From Liaozhai, lazy yet upright Wang Cheng returns a fox‑spirit’s golden hairpin. The kind fox gives him startup funds. After business misfortunes, he strikes fortune with a victorious fighting quail and thrives under the fox’s strict guidance.
Mencius draws a parallel: ample wealth safeguards people through famines, while abundant inner virtue shields one from moral confusion amid chaotic, corrupt eras, highlighting spiritual cultivation as humanity’s lasting anchor.
When people grow up in the households of wealthy families, their love of luxury and covetousness are like a raging fire, and their reliance on their power is like a searing flame.
A person who shuns power, wealth and luxury is clean. But a man who comes into contact with power, wealth and luxury and still remains unsullied is even cleaner.
“The Treasury Official” is a concise yet profound short story from Strange Tales from Liaozhai (Liaozhai Zhiyi). Through the mysterious figure of a “Treasury Official of the Netherworld,” it showcases Pu Songling’s philosophical reflections on fate, wealth, and the vicissitudes of life.
There was a scholar in Binzhou, Shandong Province. One day,he was reading in his studio when there was a knock at the door. He answered it and saw a white-haired old man in plain clothes. The scholar let him in and asked his name.
In Strange Tales from Liaozhai: The Daoist Priest, a ragged Daoist priest befriends Scholar Han — a nobleman fond of hosting banquets — and his neighbor Xu.