[a] The elder Hu's wife and his niece, Qingfeng (青鳳; literally Blue or Green Phoenix), soon make their entrance.

[4] This prompts the family to excuse themselves and Geng is forced to head home, although he remains infatuated with Qingfeng.

[9] "Qingfeng" was first published in Pu Songling's eighteenth-century anthology of nearly five hundred short stories, titled Liaozhai zhiyi or Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio.

[10] It is one of the eighty-three fox-related stories in the collection, thirty-six of which, including "Qingfeng", involve romances between men and fox spirits.

"[10] In "Hu meng", the protagonist has read "Qingfeng" and desperately wishes to meet the titular fox spirit.

[13] Around 1884, Chinese diplomat Chen Jitong translated several Liaozhai stories into French, including "Qingfeng", which he titled "Un sacrifice héroïque".

[14] Under the title of "Fox-Girl Qingfeng", the story was included in Strange Tales from a Make-do Studio (1989) by Denis C. Mair and Victor H.

[15] Mao likened the United States to a ghost harassing a scholar in his room, "(thinking that) the man would be scared to death.

"[16] However, the scholar "seized his ink brush and painted his own face as dark as that of Zhang Fei ... Then he also reached out his tongue and stared at the ghost.