Painted Skin demon

Overview

In Pu Songling’s story as translated by Herbert A. Giles in1880, a man named Wang at T’ai-yüan shelters an apparently young runaway concubine in his library. Her account of mistreatment wins his sympathy, and he ignores both his wife’s caution and a Taoist priest’s warning. Looking secretly through the window, Wang discovers a green-faced devil with saw-like teeth painting a human skin spread upon the bed. It shakes out the skin and wears it like a garment, becoming the attractive visitor. The episode describes a particular deceiving being; it does not establish that every ghost or demon uses such a disguise.

The priest initially hesitates to injure the creature, suggesting that it seeks a substitute for itself, and gives Wang a fly-brush to hang at his bedroom door. The visitor first retreats from it, then returns, tears it apart and kills Wang by ripping out his heart. The priest subsequently tracks the being to Wang’s brother’s household, where it has obtained employment in an old woman’s guise. A blow makes its human skin fall away. The priest beheads the exposed devil with his wooden sword, then draws the resulting column of smoke into a gourd and seals it. The complete skin is rolled up separately. Neither disguise is a separately named creature.

The story continues beyond that capture. The priest explicitly cannot restore Wang and sends his widow to an apparently deranged man. She endures his abuse and swallows a repulsive pill; later, while tending her husband’s body, she expels a human heart into his wound. She closes and binds the wound, warms and rubs the body, and Wang revives by the following morning. His remaining scar eventually disappears. Giles’s note explains substitution through his interpretation of otherworldly rebirth, but this is editorial explanation, not proof of a universal system or a medical procedure. The unnamed demon is not identified as a fox in the passage.

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

   XII, The Painted Skin, volume I pp.76–84; electronic notes86–89; complete story and 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 — XII, The Painted Skin, volume I pp.76–84Research access: 2026-10-05

Image credits

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