A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.

Overview

In Giles’s translation of Pu Songling’s story, official demands for fighting crickets ruin the reluctant village beadle Ch‘êng. Guided by a fortune-teller’s picture, he finally finds an impressive insect. His nine-year-old son accidentally injures it fatally and disappears after his mother warns him of his father’s anger. The parents recover the boy from a well, initially believing him dead; he revives before burial but remains mentally impaired. The original cricket and the later supernatural champion are not assumed to be the same ordinary animal restored to life.

Ch‘êng then hears chirping and pursues what he initially takes for his lost cricket. He eventually finds a much smaller dark-red insect with a well-formed head and neck, which jumps into his sleeve. Despite its unimpressive size, it overpowers a neighbour’s champion and escapes a cock by fastening onto its comb. The magistrate tests both abilities before sending it upward through the provincial governor to the emperor. At court it defeats every rival and dances in time to music.

Rewards flow back through the same official chain that imposed the levy. Ch‘êng is relieved of his beadle duties, helped to obtain an academic degree and ultimately becomes wealthy. After several months his son recovers and says he has been the skilled fighting cricket. Giles’s explanatory note explicitly interprets this as the boy’s spirit entering and animating the insect while his human body remained impaired. The entry therefore distinguishes a spirit’s second embodiment from the disappearance or literal insect transformation of the whole human body. The successful ending does not erase the coercion and family suffering that produced the crisis.

01

Origins & earliest records

Pu Songling’s literary collection, in Giles’s selected English translation.

02

Records & interpretation

Complete English story, attached notes and translator introduction read. No independent Chinese-text collation.

Selected bibliography

Documented works and useful reading. This is not a list of every appearance.

  1. 01

    Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio

    Pu Songling; translated and annotated by Herbert A. Giles · 1880

    LXIV, The Fighting Cricket, volume II; electronic notes372–375; complete story and all four attached notes read. Chapter locator retained without asserting an unchecked printed-page span.

Family & connections

A source-supported family tree or inspiration record has not yet been compiled for this profile. Related reading below indicates a connection in subject matter, not a proven lineage or creative influence.

Primary records and illustrations

Complete English story and every attached note, including continuation paragraphs; complete translator introduction read.

Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio

Volume II, London: Thos. de la Rue,1880. LXIV, The Fighting Cricket, volume II; electronic notes372–375

Complete cache giles-story-064.txt, master giles-studio-43629.html. Notes372–375 fully extracted/read, note375 explicitly spirit-entry; previous missing parent-level footnote extraction corrected before acceptance. No Chinese collation or manuscript comparison.

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References

Sources supporting this profile. Linked pages have their own scope and editorial standards.

  1. Historical literary translationStrange Stories from a Chinese Studio — LXIV, The Fighting Cricket, volume II; electronic notes372–375Research access: 2026-10-06

Image credits

A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.

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