Stories to Caution the World is the first complete translation of Jingshi tongyan, the second of Feng Menglong's three collections of stories which were pivotal in the development of Chinese vernacular fiction. These tales, whose importance in the Chinese literary canon and in world literature is without question, have 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 in their everyday surroundings -- merchants and artisans, prostitutes and courtesans, matchmakers and fortune-tellers, monks and nuns, servants and maids, thieves and imposters -- the stories in this collection provide a vivid panorama of the bustling world of imperial China before the end of the Ming dynasty.

Feng Menglong collected popular stories from a variety of sources (some dating back centuries) and circulated them via the flourishing seventeenth-century publishing industry. He not only saved them from oblivion but elevated the status of vernacular literature and provided material for authors of the great late-Ming and Qing novels to draw upon. As in their translation of the first collection of Feng's trilogy, Stories Old and New, Shuhui and Yunqin Yang include all forty stories as well as Feng's interlinear and marginal comments and all of the verse woven throughout the stories.



For other titles in the collection go to http://www.washington.edu/uwpress/books/ming.html

The first complete translation of Jingshi tongyan, the second of Feng's three 17th century compilations that were pivotal in the development of Chinese vernacular fiction.

About the Author

Feng Menglong (1574-1646), the most knowledgeable connoisseur of popular literature of his time, is best known for his three collections of vernacular stories, now commonly known as the Sanyan. Shuhui Yang is professor of Chinese at Bates College, Lewiston, Maine. Yunqin Yang is a simultaneous interpreter in the United Nations Secretariat. Together, they translated Feng's Gujin xiaoshuo as Stories Old and New: A Ming Dynasty Collection (Volume 1).

Reviews

"Stories to Caution the World offers the reader plenty to savor. . . . often shrewd and knowing, and never dull, [the translated comments] provide a new element of commentary over and above that built into the stories through the storyteller's manner, and introduce an agreeably unpredictable element that enhances the pleasure of reading Stories to Caution the World."

* China Review International *

"An important addition to any collection supporting Chinese studies and Asian literature. Highly recommended."

* Choice *



Book Information
ISBN 9780295985688
Author Feng Menglong
Format Paperback
Page Count 792
Imprint University of Washington Press
Publisher University of Washington Press
Weight(grams) 1116g