''Stories Old and New'' (), also known by its later name ''Stories to Enlighten the World'' (喻世明言), is a collection of short 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 Fen ...

during 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 ...

. It was published in

Suzhou Suzhou (; ; Suzhounese: ''sou¹ tseu¹'' , Mandarin: ), alternately romanized as Soochow, is a major city in southern Jiangsu province, East China. Suzhou is the largest city in Jiangsu, and a major economic center and focal point of trade ...

in 1620. It is considered to be pivotal in the development of Chinese vernacular fiction.

Background

Feng Menglong collected and slightly modified works from the Song, Yuan and Ming dynasties, such as changing characters’ names and locations to make stories more contemporary. The writing style of the series of stories is written vernacular, or ''baihua'', the everyday language of people at that time. The 40 stories are divided into 3 sections, one section collects Song and Yuan dynasty tales, one collects Ming dynasty stories, and the last is the stories created by Feng Menglong himself. The success of ''Stories Old and New'' published (1620), also known as ''Yushi Mingyan'' (''Illustrious Words to Instruct the World'') led Feng to edit and publish ''JIngshi Tongyan'' (''

Stories to Caution the World ''Jingshi Tongyan'' (警世通言, ''Stories to Caution the World'') is the second of a trilogy of widely celebrated Ming dynasty (1368–1644) vernacular story collections, compiled and edited by Feng Menglong and published in 1624. The first com ...

'') in 1624, and ''Xingshi Hengyan'' (''

Stories to Awaken the World ''Stories to Awaken the World'' (醒世恆言; ''Xingshi Hengyan''), is a Chinese story anthology compiled by Feng Menglong and published in 1627, composed of 40 vernacular stories. It follows '' Stories Old and New'' (1620) and ''Stories to Cautio ...

'') in 1627. Each collection contained forty stories. The title of each collection ended with the word "yan" (word), so they are often referred to as a group: Sanyan (). The stories in these three books are in a format called

Huaben A ''huaben'' () is a Chinese short- or medium-length story or novella written mostly in vernacular language, sometimes including simple classical language. In contrast to the full-length Chinese novel, it is generally not divided into chapters and r ...

(话本), a novella or short novel.Shuhui Yang and Yunqin Yang, "Introduction," ''Stories Old and New: A Ming Dynasty Collection.'' (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2000).

About the author

Feng Menglong (1574－1646) passed the lowest level of national exams at the age of 57. Although he had not done well on previous exams, he did have the ability to impress people with his writings. When he was 70, the dynasty was almost at its end and the Qing army invaded the country. He attempted to awaken people with his writings but failed to do so, and died in 1646. There are two theories about how he died. One is that he was killed by the Qing forces and another that his worries about the country made him sick. Feng's works included not only fiction but drama and music as well. He played a major role in enhancing Ming dynasty drama and brought it into a thriving state. Nevertheless, he was mostly known for his fiction. The motivation and central idea of his work was illustrating real emotion and undermining false ethics. One common characteristic of Feng's works is realism, dealing with daily life so that readers feel close to the story and enjoy reading it.

List of Stories

Translated titles in this table mainly follow those by Shuhui Yang and Yunqin Yang in Titles used by other translators are listed as bullet points.

Notes

{{3Y2P Chinese short story collections Chinese anthologies 1620 books Short stories by Feng Menglong