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Overview
Kung meets Miao at an inn on the road to an examination. Tall and noble yet coarse, Miao drinks heavily and grips Kung's arm painfully while urging him to drink. When Kung's horse collapses, Miao carries it on his back for six or seven miles to another inn.
Miao later joins a literary picnic on Flowery Hill, bringing wine and ham. Verse-capping and mutual praise of examination essays anger him; he roars, crawls on all fours and becomes a tiger, killing everyone except Kung and Chin. The story offers no general lineage of humans turning into tigers.
Three years on, Chin meets the slain scholar Chi, now Miao's enslaved ghost, who asks for a replacement victim in scholar's robes. Chin refuses, but Chiang overhears and plots to sacrifice his examination rival Yu. A prefect's visit forces Chiang to borrow Yu's formal clothes, and the tiger takes Chiang instead.
Origins & earliest records
Literary narrative by Pu Songling, attested here in the 1880 Giles translation. This is neither an origin date nor proof of an oral source.
Records & interpretation
Giles, Volume I, story XLV, The Tiger Guest, pp. 330–335.
Selected bibliography
Documented works and useful reading. This is not a list of every appearance.
- 01
Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio
Selected bibliography; public-domain English translation by Giles.
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.
- Primary text, public-domain translationStrange Stories from a Chinese Studio, volumes I and II (plain text)Research access: 2026-10-06
- Catalogue recordStrange Stories from a Chinese Studio, Project Gutenberg catalogue recordResearch access: 2026-10-06
Image credits
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