Pu Songling, the Great Novelist

　　Pu Songling, was a native of Zichuan, Shandong in Qing Dynasty. He became a famous literary figure in his youth, but he never passed the imperial exams to be an official scholar. He never became wealthy in his life and he made a living as a private tutor. His fantastic fiction, “Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio”, ranks among the most important works in China.

　On July 25, 1668, an earthquake of 8.5 magnitudes happened in Lucheng of Shandong. The earth sound was like the rumbling of thunders and floods were seen everywhere. Pu Songling lived in Zichuan at that time, which was the main earthquake stricken area. As a survivor of this earthquake, Pu Songling wrote an article named Earthquake, and he compiled this article into his famous “Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio.”

　　On July 25, 1668, a serious earthquake happened. I was drinking with one of my cousins, suddenly; we heard sounds like the rumbling of the thunders coming from Southeast,and died away in the Northwest. We were all quite scared but we didn't know what happened. A short while later, our table was tossed up and down. The beams of the houses groaned audibly. A moment later, we got to know an earthquake was happening and we got out immediately. It was quite noisy outside and we could here the cries and screams of women and children everywhere. When we look at the street, we could see men and women stayed together without any clothes. They were so nervous as to forget having something on.

　　There was a woman who just got up to the toilet when the earthquake happened. She came back and saw a wolf taking her son away. The neighbors came to her help and the wolf ran away leaving her son. The woman was quite happy and started to tell her adventures wrestling with the wolf. A long time later, she came back to her sober mind and realized she didn't wear anything! Immediately the woman ran away with great abashment.