Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio: Wang Liulang (Wang, the Sixth) centers on the trans-life friendship between the fisherman Xu and the water ghost Wang Liulang.
Strange Tales from Liaozhai Studio features numerous tales of scholars and imperial examinations. Though plots vary, they consistently orbit the core theme of “scholars’ fraught destinies under the examination system,” refracting the psychological and existential crises of ancient literati beneath its crushing weight.
There was a man named Xu who lived outside the north gate of Zichuan in Shandong Province and made a living by fishing.
Sun Taibai once relayed a story about his great-grandfather, who had studied at Liugou Temple in the southern mountains.