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Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio
聊斋志异
Ghosts, foxes, and lovers from beyond
Pu Songling · 17th century · horror, fantasy, mythology
A collection of eerie, beautiful tales where scholars fall for fox-spirits, ghosts seek justice, and the dead refuse to stay quiet. Each story blends the supernatural with sharp moral wit, blurring the line between our world and the other.
Peek inside — compare all six levels
The opening · where the story begins — the A1 version:
Words you'd collect from this passage:
every chapter is illustrated
Midway through · the plot thickens — the A1 version:
Words you'd collect from this passage:
Near the end · no spoilers — just the language — the A1 version:
Words you'd collect from this passage:
Which level should you study?
Every version tells the full story — A1 uses only the ~1,500 most common words, C1 reads close to the original. Choose the level just beyond what you know: most of each page familiar, a few new words on every page. Pinyin and a tap on any word carry you through those.
关于这本书 · About this book
这本书是根据中国清朝作家蒲松龄的《聊斋志异》里最有名的一个故事《聂小倩》改写的简单中文版。《聊斋志异》是一本中国古代的短故事书，里面有很多很多关于鬼、狐狸精和妖怪的故事。 Insperium Chinese 分级读物有两个目标。第一个，也是最重要的，是学习中文——用适合你水平的语言，让你的阅读一步一步进步，不让你太累。第二个目标是慢慢带你认识中国和世界的经典名著，这样你从 A1 一步一步学到 C1 的时候，也认识了每个有文化的读者都知道的重要故事。 这些书的每一个设计，都是为了让这段旅程尽可能轻松、有趣——读书就应该是读书的感觉，而不是「学习」的感觉。所以每一章都有精美的插画；所以每本书都有两个部分：Part A 在每个汉字上面都标了拼音，在你还在学习的时候陪着你；Part B 只有汉字，等你准备好了，再读一遍。 原版的小说很长。《三国演义》本来有一百多章，《红楼梦》有三十多个主要人物。我们在长度和语言难度上都做了很多简化，所以你现在就能读到这些故事。等你的中文更好的时候，原版的书还在那里等着你。 怎么使用这本书： 这本书有两个版本的故事。第一个版本（Part A）在每个汉字上面都有拼音。第二个版本（Part B）没有拼音——当你准备好了，可以试试不看拼音阅读。 在阅读之前，先看看「人物关系」和「重要词汇」这两页。这本书有插画，帮助你进入故事的世界。读完以后，你可以做后面的阅读理解题来检查你的理解。
This book is a simplified Chinese version of "Nie Xiaoqian" — the most famous tale from Pu Songling's classic collection "Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio" (Liaozhai Zhiyi), written in the early Qing Dynasty. The original collection contains nearly 500 supernatural short stories full of ghosts, fox spirits, demons, and kind-hearted scholars. Insperium Chinese graded readers have two goals. The first and most important is language comprehension — Chinese at the right level to grow your reading step by step, without exhausting you. The second is a gradual introduction to the great classics of China and the wider world, so that as you climb from A1 to C1 you also meet the stories every educated reader knows. Everything about these books is built to make that journey as pleasant and entertaining as possible — reading should feel like reading, never like studying. That is why every chapter is fully illustrated, and why each book has two sides: Part A tells the story with pinyin above every character to carry you while you are still learning, and Part B tells it again in characters only, ready for the moment you are. The originals are large — Romance of the Three Kingdoms alone runs more than a hundred chapters, and Dream of the Red Chamber has over thirty principal characters. We have simplified them deeply, in both length and language level, so the story is reachable now. When your Chinese is ready, the originals will still be waiting. How to use this book: This book contains two versions of the story. The first version (Part A) has pinyin above every character. The second version (Part B) has no pinyin — try reading without it when you feel ready. Before you start, check the "Character Map" and "Key Vocabulary" pages. The book is illustrated throughout to help you sink into the world of the story. After reading, try the comprehension questions to check your understanding.
Key characters
níng cǎi chén
小宁
Ning Caichen
Main characterA kind-hearted young scholar travelling far from home for his studies, who takes shelter from a storm in an abandoned temple — where a single night's gentle honesty sets in motion the rescue of a sorrowful ghost and the defeat of an ancient evil.
niè xiǎo qiàn
小倩
Nie Xiaoqian
Main characterA beautiful young woman who died long ago and is now bound to a tree demon's will, forced to lure travellers to their doom — until Ning Caichen's quiet goodness moves her to break the spell and risk everything for one final chance at life.
yàn chì xiá
老燕
Yan Chixia
Main characterA wandering Taoist swordsman who has been hunting the evil of the abandoned temple for years, arriving at just the right moment with the magical weapons — and the courage — to free both the scholar and the trapped spirit from the demon's grasp.
Key vocabulary
This is what stands between you and reading this book comfortably. You won't drill all of it — mark the words you already know and they leave the queue for good, so every minute of study goes to the words that actually block your reading.
| 中文 | Pinyin | English | HSK | Your list |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 本事 | běnshi | skill, ability | 6 | |
| 亮 | liàng | bright | 5 | |
| 摇 | yáo | shake | 5 | |
| 石头 | shítou | stone | 5 | |
| 灰 | huī | dust, ash | 5 | |
| 日子 | rìzi | life, days | 5 | |
| 墙 | qiáng | wall | 5 | |
| 发抖 | fādǒu | tremble | 5 | |
| 滴 | dī | drop | 5 | |
| 退 | tuì | retreat | 5 |
Try the course — this is the actual drill
The course has one goal: get you reading this book at this level as fast as possible. Every word is learned in real context — sentences straight from the story, not word lists — and a proven spaced-repetition system brings each one back right before you'd forget it. Your time goes only to the words you don't know yet. Here are the book's first five — flip, grade yourself, and feel how it works.
New items
Session stats
5 cards remaining
← Forgot | Space flip | → Remember
Lesson progress
LEARNED 0/5
Details
Word坏
huài
bad
appears 24× · first ~20% into the story
Round 1 of 4
Word examples
他对着坏的东西
tā duì zhe huài de dōng xi
He pointed it at the evil thing.
坏的东西更生气了
huài de dōng xi gèng shēng qì le
The evil thing grew even angrier.
他是一个很坏的东西
tā shì yí gè hěn huài de dōng xi
He is an evil creature.
Flip through the book
This is a real sample of the book edition — cover, characters, key vocabulary and the opening pages with pinyin. Turn the pages and see exactly what you're getting.
Interactive edition — available now
The Insperium edition is the one that teaches you: pinyin and karaoke audio, every word tappable, the full vocabulary course, and one level or all six, as you choose.
Get the interactive editionWhat's inside the book edition
- Part A — the full story with pinyin above every character
- Part B — the same story in characters only, for when you're ready
- Original illustrations in every chapter
- Key vocabulary up front + the complete word list at the back
- Sentence patterns & grammar notes with try-it-yourself lines
- Comprehension questions to check your understanding
Read it freely
Every level comes with pinyin and karaoke audio that highlights as you read — so you can follow along even when the grammar is new.
Master the level, not just the book
The book's vocabulary is a full spaced-repetition course. It drills only the words you don't know yet, in sentences from the story, and reviews each one right before you'd forget — the fastest route to reading this level comfortably, here and in every book after it.
Start reading Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio in Chinese
Buy one level for $4.99 or all six for $9.99 — yours to keep, no membership needed.