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

Overview

In the brief account translated by Giles in1880, Li of I-tu encounters a drinking party while crossing hills. The company welcomes him and offers costly food, although its wine tastes rough. A stranger then arrives wearing a very tall hat and having a face about three feet long. The drinkers call him the hill spirit and flee; Li hides in a hole. The text provides no personal name, genealogy or explanation for the exaggerated face.

When Li looks out, the food and wine have vanished, leaving dirty pottery fragments and broken tiles with small reptiles moving over them. The story does not explicitly equate each reptile with a former guest. Giles adds a sceptical note suggesting that Li had drunk too much before setting out. That annotation remains distinct from the narrated encounter: neither a confirmed supernatural species nor an established diagnosis follows from this short witness.

01

Origins & earliest records

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

02

Records & interpretation

Complete account and attached notes read; full translator introduction and transcriber notice checked.

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

    Volume II, p.137; XC, The Spirit of the Hills; electronic note471; complete account and notes read.

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 account and attached notes read; relevant cross-referenced notes also inspected where listed.

Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio

London: Thos. de la Rue,1880, two volumes. II, p.137; XC, The Spirit of the Hills; electronic note471

Cache giles-story-090.txt; master giles-studio-43629.html. Global research-name/motif dedup performed. Chinese text not collated; no independent historical verification of narrated incidents.

Inspect the digitized plate · Source collection manifest

References

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

  1. Historical literary translationStrange Stories from a Chinese Studio — II, p.137; XC, The Spirit of the Hills; electronic note471Research access: 2026-10-05

Image credits

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

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