The Pu Songling Memorial Hall, established and maintained on the original site of Pu Songling’s former residence, has renovated and greened the former residence, Liuquan Spring, and the cemetery. It has successively requisitioned several civilian houses to the north and west of the former residence and opened them up as exhibition rooms and reception rooms for academic research. The cemetery has been added with a flower wall.
Steps have been added to Liuquan Spring. The tombstone inscription of Pu Songling has been re-engraved. There are three monuments including the Liuquan Spring monument and the monument marking Pu’s tomb. A series of greening measures have been carried out. The courtyard of Pu Songling’s former residence faces south. There are four rows of buildings in succession. There is a side courtyard on the west. Inside the courtyard, there are moon gates and flower walls, which are well-arranged. Rocks and ponds complement each other. The three main rooms in the north courtyard are the ‘Strange Tales from a Lonely Studio’. There are two wing rooms on each side in the east-west direction of the main rooms. They are typical northern rural buildings. After Pu Songling’s death, his former residence was always inhabited by his descendants. Later, it was destroyed for some reason. The homeowner left for Liaoning in Northeast China. It was rebuilt in the 1950s. Entering the main room, you can see a portrait of Pu Songling. Hanging on both sides of the portrait are couplets that read ‘Superior in writing about ghosts and demons; Penetrating to the bone in satirizing greed and tyranny’. To the west is Mr. Pu Songling’s reception room. Here is the couch he used back then. In the middle of the guest room is a small low table where one can sit cross-legged. Under the south window are the desk and inkstone he used. They seem simple and ordinary, but they seem to tell us about Mr. Pu’s great talent and unrecognized genius, as well as his downfall and perseverance. To the east is Mr. Pu’s bedroom. On the 22nd day of the first month in 1715, Mr. Pu ‘sat upright by the window and passed away’ on this heated kang. On the head of the kang is a tin desk lamp unearthed from Mr. Pu’s tomb. Behind the main room of Strange Tales from a Lonely Studio, there are six exhibition rooms for calligraphy and paintings. In the exhibition rooms are displayed various treatises of domestic and foreign Pu Songling researchers, as well as calligraphy and inscriptions made by contemporary celebrity calligraphers and painters for the former residence. These calligraphy and paintings all reflect the admiration of later generations for Mr. Pu Songling and the profound influence of ‘Strange Tales from a Lonely Studio’ on later generations. In order to better let tourists understand the story content of ‘Strange Tales from a Lonely Studio’, the staff of Pu Songling’s former residence have carefully selected ten representative stories in the colored clay sculpture exhibition room and vividly and three-dimensionally presented their main plots to tourists in the form of clay sculptures. The lifelike clay sculptures can bring tourists into a magical and indescribable world of foxes, ghosts, immortals and demons more vividly…Opening hours: Open from Tuesday to Sunday all year round from 09:00 to 17:00; Closed all day on Monday all year round.Pu Songling Memorial Hall
The Pu Songling Memorial Hall, established and maintained on the original site of Pu Songling’[...]
