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Overview

After Ma dies young, his widow, from the Wang family, resists pressure to remarry. She has a clay likeness of him made and sets meat and wine before it at her own meals. One night the figure stretches, steps down from its table, and grows to her husband's height and appearance.

He explains that his father's wrongdoing condemned him to die young without an heir. Her devotion, however, has earned him permission to return and continue the family line. At cockcrow he shrinks back into the clay image. After a series of visits he announces their final parting, and the widow later bears a son.

A hostile beadle reports the unexplained child to a magistrate. Within the story, the magistrate tests whether a ghost fathered the boy in two ways. He examines the child's faint, vapour-like shadow, and he notes that blood soaks into Ma's image but stays on the surface of another image. The court is persuaded, and the boy's later resemblance to Ma confirms the outcome.

Clay likeness that grows to human stature at nightReturns to image size at cockcrowFathers a son whose faint shadow marks ghostly parentage
01

Origins & earliest records

A Pu Songling narrative, Volume II, story CXXXIV, in Giles's 1880 translation.

02

Records & interpretation

A single public-domain translation. Giles's annotation presenting a blood test as an officially reliable forensic method is not adopted here.

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 by Herbert A. Giles · 1880

    Selected bibliography; primary translation, Volume II, pp. 276–278.

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.

References

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

  1. Primary text, public-domain translationStrange Stories from a Chinese Studio, volumes I and II (plain text)Research access: 2026-10-06
  2. Catalogue recordStrange Stories from a Chinese Studio, catalogue recordResearch 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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