Pu Songling related stories

1. When Pu Songling was 5 years old, the Qing Dynasty entered the country, massacred the city in Yangzhou, suppressed the peasant uprising in Shandong, and many strange things happened, which all affected "Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio".

Pu Songling probably started writing "Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio" when he was working as a private school teacher after the family separation. His good friend Zhang Duqing discovered that Pu Songling's writing of "Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio" had affected the examiners, so he wrote a poem to persuade him to stop writing novels and concentrate on taking the exam. But Pu Songling didn't listen and kept writing. No matter what anecdotes his friends heard, he would understand them and write them into his works.

2. Pu Songling’s wife Liu was very virtuous. When Pu Songling went out to work as a tutor, his wife took care of the elderly at home and raised the children, living in a desolate old farm house. Wolves might run into the yard at night, so she would stay up all night spinning there. If there was any delicious food, she would keep it for Pu Songling. Sometimes, if she kept it for too long, it would spoil.

Such a good wife, but a poor wife and a poor wife. Therefore, some experts who studied Pu Songling found a clue that Pu Songling had a second wife. What is the basis?

There is an article "Inscription on Chen Shuqing's Portrait" in Pu Songling's collected works. This article says: The author of the article fell in love with Chen Shuqing freely, but their parents did not agree. In the end, the two eloped, and then it was a tragedy.

But experts soon verified that Chen Shuqing was ghostwritten by Pu Songling when he returned from the south and sat at the Wang family in Fengquan Township, Zichuan, for a man named Wang Minru. Pu Songling's so-called second wife no longer exists.

3. Pu Songling was very smart when he was a child. This year, Pu Songling's grandfather Pu Shengrui invited Liu Tiezui, a famous local Feng Shui master, to show him the tomb site and build a longevity tomb for him. When they came to the southeast slope of Liuquan, Liu Tiezui said that this place was backed by Hongshan Mountain and faced Liuquan. It was a treasure of geomantic omen. He also said that if Pu Shengrui was buried in this cave after his death, then his third Four generations of grandchildren can produce a generation of civil servants.

Pu Shengrui heard that occupying this graveyard would not make a fortune until the generation of his great-grandchildren, and he felt very dissatisfied. While he was hesitating, he suddenly heard Pu Songling say: "Grandpa, what are you afraid of when you reach the fourth generation? Let's move my grandfather's grave to this cave. In my generation, won't we be able to produce a generation of literary masters?" Pu Songling said. Before Shengrui could answer, Liu Tiezui pointed at Pu Songling and said to Pu Shengrui: "Okay, Pu Weng has come out, and your grandson is here!"

4. Pu Songling's father Pu Pan was also a well-known scholar in the local area. He was humorous by nature and often got together with some literati and bachelors, and they inevitably made fun of each other during chats. One day, the scholar Li Daosheng came to Pupan, and eight-year-old Pu Songling boiled water and made tea for the guests. Pu Pan and Li Daosheng chatted for a while, and then started having fun again.

I just heard Li Daosheng say: "One year there was a flood, and the ocean was vast, and the wells in the village were filled with water. After the flood receded, people went to fetch water and saw that the wells were full of toads - This is really a well full of toads, a well full of toads!" After Li Daosheng said this, he burst into laughter. Pujiazhuang was originally called Manjingzhuang. The implication of this sentence is that Manjingzhuang is full of toads.

Before Pu Pan could think of what to say in reply, he heard Pu Songling say: The day before yesterday, my second uncle’s cow gave birth to a calf. When other calves are born, they all give birth first. , and then the tail. I didn’t expect the second uncle’s calf to be born, but the tail was first, and then the head was born.

I asked my second uncle why this was happening, and he said: 'When a calf puts down its head first and then its tail, it is born smoothly; this calf puts down its tail first and then its head, it is born upside down (Taoist birth)!

This sentence made Li Daosheng laugh out loud. He patted Pu Songling's little head and praised him repeatedly: "This child is so smart at a young age, and his future will be limitless!"

5. Li Da, the east neighbor of Pu Songling's house, got drunk and got into a fight with someone and accidentally beat him to death. The county's Fang Dianshi led a group of gangsters and government officials to come to do an autopsy and arrest him. Fang Dianshi is a well-known cruel official in the county. He has long wanted to blackmail Pupan, but he has never succeeded.

This time Li Da accidentally killed someone, Fang Dianshi thought it was a God-given opportunity, so he asked the government officials to take Pu Pan to the county government as a witness in order to take the opportunity to blackmail him.

Pu Pan was furious and said: "Li Da kills people, what does it have to do with me?" Fang Dianshi said fiercely: "Li Da is your neighbor, how can you say it has nothing to do with you?" Pu Pan still wanted to say Defending, he suddenly saw Pu Songling squeeze out of the crowd, stepped forward and took his hand and said, "Dad, go and see, the house of Wang Jiu's house to the west is on fire!"

Fang Dianshi was about to After detaining a group of prisoners, they returned to the Yamen. When they saw a child running in to make trouble, they loudly reprimanded: "There is a fire in the west neighbor. What does it have to do with your house? Get out of here!" Pu Songling immediately said: "Master, the east neighbor is killing people. What does it have to do with my family?" After saying that, he took Pu Pan and walked home.

Fang Dianshi was speechless by the question and had to watch them go home.