''The Book of Swindles'' (''Piàn jīng'' 騙經), also known by its longer title, ''A New Book for Foiling Swindlers, Based on Worldly Experience'' (''Jiānghú lìlǎn dùpiàn xīnshū'' 江湖歷覽杜騙新書), is said to be the first published and printed Chinese short story collection about fraud. Written and compiled by Zhang Yingyu (張應俞), a man who lived in the early to mid 16th-century, it was published in

Fujian Fujian (; alternately romanized as Fukien or Hokkien) is a province on the southeastern coast of China. Fujian is bordered by Zhejiang to the north, Jiangxi to the west, Guangdong to the south, and the Taiwan Strait to the east. Its capi ...

province in or around

1617 Events January–June * February 27 – The Treaty of Stolbovo ends the Ingrian War between Sweden and Russia. Sweden gains Ingria and Kexholm. * April 14 – Second Battle of Playa Honda: The Spanish navy defeats a Dutch f ...

, and most of its stories are set during the latter part of the

Ming dynasty The Ming dynasty (), officially the Great Ming, was an Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China, ruling from 1368 to 1644 following the collapse of the Mongol Empire, Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming dynasty was the last ort ...

. To each story the author adds a commentary that in some cases offers a moral lesson and in some cases shows appreciation for the artistry of the swindler, often praising the cleverness of the con and blaming its victim. Modern editions have been entitled both ''The Book Against Swindles'' (''Fangpian jing'') and ''The Book of Swindles'' (''Pian jing''). A selected English translation, ''The Book of Swindles: Selections from a Late Ming Collection'', translated by Christopher Rea and Bruce Rusk, was published by

Columbia University Press Columbia University Press is a university press based in New York City, and affiliated with Columbia University. It is currently directed by Jennifer Crewe (2014–present) and publishes titles in the humanities and sciences, including the fiel ...

in 2017.

Background and themes

The first edition of 1617 has the full title ''A New Book for Foiling Swindlers, Based on Worldly Experience'' (''Jianghu lilan dupian xinshu''), suggesting that it is a guide to avoiding swindles and to negotiating the risky world of the traveling merchant, a life that an increasing number of people were leading in the growing commercial economy of the late Ming. It can just as well, however, be read as a guide to carrying out such scams oneself.

Types of swindle

''The Book of Swindles'' is divided into twenty-four categories of swindle:

Author

Zhang Yingyu, style name Kui Zhong (夔衷), is an obscure figure. ''The Book of Swindles'' is the only known work to appear under his name, and no other records of him are known. A note on the title page of one Ming dynasty copy claims that he was from Zhejiang province, while a 1617 preface says that he was from Fujian.

Relationship with other literary works and genres

The ''Book of Swindles'' incorporates elements from a variety of other Chinese genres, especially court case (''gong'an'') fiction, in which a capable magistrate solves a crime. Stories involving sorcerers,

Buddhist monks A ''bhikkhu'' (Pali: भिक्खु, Sanskrit: भिक्षु, ''bhikṣu'') is an ordained male in Buddhist monasticism. Male and female monastics ("nun", ''bhikkhunī'', Sanskrit ''bhikṣuṇī'') are members of the Sangha (Buddhist c ...

, and

Daoist Taoism (, ) or Daoism () refers to either a school of philosophical thought (道家; ''daojia'') or to a religion (道教; ''daojiao''), both of which share ideas and concepts of Chinese origin and emphasize living in harmony with the ''Tao'' ...

priests, who engage in

alchemy Alchemy (from Arabic: ''al-kīmiyā''; from Ancient Greek: χυμεία, ''khumeía'') is an ancient branch of natural philosophy, a philosophical and protoscientific tradition that was historically practiced in China, India, the Muslim world, ...

or dream spirit possession, include motifs from supernatural tales. Other stories, featuring suspense, surprise and revelation, resemble

jokes A joke is a display of humour in which words are used within a specific and well-defined narrative structure to make people laugh and is usually not meant to be interpreted literally. It usually takes the form of a story, often with dialogue, ...

in structure. A minority include apocryphal anecdotes about historical figures.Rob Moore,
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels
, LARB China Channel
Archived
on 1 July 2018. Other works of fiction from the same time period, such as stories by

Feng Menglong Feng Menglong (1574–1646), courtesy names Youlong (), Gongyu (), Ziyou (), or Eryou (), was a Chinese historian, novelist, and poet of the late Ming Dynasty. He was born in Changzhou County, now part of Suzhou, in Jiangsu Province. Life Fe ...

(1574–1645),

Ling Mengchu Ling Mengchu (; 1580–1644) was a Chinese writer of the Ming Dynasty. He is best known for his vernacular short fiction collections ''Slapping the Table in Amazement'' (拍案驚奇), I and II.Yenna Wu, "Ling Meng-ch'u and the 'Two Slappings," i ...

(1580–1644), and Li Yu (1610–80), as well as novels such as ''

The Water Margin ''Water Margin'' (''Shuihu zhuan'') is one of the earliest Chinese novels written in vernacular Mandarin, and is attributed to Shi Nai'an. It is also translated as ''Outlaws of the Marsh'' and ''All Men Are Brothers''. The story, which is ...

'' (''Shui hu zhuan'') and '' Plum in the Golden Vase'' (''Jin ping mei''), feature accounts of similar scenarios of deception and trickery. Collections of swindle stories can also be found in contemporary China.

References

{{reflist

External links

* Publisher website
''The Book of Swindles: Selections from a Late Ming Collection'' at Columbia University Press
* Book excerpt:
Flashy Clothing Incites Larceny
, Association for Asian Studies Asia Now# blog * Book excerpt:
Pilfering Green Cloth by Pretending to Steal a Goose
, ''Asian Review of Books'' * Interview:
Trickster Tales and True Crime
, Columbia University Press blog * ChinaFil
video interview
with Christopher Rea and Bruce Rusk *
Cons from the Late Ming Dynasty
, China Econ Talk podcast Chinese classic texts Fraud in China Chinese short story collections Imperial examination in fiction Ming dynasty literature