However, in romantic love stories, the soul leaving the body is just beginners 'stuff. In the Ming dynasty story The Peony Pavilion, Du Liniang can think only of Liu Mengmei, the lover of her dreams. Pining for him, she sickens and dies. But when Liu Mengmei stumbles across a picture of her, he and her departed soul fall in love, and she comes back to life.
靈魂出竅在浪漫愛的故事中，不過是初級班，在明朝《牡丹亭》故事中，杜麗娘因為思慕夢中情人柳夢梅，就抑鬱而終；然而她卻又在柳夢梅撿到她的畫像，鬼魂與之相親愛而又起死回生。