This story in Pu Songling's writing has a fable flavor from the beginning. Everyone has his own selfishness and his own agenda. People are blinded by desire and fall into trouble until they lose their lives, no matter it is the painted skin. Wang Sheng's situation is actually the same. It's not like in movies and TV series where people seem to have the upper hand. In fact, ghosts are in control.
In Pu Songling's story, no matter whether there is magic or no magic, as long as the mind is carried away by desire, in fact, they are all people who have lost their "heart" and will reach desperation. It confirms a saying: It is difficult to draw bones when painting people and tigers. Knowing people, knowing faces, but not knowing hearts.
Extended information:
"Painted Skin", also known as "Ghost Painted Skin" and "Painted Skin Ghost", is a collection of classical Chinese short stories "Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio" written by the Qing Dynasty novelist Pu Songling One of the chapters in . This novel is about a ferocious-looking evil spirit who puts on human skin painted with colored pens and dresses up as a lovely beauty. He uses various deceptive methods to achieve the purpose of tearing open people's stomachs and tearing out their hearts.
Later, the evil ghost was discovered by a Taoist priest. Under the blows of the wooden sword, he was forced to finally take off his "painted skin" and reveal his true colors, and was eliminated with a sword. The moral of this novel is profound and thought-provoking. It should be a warning to men not to be seduced by beauty, so as not to be harmed by demons in human skin. Later, this story was remade into film and television dramas by modern people.