Strange Tales from Liaozhai: Ye Sheng (Scholar Ye) is a poignant tale centered on “unfulfilled talent”. Through scholar Ye’s journey — “struggling in life, lingering in death” — it depicts intellectuals’ spiritual torment under the imperial examination system while elevating “the debt of mentorship” to sacred heights.
Story Summary
In Life: Brilliant yet Repeatedly Failed
Scholar Ye, a gifted scholar acclaimed locally, suffers constant examination failure — not due to incompetence but cruel fate. When new prefect Ding Chenghao recognizes his genius and sponsors his studies, hope rekindles. Yet Ye fails again, falls ill from despair, and dies.
In Death: A Ghost’s Unyielding Devotion
Ye’s spirit, unaware of death, follows Ding. The prefect, unknowingly hosting a ghost, entrusts Ye to tutor his son Ding Zaichang. Ye pours his knowledge into the youth, who ascends to high office. Years later, upon visiting his derelict home, Ye learns from his wife that he died long ago, his corpse still unburied. Confronted with truth, Ye vanishes into dust, leaving only clothes. Moved, Ding Zaichang buries him honorably and greatly supports Ye’s son.
Allegorical Meaning
Critique of the Imperial Examination System:
Ye’s tragedy epitomizes “talent sabotaged by fate.” His student’s success via his guidance exposes the system’s absurdity: designed to select talent, it crushes it instead.
This mirrors Pu Songling’s own strife — failing exams for 50 years after becoming a xiucai (scholar) at 19.
Ye’s “posthumous mentorship” screams injustice: only in death can his genius “succeed,” revealing a “world upside down.”
The Sacred Debt of Mentorship:
Ding’s recognition becomes Ye’s “spiritual lifeline.” Even as a ghost, Ye repays this “mentor’s grace”, reflecting scholars’ desperate need for validation when examinations reject them. Ye’s lingering spirit embodies the craving “to be seen” — fulfilled only through another’s success.
Obsession with Merit: The Scholar’s Spiritual Trap:
Ye’s “undying pursuit of fame” — coaching exams even as a ghost — exposes how the system warps scholars’ souls. They equate self-worth solely with merit, walking the path “to the bitter end.”
Pu’s attitude is complex: sympathetic to Ye’s plight yet sighing at his delusion. Ye’s dissolution underscores the “vanity of merit-obsession” — victory through another remains “emptiness.”
Immortality of the Spirit:
Though dead, Ye’s legacy lives through Ding Zaichang’s career and his writings passed through ages. This spiritual transcendence asserts that true worth outlasts examination failure — offering solace to scholars via “enduring words” and “moral deeds”.
Pu Songling’s Parallel Journey:
Like Ye Sheng(Scholar Ye), Pu found refuge in mentorship. In 1679 (aged 40), after repeated exam failures, he became a tutor for the Bi family of Zichuan for 30 years. The Bi patriarch, Bi Jiyou, supported his writing of Liaozhai, providing stories and co-drafting tales — a real-life echo of Ding’s “recognition” for Ye.
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