Stories to awaken the world. Volume 3 : a Ming dynasty collection / compiled by Feng Menglong (1574-1646) ; translated by Shuhui Yang and Yunqin Yang.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Feng, Menglong, 1574-1646.

Contributor:

Feng, Menglong, 1574-1646, compiler.

Yang, Shuhui (Translator), translator.

Yang, Yunqin, translator.

Series:

Ming Dynasty Collection

A Ming dynasty collection ; v. 3

Standardized Title:

Xing shi heng yan. English

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Feng, Menglong, 1574-1646--Translations into English.

Feng, Menglong.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (991 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Seattle, Washington : University of Washington Press, 2009.

Language Note:

English

System Details:

Mode of access: World Wide Web.

Summary:

Stories to Awaken the World, the first complete translation of Xingshi hengyan, completes the publication in English of the famous three-volume set of Feng Menglong's popular Chinese-vernacular stories. These tales, which come from a variety of sources (some dating back centuries before their compilation in the seventeenth century), were assembled and circulated by Feng, who not only saved them from oblivion but raised the status of vernacular literature and provided material for authors of the great Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) novels to draw upon. This trilogy has been compared to Boccaccio's Decameron and the stories of A Thousand and One Nights. Peopled with scholars, emperors, ministers, generals, and a gallery of ordinary men and women - merchants and artisans, prostitutes and courtesans, matchmakers and fortune-tellers, monks and nuns, thieves and imposters - the stories provide a vivid panorama of the bustling world of late imperial China. The longest volume in the Sanyan trilogy, Stories to Awaken the World is presented in full here, including sexually explicit elements often omitted from Chinese editions.Shuhui Yang and Yunqin Yang have provided a rare treat for English readers: an unparalleled view of the art of traditional Chinese short fiction. As with the first two collections in the trilogy, Stories Old and New and Stories to Caution the World, their excellent renditions of the forty stories in this collection are eminently readable, accurate, and lively. They have included all of the poetry that is scattered throughout the stories, as well as Feng Menglong's interlinear and marginal comments, which convey the values shared among the Chinese cultural elite, point out what original readers of the collection were being asked to appreciate in the writer's art, and reveal Feng's moral engagement with the social problems of his day. The Yangs's translations rank among the very finest English versions of Chinese fiction from any period.For other titles in the collection go to http://www.washington.edu/uwpress/books/ming.html

Contents:

Preface [to the 1627 edition]

Two high-minded county magistrates vie to take on an orphan girl as daughter-in-law

Three devoted brothers win honor by yielding family property to one another

The oil-peddler wins the queen of flowers

The old gardener meets fair maidens

The grateful tiger delivers the bride at big tree slope

Divine foxes lose a book at small water bay

Scholar Qian is blessed with a wife through a happy mistake

Prefect Qiao rearranges matches in an arbitrary decision

Chen Duoshou and his wife bound in life and in death

The Liu brothers in brotherhood and in marriage

Three times Su Xiaomei tests her groom

Four times Abbot Foyin flirts with Qinniang

The leather boot as evidence against the God Erlang's impostor

The fan tower restaurant as witness to the love of Zhou Shengxian

In eternal regret, He Daqing leaves behind a lovers' silk ribbon

In defiance, Lu Wuhan refuses to give up the colored shoes

Zhang Xiaoji takes in his brother-in-law at Chenliu

Shi Fu encounters a friend at Tanque

Bai Yuniang endures hardships and brings about her husband's success

Zhang Tingxiu escapes from death and saves his father

With her wisdom Zhang Shu'er helps Mr. Yang escape

With his flying sword Lu Dongbin attempts to kill the yellow dragon

Prince Hailing of Jin dies from indulgence in lust

Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty is punished for his life of extravagance

Mr. Dugu has the strangest dreams on his journey home

Magistrate Xue proves his divinity through a fish

Li Yuying appeals for justice from jail

Young Master Wu goes to a tryst in the next boat

With his passion for poetry and wine, Scholar Lu scorns dukes and earls

In a humble inn, Li Mian meets a knight-errant

Regional commander Zheng renders distinguished service with his divine-arm bow

Scholar Huang is blessed with divine aid through his jade-horse pendant

Over fifteen strings of cash, a jest leads to dire disasters

For one penny, a small grudge ends in stark tragedies

In righteous wrath, old servant Xu builds up a family fortune

Enduring humiliation, Cai Ruihong seeks revenge

Du Zichun goes to Chang'an three times

Daoist Li enters cloud gate cave alone

Magistsrate Wang burns down precious lotus monastery

The god of Madang conjures wind to blow Wang Bo to Prince Teng's pavilion.

Notes:

"First paperback edition 2014"--T. p. verso.

Includes bibliographical references.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9780295800714

0295800712

OCLC:

884725930