Nie Xiaoqian

"Nie Xiaoqian"
Short story by Pu Songling
19th-century illustration from Xiangzhu liaozhai zhiyi tuyong (Liaozhai with commentary and illustrations; 1886)
Original title	聶小倩 (Niè Xiǎoqiàn)
Translator	Sidney L. Sondergard
Country	China
Language	Chinese
Genre(s)	Zhiguai
Publication
Published in	Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio
Publication type	Anthology
Publication date	c. 1740
Published in English	2008
Chronology
Yingning (嬰寧)   The Sea Prince (海公子)

Nie Xiaoqian (Chinese: 聶小倩; pinyin: Niè Xiǎoqiàn) is a fantasy story in Pu Songling's short story collection Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio, and the name of its female lead character. ^[1] Pu describes her appearance as "gorgeous; girl in paintings" (traditional Chinese: 艷絕；畫中人; simplified Chinese: 艳绝；画中人). The story has been adapted into numerous films and television dramas. The name is commonly rendered as Nip Siu Sin in Hong Kong adaptations in accordance with its Cantonese pronunciation.

Nie Xiaoqian is introduced as a beautiful female ghost. She died at the age of 18 and was interred in an old temple in Jinhua, Zhejiang. Nie is coerced to participate in ritual murders in the service of a demon. A pale-faced scholar, Ning Caichen, is going to Beijing to take a civil service examination. Though Nie attempts to prey upon Ning Caichen, he resists her and takes her from the demon. As Ning's sickly wife slowly dies, Nie fulfills expectations of filial piety as she takes upon the household chores. Once Ning's wife dies, he is free to pursue Nie. Nie's good works earn her humanity back. She and Ning marry and conceive a child, representative of Nie's restoration.^[2]

Nie Xiaoqian appears in Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio as a ghost whose beauty is matched by talent and innate kindness. Once an eighteen-year-old girl, she died young and was buried beside a derelict temple just north of Jinhua, Zhejiang^[3]. In the afterlife, she fell under the sway of a Yaksha and other Yaoguais, who compelled her to lure passing travellers to their doom^[4]. On one such mission, she tried to ensnare the scholar Ning Caichen, who sought accommodation at Lanre Temple, but his integrity and compassion moved her to lend him her aid instead. Then, with Ning's help, she later escaped her demonic captors and found refuge in the Ning household, caring for his mother and his ailing wife. After the wife's death, she married Ning Caichen, and together the couple destroyed the yaoguais that had long haunted Jinhua. Some years later, she bore him a son, and the story ends on a note of domestic harmony^[5].

Ning Caichen (Chinese: 宁采臣) is the male protagonist of Nie Xiaoqian, a tale within Pu Songling's Qing dynasty collection Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio (Chinese: 《聊斋志异》). A native of Zhejiang, he is depicted as generous, forthright and scrupulously upright, immune to the lure of beauty^[6]. Owing to financial hardship, Ning Caichen lodged for a time at Lanre Temple, where he encountered Nie Xiaoqian, then under the control of a Yaksha. Naturally compassionate and unwilling to harm the living, Xiaoqian helped him evade the Yaoguais in pursuit of him and, with the swordsman Yan Chixia's assistance, he survived the ordeal. Later, Ning offered Xiaoqian refuge in his household, entrusting her with the care of his mother and his gravely ill wife^[7]. After the wife's death, he married Xiaoqian; upon her advice, he employed a magic sword-pouch to slay Laolao, the yaksha. Years afterwards, Ning passed the imperial examination and attained the degree of Jinshi (the top degree in China's ancient imperial examinations, leading to official positions). Xiaoqian bore him a son and, after he took a concubine, each woman bore another. The household remained harmonious, and all three sons matured into men of distinction^[8].

In Nie Xiaoqian, Yan Chixia lodges for a time in a derelict temple outside Jinhua. During his stay, he wounds the Yaksha with a luminous blade concealed in a sword-pouch, displaying preternatural swordsmanship^[9]. Later, he gives the pouch to the scholar Ning Caichen as a talisman against Yaoguais^[10]. In the original work, Yan Chixia is portrayed as calm, taciturn and decisive. Dressed in a scholar's robe, he is hinted to hail from the land of Qin—roughly today's Shaanxi^[11]—and combines the polish of a literatus with the vigour of a fighting man. His character blends elements of the traditional swordsman^[12], the folk wonder-worker and the religious adept. In contemporary screen adaptations, Yan Chixia's image has changed markedly, shifting from a provincial scholar to a wandering master versed in both Buddhist and Daoist arts who roams the martial world as a lone slayer of yaoguais.

Laolao is hidden within the crumbling Lanre Temple. A consummate deceiver, she adopts the guise of an aged crone^[13] yet wields formidable magic and retains the savage nature of a Yaksha^[14]. Laolao instructs Nie Xiaoqian to entice the scholar Ning Caichen, but the scheme fails when Ning sees through the ruse and stands firm. Laolao then attacks him herself, yet is wounded by the Taoist Yan Chixia's magic vessel and manages to escape only after crashing accidentally into a lattice window^[15]. Ning Caichen later takes Nie Xiaoqian's ashes back to her native soil for re-burial, provoking Laolao's wrath. She pursues him to the Ning household, intent on revenge. In the climactic encounter, Laolao reveals her yaksha form and launches an assault, but the magic pouch that Yan Chixia had planted earlier activates: the moment she touches it, she is sucked inside, sealed, and destroyed^[16].

The principal setting of the story is Lanre Temple; the text situates it in open country north of the prefectural seat of Jinhua^[17].

The term "Lanre" comes from the Sanskrit "aranya", which first meant "quiet forest" and later came to denote a Buddhist monastery.In several stories within Strange Tales, Pu uses "lanre" in this generic sense^[18]. In the original text, therefore, "Lanre Temple" signifies simply "a secluded temple", not a unique proper name.