The emergence of zhiguai (tales of the strange) as a specialized literary term in the category of xiaoshuo (minor talk) was the result of a gradual evolutionary process. First found in the Zhuangzi, the phrase pointed to knowledge elements about the strange and anomalous and had no connection with the concept of xiaoshuo. During the Wei, Jin, Northern and Southern Dynasties, zhiguai began to appear in titles of writings that centered on supernatural creatures and spirits. As titular designations, zhiguai and xiaoshuo thus achieved a degree of equivalency. From the Tang through the Ming and Qing dynasties, writings about strange tales of the supernatural were extracted from various bibliographic categories, forming an organic knowledge module. This knowledge module gradually became associated with the term zhiguai. During this process, the conceptual relationship between zhiguai and xiaoshuo transitioned from parallel to intersecting, then to overlapping, and ultimately settled into a taxonomic structure where the former is a subset of the latter. Zhiguai became a specialized term designating a subsystem within the broader knowledge system of xiaoshuo. By the turn of the 20th century, zhiguai had solidified as a literary term designating a specific subset within the broader category of xiaoshuo.

By analyzing the connection, association, and intertextuality between the In Search of the Supernatural and relevant literary genres, this article restores the historical and cultural contexts of the book to grasp its textual nature. At the time of its compilation, the In Search of the Supernatural gathered and integrated a wide range of narrative conventions and writing modes of zhiguai (tales of the strange) drawn from the Official Histories, Miscellaneous Biographies, Master Texts, and Xiaoshuo (minor talk), thereby forming a multi-faceted textual nature. The In Search of the Supernatural, and Official Histories, especially the “Treatise on the Five Elements” and the “Biographies of Fangshu Practitioners” therein, drew materials from one another. This practice typically reflects the narrative styles of portents and anomalies as well as writing modes about fangshu (divinatory and occult arts). Furthermore, it is associated with the discourse on portents and anomalies, and the shushu (calculative and mantic arts), which was taken as a social knowledge system at that time. With the evolution of the discourse on portents and anomalies and the culture of shushu, as well as the development of narrative concepts of Official Histories, people in the Song Dynasty began to take the In Search of the Supernatural as a kind of zhiguai, which was separate from political culture.

Although chuanqi (classical tales, literally transmitting the marvelous) represents the pinnacle of fiction buy Tang authors, there is no absolute chasm between chuanqi and zhiguai (tales of the strange). The changes in zhiguai itself also clearly manifest the evolution of artistic thinking in tales of the supernatural and the strange. The Miscellaneous Morsels from Youyang precisely illustrates the developmental characteristics and pathways of Tang fiction, especially tales of the supernatural and the strange. The depictions of the supernatural and the strange in this work show a decline in belief, while the artistic pursuit of “the strange” and “the playful” demonstrates a combination of both zhiguai nature and chuanqi style. The awareness, comprehensiveness, and textual significance of the work’s categorization reflect the evolution of its fictional qualities. Furthermore, the inclusion of exotic and ethnic minority myths and legends in the work, which differ in style and aesthetic appeal from those of the Han group in the Central Plains, helps to enrich the artistic thinking of Chinese tales of the supernatural and the strange.

Pu Songling, a master of both poetry and fiction, excelled at creative transformation, integrating poetic elements into his fiction. He was adept at drawing on the poetic import of previous generations—such as Qu Yuan, Li He, and Lu You—for storytelling, and he also frequently established interconnections between his own poetry and fiction through shared diction and imagery. Through this creative practice of poetry-fiction interpenetration, Pu Songling constantly broke the boundary between the two genres, shifting from “expressing my feelings” in poetry to narrating others’ stories in fiction. Consequently, the characters in his fiction are all imbued with his own spiritual temperament. The true essence of solitary indignation (gufen), embedded in the Strange Tales from the Liaozhai Studio through this creative practice of poetry-fiction interpenetration, is not merely an integration of cultural elements from Han Fei, Qu Yuan, and the broader tradition of solitary indignation. It also embodies Pu Songling’s grievance spirit against the realities of life.

Bowu (broad knowledge of diverse matters) and fangshu (divinatory and occult arts) constitute the foundation and inner core of zhiguai (tales of the strange). The scholarly character of zhiguai is manifested primarily in its incorporation of knowledge derived from bowu and fangshu. By examining the strange things in zhiguai, we can discern how certain features of ancient bowu learning, including its fangshu dimensions, human-centered orientation, and practical concerns, shaped the development of zhiguai narratives. The phrase “among strange things, that beneath the earth is called fenyang [lit. tomb sheep]” became well known through The Discourses of the States. From pre-Qin historical texts to zhiguai collections of the Han, Tang, and even Song and Yuan periods, numerous strange things were said to emerge from the earth. Approaching several representative examples of such “strange things beneath the earth” from the perspective of bowu learning, and probing beneath the intermingling of the marvelous and the grotesque to seek their underlying reality, allows us to glimpse the symbiotic relationship between zhiguai and ancient bowu scholarship. The stories of such “strange things beneath the earth” implicitly reveal certain features in the formation and transmission of the Xiaoshuo (minor talk) category within the Master division.