Miss Tsêng, the returning and reborn spirit

Overview

In Giles’s translation of Pu Songling’s story, Miss Tsêng is the daughter of a magistrate from San-han. Chang Yü-tan sees her hunting shortly before her sudden death, and her coffin is temporarily placed in the temple where he studies. After six months of offerings and prayers, she appears to thank him and becomes a regular evening visitor. She asks him to recite the Diamond Sutra 5,048 times. When he carries her, she is as light as a child; she can travel only at night. Giles’s note, rather than the main narrative alone, explains that she is invisible to everyone except Chang. These are properties of this particular returning spirit, not universal rules for Chinese ghosts.

After several years, Chang helps her impoverished father obtain burial ground. Miss Tsêng then announces that the recitations are complete and that she will be born into the family of Mr. Lu of Ho-pei. She fixes a reunion fifteen years later and departs in a carriage. The daughter subsequently born to Lu speaks from birth, remembers her former life and refuses other matches. The narrative treats her as the same person across death and rebirth. Meanwhile Chang’s religious dreams lead to bodily rejuvenation, complicating the promised recognition; his existing sons and first wife belong to his living household and are not presented as children or relatives of the ghost.

The Lu parents initially prevent Chang’s admission. When they finally meet him, their daughter fails to recognize his youthful appearance and believes she is being deceived. She dies of grief, then appears in Chang’s dream asking him to summon her spirit from a small street shrine. Although her body has been dead for two days, the summons and lamentation are followed by movement and recovery. She marries Chang, and the ending continues through her father’s visit and death and the couple’s support for her injured younger brother. This second return is revival of the Lu daughter’s body, distinct from the earlier rebirth into that family. The translation’s religious vocabulary and explanatory notes remain Giles’s nineteenth-century mediation; no independent Chinese-text collation is claimed.

Origins & earliest records

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

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

   XXXIII, Chang’s Transformation, volume I; electronic notes202–210; complete narrative and all nine attached 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

References

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

1. Historical literary translationStrange Stories from a Chinese Studio — XXXIII, Chang’s Transformation, volume I; electronic notes202–210Research access: 2026-10-06

Image credits

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