Ming Dynasty Tales

This collection provides careful translations and in-depth readings of Ming-dynasty classical tales, a genre that has been neglected heretofore. Edited by two well-known scholars in the field of traditional fiction, it should convince readers that this neglect has been more the result of the linguistic difficulty of these tales than their intrinsic merits. * William H. Nienhauser, Jr., Halls-Bascom Professor Emeritus, University of Wisconsin, USA *
This is the first collection in the translation of the representative works of tales in literary Chinese from Ming China, a literary genre that has yet to receive the scholarly attention it richly deserves. The introduction provides a helpful overview of the Ming dynasty tales in terms of its history, its crucial role in the development of premodern Chinese fiction and its influence over the literature of later ages. The translation of each tale is accompanied by copious notes and a reading guide that places the tale in its large historical and literary contexts, with helpful information on further reading. Because many of these tales are the results of rewriting of previous sources and would continue to be rewritten during late times, the reading guides have done an excellent job in helping the reader better appreciate not only these tales for their own literary merits but also their intertextual complexities as well as their significances in the development of late imperial Chinese literature in general. This collection is a nice contribution to study of Chinese fiction and late imperial Chinese society. * Martin Huang, Professor, East Asian Studies, University of California, Irvine, USA *