''Jingshi Tongyan'' (警世通言, ''Stories to Caution the World'') is the second of a trilogy of widely celebrated

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 ...

(1368–1644) vernacular story collections, compiled and edited 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 ...

and published in 1624. The first compilation, called '' Gujin Xiaoshuo'' (古今小説) (''Stories Old and New''), which is sometimes also referred to as ''Yushi Mingyan'' (喻世明言) (''Stories to Enlighten the World'' or ''Illustrious Words to Instruct the World'') 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. The third publication was called ''

Xingshi hengyan ''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 ''Stories Old and New'' (), al ...

'' (醒世恒言) (''Stories to Awaken the World''), and was published in 1627. These three collections, often referred to as ''Sanyan'' (三言, "Three Words") because of the character ''yan'' (言) found at the end of each title, each contain 40 stories.

Genre

''Jingshi Tongyan'' is considered to be a

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

(话本), that is, short novel or novella. The huaben genre has been around since the Song dynasty (960-1279). The huaben genre includes collections of short stories, like ''Jingshi Tongyan'', historical stories, and even stories from Confucian classics.

Format

The format of Jingshi Tongyan follows the rest of the Sanyan, in that it contains 40 chapters, with each chapter being a different short story.

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 ...

, under the direct influence of Sanyan, wrote 2 more collections under the same format, known as Erpai (二拍). Together, sanyan and erpai are one of the greatest ancient Chinese vernacular literatures.

Versions

There are two surviving original versions of Jingshi Tongyan, one located in Japan, belonging to Waseda University, and one in Taiwan, located in the National Library in Taipei. Because this collection was banned by the Chinese government at some point, almost all of the original copies were burned. By the early 20th century, when the Republic of China emerged, this collection was already lost. It was not until a scholar from China visiting Japan in the 1930s discovered an original copy of the collection did Jingshi Tongyan becomes popular again. The scholar had taken pictures of each page of the book and brought back to China, where it was republished again.

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.

Popularity

Jingshi Tongyan proved to be popular in China after its republication. Many of the stories from the collection were used as the basis of Chinese Opera in the 60s before the Chinese Cultural Revolution. Jingshi Tongyan also proved to be popular in Japan as well, where stories were taken and transformed into Japanese tales by changing the setting to Japan.

Notes

{{3Y2P Chinese anthologies 1624 books Short stories by Feng Menglong Chinese short story collections