Pu Songling (1640-1715) was a native of Zichuan County, Shandong Province. He lived in a time of unprecedented sharp class confrontation. Pu Songling was born into an impoverished landlord-merchant family and was constantly unsuccessful in the imperial examinations. He didn't pass the examination and win the title "gongsheng" until he was 71. His frustrations and indignation drove him to pour out his feelings on paper.

Strange Tales of Liaozhai includes 431 short stories written in classical Chinese. Its content falls into four categories:

(1) Exposing and satirizing of corrupt officials, despotic landlords and the feudal political system represented by these figures. Stories belonging to this category are represented by The Cricket and Xi Fangping. These stories not only lash out at the hypocritical ruling class and feudal bureaucracy, but also depict many indomitable and rebellious common people. The author despised the dark rule of the feudal system and praised the common people's fighting spirit with well-honed love and hate.

(2) Severely criticizing the rigid and unjust official examination system. In Si Wen Lang, The Bookworm and other stories, the author delineated the examiners' fatuity and greed, pointing out the shackling and corrosion of intellects' minds by the examination system, and at the same time condemned the malpractices in the examination rooms.

(3) Tributes to pure and faithful love between men and women, as well as to those who strive for love. Representative stories of this category include The Crow Head and Xihou. Strange Tales of Liaozhai tells many stories about fox-fairies and flower goddesses falling in love with human beings. The author portrays many beautiful female characters of noble mind, such as Hongyu, Yingning, Qingieng, Jiaona and Lianxiang. These women disregard the feudal code of ethics, express their feelings frankly and bravely pursue the improvement of women's status. The author extols and longs for true love between man and women. This kind of ideal held great progressive significance at the time.

(4) Expounding ethics and morals, with valuable educational significance, such as The Painted Skin and The Taoist Priest of Laoshan.

Strange Tales of Liaozhai is a progressive romantic work. Its romantic spirit is above all reflected in the characterization of positive figures, especially the images of flower goddesses and fox-fairies. Then it is also reflected in the adoption of romantic expressive methods, for example in the plenty of made-up stories. Characters in Strange Tales of Liaozhai are adeptly and all-roundly portrayed. And the language in the novel is fluent, vivid, exaggerate and satirical. Its well-knit structure and intricate plot provide a precious model and resource for writers of later periods.