Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio is the famous classical short novel collection of supernatural tales written by Pu Songling some seventeen to eighteen centuries ago during the early Qing Dynasty. "Taoist Priest from Laoshan" is well-known story from this collection.

It tells the story of a young scholar named Wang Qi who was a fervent Taoist. When he heard that there was an immortal on Mount Laoshan, who was adept at Daoist magic, he left his family and journeyed there. He met the Taoist priest in a monastery and asked the priest to be his teacher. The priest believed that Wang was too pampered to bear all the hardships, but Wang said emphatically that he could, so he remained in the monastery.

Early in the morning, the priest sent for Wang, gave him an ax and told him to go with the other disciples to cut firewood in the forest. Wang obeyed reluctantly. After more than a month of cutting wood, Wang's hands and feet were covered with thick calluses. Unable to stand the suffering, he began to think of returning home.

One evening, when he returned from work, he found two guests drinking wine with his master. It was already dark, so the priest cut a piece of white paper in the shape of a round mirror and stuck it on the wall. Instantly, it turned into a brilliant white moon which lit up the room.

The disciples came in to wait for their master and the guests. The priest took a jug of wine and gave it to the disciples to drink. The disciples were astonished to see that the wine in the jar did not diminish even after several rounds. A guest said:" It is rather dull drinking by ourselves. It would be a much nicer evening if we could have someone to dance for us." The priest smiled and threw a chopstick at the moon on the wall and a beautiful girl of less than a foot tall appeared. She stepped down from the wall and instantly grew to human size. She then proceeded to sing and dance gracefully.

When she finished singing and dancing, she jumped onto the table and turned back into a chopstick. The three men laughed heartily. One of the guests said:" It's late. I have to go home now." The three men then moved their table up into the moon. After a while, the moon dimmed and candles were lit. The disciples only saw the priest sitting at the table alone and the two guests gone. The remains of the meal were still on the table.

Another month passed. Wang could not stand the hardships any longer, but the priest still hadn't taught him any magic. Wang said to the priest:" I have been here for several months already. All I do is get up at daybreak to cut firewood and return at sunset. I never bore such burdens when I was at home." "I predicted you wouldn't be able to stand it," said the priest smiling, "You may go home tomorrow morning."

Wang pleaded with the priest to teach him some small trick. "What do you want to learn?" asked the priest. Wang said he would be content if the priest would teach him to walk through walls, something which the priest often did with ease. The priest agreed. He taught Wang a spell and bade him to repeat it so that he could walk through the wall. At first, Wang dared not. The priest encouraged him to try, and Wang passed through the wall unhindered.

The priest cautioned him to be diligent and not to misuse the spell, otherwise, it wouldn't work. Wang promised and went back down the mountain.

When he got home, he boasted to his wife that he had met an immortal and learnt the art of passing through walls. To convince his wife, Wang repeated the spell and ran at the wall.

With a loud "bang" , Wang fell heavily to the ground. A big bump swelled up on his forehead. His wife laughed at him: "Even if there were such magic, you'd be silly to believe you can master it in two to three months." Consumed by shame and rage, Wang Qi cursed the priest and remained a lazy man.