Pu Songling
Pu Songling
Qing Writer · Author of Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio
1640-06-05（13th year of the Chongzhen reign (Ming), 4th lunar month, day 16）～ 1715-02-25
Born in Zichuan, Shandong
Three-Pillar ChartBirth hour unknown — three pillars only
Year Pillar
庚辰
Element Metal · Earth
NaYin White Wax Metal
Ten Gods Direct Wealth
Month Pillar
辛巳
Element Metal · Fire
NaYin Willow Wood
Ten Gods Indirect Wealth
Day Pillar
丁卯
Element Fire · Wood
NaYin Furnace Fire
Ten Gods Day Master
Hour Pillar
？？
Hour unknown
Not cast
Day Master
丁Fire
Element distribution (three-pillar count)
Fire 2, Metal 2, Wood 1, Earth 1, Water 0
Chart computed by the MoZhu engine (lunar-javascript); without the hour pillar, luck pillars and yearly cycles can't fully unfold.
Case Review
Original writing · hindsight review · anchored in known history, viewed through chart structure
Ding (丁) Fire is the Fire of lamps and candles, signifying civilization and literature, with Direct Wealth and Indirect Wealth revealed in the year and month. Looking back on the life of Pu Songling, “Master Liaozhai”: by the light of a single lamp he wrote more than 490 tales of Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio and created immortal figures such as Nie Xiaoqian and Yingning, mirroring Ding Fire’s “light of civilization.” Strong Wealth signifies toil for a living: forty years as a private tutor and secretary, and the inscription on his own portrait, “What have I achieved? And suddenly my hair is white,” offer a point of observation.
Wood generates Fire (Mao 卯 Wood), and his conviction that “where there is a will, there is a way” never died. Yet Earth drains Fire and Metal consumes it; his repeated failures in the imperial examinations (he was only made a senior licentiate at seventy-two) can be observed in hindsight through the structure of “weak Fire drained, talent unrecognized.” Ding Fire is small, yet the lamp of Liaozhai has shone for three hundred years, a footnote to a small flame becoming a great light.
This is a cultural retrospective at the level of three pillars, not a fatalistic judgment.
Birth date source:Chinese Wikipedia: “Pu Songling”(cross-checked with public records; bio is an original summary)
This case is for traditional-culture study only, not a judgment of any historical figure; schools of interpretation differ, and these conclusions claim no exclusive truth.