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Pu Songling (蒲松龄1640-1715) was a native of Zichuan County, Shandong Province. He lived during a time of unprecedented sharp class confrontation. Pu Songling was born to an impoverished landlord-merchant family and was constantly unsuccessful in the imperial examinations. He didn't passed the examination and win the title"gongsheng" until he was 71. His frustrations and indignation drovehim to pour out his feelings on paper.

Strange Tales of Liaozhai includes 431 short stories written inclassical Chinese. Its content falls into four parts:

(1) Exposing and satirizing of corrupt officials, despotic landlordsand the feudal political system represented by these figures. Stories belonging to this category are represented by "The Cricket" and "Xi Fangping." These stories not only lash out at the hypocritical ruling class and feudal bureaucracy, but also depict many indomitable and rebellious common people. The author despised the dark rule of the feudal system and praised the common people's fighting spirit with well-honed loveand hate.

(2) Severely criticizing the rigid and unjust official examination system. In "Siwenlang," "The Bookworm" and other stories, the author delineated the examiners' fatuity and greed, pointing out the shackling and corrosion of intellects' minds by the examination system, and at the same time condemned the malpractices in the examination rooms.

(3) Tributes to pure and faithful love between men and women, aswell as to those who strive for love. Representative stories of this category include "The Crow Head" and "Xihou." Strange Tales of Liao Zhai tells many stories about fox-fairies and flower goddesses falling in love with human beings. The author portrays many beautiful female characters ofnoble mind, such as Hongyu, Yingning, Qingieng, jiaona and Lianxiang.These women disregard the feudal code of ethics, express their feelings frankly and bravely pursue the improvement of women's status. The author extols and longs for true love between man and women. This kind of ideal held great progressive significance at the time.

(4) Expounding ethics and morals, with valuable educational significance, such as "The Painted Skin" and "The Taoist Priest ofLaoshan."

Strange Tales of Liaozhai is a progressive romantic work. Its romantic spirit is above all reflected in the characterization of positive figures,especially the images of flower goddesses and fox-fairies. Then it is also reflected in the adoption of romantic expressive methods, for examplein the plenty of made-up stories.

Characters in Strange Tales of Liaozhai are adeptly and well-roundedly portrayed. And the language in the novel is fluent, vivid,exaggerate and satirical. Its well-knit structure and intricate plot providea precious model and resource for writers of later period.