Nieh Hsiao-ch’ien

Overview

Nieh Hsiao-ch’ien is the dead young woman who seeks release from coercive spirits in Pu Songling’s story, titled The Magic Sword in Giles’s1880 translation. Ning Lai-ch’ên encounters her while lodging at a neglected temple. After he rejects her approach and offered gold, she reveals that she died at eighteen and was buried nearby. A devil took control of her and compelled her to entice travellers. She distinguishes that deception from the subsequent killing: spirits pierce victims’ feet and drain blood, while another lure uses false gold. The account does not simply describe Hsiao-ch’ien as a willing blood-drinker.

She warns Ning to remain near his fellow lodger Yen Ch’ih-hsia and asks him to remove her bones to safety. Yen’s small magical sword wounds an approaching being during the night; he later identifies himself as a Taoist priest. Ning finds the indicated grave beneath an aspen with a bird’s nest and reburies Hsiao-ch’ien near his own home. She follows to thank him and offers to serve his mother. The mother initially fears a ghost-wife, and Hsiao-ch’ien accepts a daughter-like position in the household instead. Her fear of Yen’s protective sword-case also initially prevents her entering Ning’s library.

Her daily care gradually earns the mother’s trust. After months without food she begins taking a little gruel, and others cease noticing a difference between her and a living woman. Only after Ning’s sick wife dies does his mother arrange their marriage, reassured by Hsiao-ch’ien’s prediction that the family will have three sons. She becomes known for flower paintings given to relatives. These changes belong to this character’s narrated accommodation to human life, not a universal account of how ghosts acquire bodies or a claim that the first wife was killed by her.

Later Hsiao-ch’ien fears that the temple devil will pursue her and asks for the sword-case to be hung nearby, explaining that surrounding life has reduced her former fear of it. A glaring, bloody-mouthed attacker approaches at night and tries to seize the case. It expands enormously, another being partly emerges from within and drags the attacker inside; afterwards only clear water remains. Hsiao-ch’ien regards her danger as ended. The conclusion gives her two sons by Ning, with a third born to his concubine, all later distinguished. The successive uses of the sword and its case are related protective episodes but are not the same narrated action.

Origins & earliest records

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

Records & interpretation

Complete English story and attached and referenced notes read.

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 I, XVI, The Magic Sword, pp.124–135; electronic notes121–125 and referenced80/115/119; complete story and notes read.

Family & connections

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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 — The Magic SwordResearch access: 2026-10-05

Image credits

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