Pu Songling

Pu Songling was a Chinese writer during the Qing dynasty, best known as the author of Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio.  

  
Pu was born into a poor merchant family from Zichuan. At the age of 18, he received the Xiucai degree in the Imperial examination; it was not until he was 71 that he was awarded the Gongsheng ("tribute student") degree for his achievement in literature rather than for passing the Imperial examinations.  

He spent most of his life working as a private tutor, collecting the stories that were later published in Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio in 1740. Some critics attribute the Vernacular Chinese novel Xingshi Yinyuan Zhuan ("Marriage Destinies to Awaken the World") to him.