Ying-ning, the laughing girl

Overview

In Giles’s translation of Pu Songling’s tale, Wang Tzŭ-fu falls in love with Ying-ning after seeing her at the Lantern Festival. His cousin Wu invents a family connection and a location to encourage him, but Wang’s subsequent search unexpectedly brings him to the smiling girl and an elderly woman in a secluded household. The old woman welcomes him as a relative and describes Ying-ning as the daughter of her late husband’s concubine. The hospitality and apparent kinship are later reconsidered when Wang’s family recognizes that the elderly hostess has long been dead.

Ying-ning herself ultimately explains that her mother was a fox who entrusted her to the dead woman’s spirit for more than ten years. The maid Hsiao-jung was also a fox, but is a separate individual, not another guise of Ying-ning. Her father is named Ch‘in. Wang’s family initially suspects Ying-ning herself is a disembodied spirit, yet her visible shadow weighs against that explanation within the story. Her fox parentage does not require a witnessed fox-body transformation: none is narrated for her.

After her marriage to Wang, Ying-ning’s laughter lightens household tensions, although her passion for flowers and climbing trees draws criticism. A neighbour interprets her gestures as an invitation to meet. At night he thinks he finds her, but grasps a log instead and is stung by a scorpion; he dies that night. The family’s accusation of witchcraft is dismissed by a magistrate favourable to Wang. The episode does not explicitly turn Ying-ning into either the wood or the scorpion. After her mother-in-law’s reprimand, she stops laughing despite efforts to amuse her.

Her later tears reveal concern for the foster-mother’s neglected remains. Wang accompanies her to the hidden grave and brings the bones home for burial in the Ch‘in family vault. The dead woman thanks him in a dream; Ying-ning says she too has seen her and explains that the spirit cannot comfortably remain among the living. The couple subsequently visit the family tomb, and Ying-ning bears a son who laughs freely like his mother. The complete ending preserves filial care and an enduring marriage alongside the unsettling fatal encounter. Giles’s social and religious annotations remain a nineteenth-century translator’s commentary rather than universal rules about Chinese families or spirits.

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

   XV, Miss Ying-Ning; or, The Laughing Girl, volume I; electronic notes107–120 and referenced45; complete narrative, all attached notes and referenced note45 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 — XV, Miss Ying-Ning; or, The Laughing Girl, volume I; electronic notes107–120 and referenced45Research access: 2026-10-06

Image credits

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