SOURCE: "The Examination Syndrome in Liao-chai-chih-yi," in Tamkang Review, Vol. XIII, No. 4, Summer, 1983, pp. 367-96.

The following excerpt is taken from a biographical and critical essay relating P'u's stories about civil-service examinations to his own lifelong inability to pass the examination himself. The excerpted portion of the essay discusses examination stories that feature corrupt or incompetent administrators and those that feature retribution on the part of unsuccessful test-takers.

Sung-ling might have started collecting his strange stories just as a hobby or a time-killer to relax himself from teaching and preparation for all the examinations he took, yet in due course of time, while writing down the short stories he heard from his servants, friends, and neighbors, he came to realize the possibilities of employing them to criticize the society of his day and even give vent to his pent-up feelings. In a tyrannical society where realistic social criticism...