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Overview

Meng Lung-t'an and Chu visit a small monastery with life-like murals. On the eastern wall Chu fixes on a smiling girl picking flowers, her hair loose in maidenly style. He seems to float through the wall into halls filled with Buddhist preaching. There she beckons him to a room and, in this translation, they worship heaven and earth as a marriage rite.

For two days she returns to him. Her companions discover the visitor, tease her about marriage and pin her hair into a married coiffure. An armed, black-faced inspector with chains and whips then comes searching for mortals. The companions deny hiding anyone, while the bride conceals Chu under her bed and escapes through a lattice.

Outside, the priest taps the wall and calls Chu, who appears in the painting and then returns bodily, trembling. The painted bride now wears her changed hairstyle. The priest says visions originate in the viewer, leaving the encounter unsettled between real passage and imagination. Her ties are to Chu, her painted companions, the inspector and the mediating priest.

Smiling young human-like woman picking flowers, with moist eyesHair shifts from maidenly to married style with ornamentsNo wings, animal body or separately named kind
01

Origins & earliest records

Literary narrative by Pu Songling, attested here in the 1880 Giles English translation. This attestation is not an origin date.

02

Records & interpretation

Giles, Volume I, story III, The Painted Wall, pp. 9–13.

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

    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.

  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, Project Gutenberg 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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