

(pen name Liao-chai). Born 1640; died 1715. Chinese writer.

P’u Sung-ling wrote the popular collection Stories of Marvels From Liao’s Studio, containing about 500 short stories. He was also the author of tales (ku-tz’u) and popular plays (li-ch’üi). The plot of each short story in the collection contains something extraordinary and intricate, and miraculous forces intervene in the denouement. Each story’s events are evaluated by the author in a special summary. The stories satirically expose the practice of buying and selling ranks, the system of government examinations, and other abuses. Those stories that depict in Aesopic language the tyranny of the Manchu foreigners are imbued with patriotic feeling.

P’u Sung-ling’s collection was circulated in manuscript copies during the author’s lifetime, was published after his death, and was told and retold by folk narrators. It had a strong influence on the development of Chinese prose. Classical translations into Russian were made in the 1920’s and 1930’s by Academician V. M. Alekseev.

WORKS

Strange Stories From a Chinese Studio. Translated and annotated by H. A. Giles. New York-London, 1925.
Fiabe cinesi. Milan [1926].
P’u Sung-ling chih, vols. 1–2. Shanghai, 1962.
Liao-chai chih-i: Chang Yu-hao chi-chiao, vols. 1–3. Peking, 1963.
In Russian translation:
Novelly. Translated by N. Ustin and A. Faingar. Moscow, 1961.
Lis’i chary: Rasskazy Liao Chzhaia o chudesakh. Moscow, 1970.
Rasskazy Liao-Chzhaia o chudesakh. Translated by V. M. Alekseev. Moscow, 1973.

REFERENCES

Alekseev, V. M. “Tragediia konfutsianskoi lichnosti i mandarinskoi ideologii v novellakh Liao Chzhaia.” Izvestiia AN SSSR: Otdelenie obshchestvennykh nauk, 7th series, 1934, no. 6.
Ustin, P. M. “Pu Sun-lin—oblichitel’ man’chzhurskikh zavoevatelei.” In Man’chzhurskoe vladychestvo v Kitae. Moscow, 1966.
Voskresenskii, D. N. “Osobennosti kul’tury Kitaia v XVII veke i nekotorye novye tendentsii v literature.” In the collection XVII vek v mirovom literaturnom razvitii. Moscow, 1969.
Ladstätter, O. P’u Sung-ling: Sein Leben und seine Werke in Umgangssprache. Munich, 1960.

P. M. USTIN