The Vernacular World of Pu Songling

Popular Literature and Manuscript Culture in Late Imperial China

Series: 

Author:
Zhenzhen Lu
This study presents a lively world of vernacular writing from Zichuan, Shandong, the home region of Pu Songling (1640–1715). Based on Keio University’s Liaozhai Collection, it examines a world of local reading and writing through the manuscripts of village scholars, including those of a topolectal primer and various song-narratives attributed to the author famed for his classical tales Liaozhai zhiyi.
The study sheds light on intertwined realms of local textual transmission, the place of manuscript culture in ordinary literary life, and the role of language and locality in shaping the plural literatures of late imperial China.
Copyright Year:
2025
E-Book (PDF)
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Published
ISBN:
978-90-04-74003-7
Publication:
18 Aug 2025
Hardback
Availability:
Published
ISBN:
978-90-04-69681-5
Publication:
28 Aug 2025
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Zhenzhen Lu received her PhD from the University of Pennsylvania and is Assistant Professor of Chinese at Bates College.
Acknowledgments IX
List of Maps and Figures V
List of Tables VII
Conventions VIII

General Introduction

1 Pu Songling and Beyond
 1.1 Introduction
 1.2 The World of Pu Songling
 1.3 The Author as a Scribe
 1.4 A History of Collecting

2 A Corpus from Zichuan
 2.1 Introduction
 2.2 Beyond Authorship
 2.3 An Overview of the Keio Collection
 2.4 A Local Manuscript Culture
 2.5 Vernacular Writings

3 A Pocket Anthology
 3.1 Introduction
 3.2 A Scholar’s Notebook
 3.3 Games with Words
 3.4 A Drum Ballad and Two Texts on Poverty
 3.5 Songs on Love and Longing

4 The Rustic Song-Narratives in Reading and Performance
 4.1 Introduction
 4.2 A Vernacular Oeuvre
 4.3 The Manuscripts
 4.4 Colloquial Landscapes
 4.5 A Rustic World

5 Vernacular Adaptations
 5.1 Introduction
 5.2 From Tales to Song-Narratives
 5.3 A Ballad on A Life Divine
 5.4 Legend of the Tribulations of Zhang Hongjian
 5.5 Imagined Histories

6 Riyong suzi: a Village Primer
 6.1 Introduction
 6.2 The Literature of Assorted Characters
 6.3 Books from the Keio Collection
 6.4 Local Sounds and Unruly Scripts
 6.5 On “Boar” and “Butt”
 6.6 A Book for Daily Use

Conclusion

Appendix 1: The Backside of Pu Songling’s Tombstone

Appendix 2: Extant Manuscripts in Pu Songling’s Hand

Appendix 3: The Former Collection of Hirai Masao at Keio University

Appendix 4: Notebooks in the Keio Collection

Appendix 5: “Scholar Zhang”: a Tale from Liaozhai zhiyi

Bibliography

Index
students and scholars of Chinese literature, language and script, popular culture, local history, and book history.
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