This essay interprets Liaozhai’s Ghosts Weeping against the Xie‑Qian Rebellion. It analyzes turncoat official Wang Qixiang, arguing Pu Songling uses ghosts to satirize worldly power and stress that virtue outweighs secular authority.
From Liaozhai, set after the Xie‑Qian rebellion’s massacre, this tale tells how official Wang Qixiang’s house gets haunted. Ghosts mock his worldly power; only a Buddhist Water‑and‑Land ritual pacifies these aggrieved spirits.