INTRODUCTION
The barest skeleton of a biography is all that can be formed from the very scanty materials which remain to mark the career of a writer whose work has been for the best part of two centuries as familiar throughout the length and breadth of China as are the tales of the "Arabian Nights" in all English-speaking communities. The author of "Strange Stories" was a native of Tzǔ-ch'uan, in the province of Shan-tung. His family name was P'u ; his particular name was Sung-ling ; and the designation or literary epithet by which, in accordance with Chinese usage, he was commonly known among his friends, was Liu-hsien, or "Last of the Immortals." A further fancy name, given to him probably by some enthusiastic admirer, was Liu-ch'üan, or "Willow Spring;" but he is now familiarly spoken of simply as P'u Sung-ling. We are unacquainted with the years of his birth or death ; however, by the aid of a meagre entry in the History of Tzǔ-Ch'uan it is possible to make a pretty good guess at the date of the former event. For we are there told that P'u Sung-ling successfully competed for the lowest or bachelor's degree before he had reached the age of twenty ; and that in 1651 he was in the position of a graduate of ten years' standing, having failed in the
interim to take the second, or master's, degree. To
xi
