Why does Pu Songling's serial only write about female ghosts?

Actually, it's not just serial. In the "ghost system" of the whole East, female roles have always occupied a major position. Whether it is the Ming and Qing note novels such as Strange Tales from a Lonely Studio, Notes on the Meridian, Notes on Yuewei Caotang, Drunk Tea, Strange Tales from a Lonely Studio, China Shushan modern martial arts novels, Strange Tales from a Lonely Studio, Legend of the White Snake and other strange books, and even the images of Zhenzi, Kayako and Ghost Doll Hanako created in modern Chinese, Japanese and Korean horror movies.

The reason why there is a cultural symbol of "female ghost" with obvious oriental characteristics is actually based on the following two reasons:

First of all, in the traditional culture of the East, whether it is China, Japanese or Korean, there are concepts of yin and yang and five elements, and women are feminine and men are masculine. Ghosts and ghosts are also a kind of shade in the oriental concept, which is more likely to produce * * * sounds with the images of women in reality, and it is easy for readers to have a sense of substitution, so it has also gained wider spread and recognition.

Another reason lies in the rise of Zhu Cheng's Neo-Confucianism.

Zhu Cheng's Neo-Confucianism occupied a major position in the ideological circle from the mid-Song Dynasty and reached its peak in the Ming Dynasty, which coincided with the appearance of the image of "female ghost" in the cultural circle.

Before Yuan and Ming Dynasties, at least China's ghost novels were dominated by ghosts of animals or mountains and plants. After Yuan and Ming Dynasties, these colorful "female ghosts" images began to appear in large numbers.

One of the characteristics of Zhu Cheng's Neo-Confucianism is the imprisonment of thoughts and the suppression of people, especially the oppression and poisoning of women. This suppression of people's spiritual vitality made frustrated literati choose to express their thoughts and dissatisfaction through note novels, which was one of the reasons why strange novels prevailed in Ming and Qing Dynasties.

In all kinds of mystery novels, women often appear as the weak and oppressed in reality, so it is easy to arouse the voice of the author, and it is more necessary to complete the empowerment in the form of ghosts in order to obtain moral legitimacy.

In fact, including Pu Songling's Liaozhai, many strange novels also describe male ghosts, but these male ghosts are too coincident with the roles of men in reality, which can't arouse readers' curiosity at all, let alone let the author speak his own words through ghosts.

And if a woman who can't achieve revenge, free love and get rid of oppression in reality can accomplish these things in the image of a ghost, it will be much more profound, whether from the literary image or from the chronicle of borrowing classical Chinese.

Therefore, since Pu Songling's Liaozhai, all kinds of ghost novels have paid more and more attention to depicting female ghosts, downplaying male ghosts, and finally made "female ghosts" rise from a literary image to a spiritual symbol and become a unique cultural feature.