Traditional Chinese legend, retold in simple Mandarin
A Chinese Ghost Story: Nie Xiaoqian
聂小倩
A Chinese Ghost Story: Nie Xiaoqian (聂小倩, Niè Xiǎoqiàn) is a story from the Chinese classic by Pu Songling, retold in simple Mandarin as a 5-chapter story with audio for learners at about HSK 2 (Elementary).
Retold from Pu Songling's Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio: an honest scholar spends a stormy night in a haunted temple, refuses a ghost girl's gold, and finds that kindness can bring someone home.
Meet the voices
- Narrator · 旁白 — An old storyteller who tells Xiaoqian's tale calmly, like a grandfather by the fire.
- Ning Caichen · 宁采臣 — A poor, honest young scholar who will not take anything that is not his, and who treats even a ghost with kindness.
- Yan Chixia · 燕赤霞 — A grumpy swordsman with a kind heart who lodges in the temple and keeps a small bag with a bright secret inside.
- Nie Xiaoqian · 聂小倩 — A shy ghost girl who died at eighteen and is forced to trick travelers, and who longs to be free and to have a home.
- Ning's Mother · 老夫人 — Ning's sharp-tongued, loving mother, who is afraid of ghosts but cannot resist a girl who works so hard to please her.
- The Yaksha · 夜叉 — A huge shadowy spirit who rules the old temple by night and forces Xiaoqian to obey him.
5 chapters, one journey
Chapter 1: The Old Temple
旧寺
A poor scholar shelters in a haunted temple, makes a grumpy swordsman laugh, and then a girl's voice at his door already knows his name.
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Chapter 2: The Gold
金子
A pretty ghost girl fills Ning's table with shining gold, but the honest scholar will not touch a coin, and that night she returns in tears.
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Chapter 3: Xiaoqian's Secret
小倩的话
Under an old poplar tree, Xiaoqian tells Ning who forces her to trick travelers and what she needs from him, and Yan Chixia reveals what he has been waiting for.
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Chapter 4: The Small Bag
小袋子
In the dead of night the yaksha comes for Ning, and Yan Chixia's tiny bag holds a bright secret that changes everything.
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Chapter 5: A Daughter at Home
回家
Ning brings Xiaoqian home, and his mother has to decide whether a ghost girl can be a daughter.
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Key words in A Chinese Ghost Story: Nie Xiaoqian
Behind the story
Nie Xiaoqian (聂小倩) comes from Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio (聊斋志异), a collection of nearly five hundred stories by Pu Songling (蒲松龄, 1640 to 1715). Pu never passed the higher imperial exams and spent much of his life as a village tutor, writing down tales of ghosts, fox spirits and honest scholars.
In Pu Songling's tales, ghosts are often lonely and kind, and the real danger is greed. Ning Caichen is safe in the haunted temple because he will not take anything that is not his. Chinese readers know this tale as a story about a good heart, and it has been retold in books, films and television for generations.
Did you know?
- The temple's name, 兰若 (lánruò), comes from a Sanskrit word for a quiet place and became a Chinese word for a Buddhist temple or retreat.
- The yaksha, 夜叉 (yèchā), came to China from India along with Buddhism, where these fierce spirits guard the world of gods and demons.
- Chinese people still remember their ancestors and wandering spirits at the Ghost Festival, 中元节 (Zhōngyuán Jié), on the fifteenth day of the seventh lunar month.