About the book
Painted Skin is a short story from the book Liao Zhai Zhi Yi by Pu Songling.
Liao = Chat / Socialize / Talk
Zhai = Building / House / Pavilion / Residence / Cottage
Zhi = Record / Journal / Log / Book
Yi = Weird / Strange / Unnatural
Pu was a publisher of books. His workshop is called Liao Zhai. So named, because he likes to invite ppl, even strangers, to his place for chatting and story telling. Over his life, he collected ~500 folk tales on supernaturals. He compiled a book of 12 volumes and named it Liao Zhai Zhi Yi. The shop also published many other works like Liao Zhai's Literary Collection, today Liao Zhai became synonomous with Liao Zhai Zhi Yi.
Despite the folk lores he collected have always been told in everyday spoken language, Liao Zhai Zhi Yi is written in classical Chinese. Most Chinese today would not be able to read the work. The work is also very concise with very little detail. The full text of the original Painted Skin can fit on two pages.