Selected Chinese Stories of the Song and Ming Dynasties

Selected Chinese Stories of the Song and Ming Dynasties

-Library of Chinese Classics Chinese-English

Compiled by Feng Menglong and Ling Mengchu (Ming Dynasty), translated into English by Yang Xianyi and Gladys Yang

Published by Foreign Languages Press, Beijing, 2007

Library binding book, dimensions 960 x 640, 1/16, 2 Volumes, 1205 pages

ISBN: 9787119042589

Pinghua was originally referred to the performance art of story telling in which the performer told the story without any singing or musical accompaniment. It became very popular in the Song Dynasty (960-1279). Later, the content of those stories were recorded in writing and this is how vernacular fiction came into being. In the Yuan Dynasty (1279-1368), the term Pinghua was used to refer to vernacular records of stories with historical themes. By the Ming (1368-1644) and the Qing (1644-1911) dynasties, it came to refer to vernacular stories irrespective of theme. Pinghua mainly targeted at ordinary people living in urban areas. It mostly mirrors the vicissitudes of their life with a simple vernacular language. Differing from the poems and articles of officials and scholars, short stories of this kind often involve supernatural events, adventures, political themes, Buddhist or Taoist preachments, or love between men and women. They reflect the thoughts and aspirations of the common people and are, in fact, consummate works of art imbued with all the vitality of their time. Pinghua has high literary and artistic values.



Stories to Enlighten Men, Stories to Warn Men, and Stories to Awaken Men, Amazing Tales, and Amazing Tales-Second Series (the five jointly referred to as "Three Story Collections and Two Series of Amazing Tales") are the five most famous collections of vernacular short stories of the Ming Dynasty. Many stories from them have been translated into many languages shortly after the collections were published. The twenty stories in this collection were selected from the above mentioned five collections.

Contents

The Jade Worker

The Honest Clerk

Fifteen Strings of Cash

The Monk's Billet-Doux

The Foxes' Revenge

The Hidden Will

The Two Brothers

The Beggar Chief's Daughter

A Just Man Avenged

The Tattered Felt Hat

The Courtesan's Jewel Box The Oil Vendor and the Courtesan

The Old Gardener

Marriage by Proxy

the Proud Scholar

The Tangerines and the Tortoise Shell

The Story of a Braggart

The Alchemist and His Concubine

A Prefectship Bought and Lost

The Merry Adventures of Lazy Dragon