Wake-up World Classic Stories

Author: Feng Menglong
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2004-01-01
Features: A Dream of Splendid Dreams (Xing Shi Heng Yan), as a vernacular storytelling novel written at the end of the Ming Dynasty, exhibits some noteworthy new trends in literary creation. First, it emphasizes and affirms commerce and merchants, reversing the previous bias against merchants in literary works. This work not only uses the marketplace as a significant setting for characters' activities but also meticulously portrays merchants, highlighting their kind hearts and virtuous qualities. In A Dream of Splendid Dreams, both the marketplace and merchants are presented as positive figures, with the author focusing more on the humanistic brilliance of merchants rather than the art of commerce. The merchants depicted in the work, whether small traders or wealthy merchants, are not only virtuous in their actions but also achieve happy endings. A Dream of Splendid Dreams primarily includes mature vernacular storytelling novels, reaching a high artistic standard, with significant improvements in writing techniques compared to earlier works of the same genre. Vernacular storytelling novels were originally scripts for storytellers, known for their strong narrative drive and emphasis on plot. A Dream of Splendid Dreams inherits this tradition while also developing it further. Most of the stories in the work unfold in a non-linear, dramatic, and unpredictable manner, captivating readers with their twists and turns. A Dream of Splendid Dreams was published in the Tianqi period (1627), with most of the works attributed to Ming Dynasty authors, including some that were likely compiled by Feng Menglong himself. During the late Ming Dynasty, commodity economy flourished within feudal China, and capitalism began to emerge. Vernacular literature primarily reflected the economic life and ideological consciousness of the urban middle class. Shi Runze's Encounter with Friends at the Tidal Barrier narrates the story of Shi Fahu's rise to wealth, depicting how a family engaged in handloom weaving expanded from a small household with a single loom to a larger operation with thirty or forty looms within less than a decade. Although the novel promotes the idea that virtue is rewarded, it is evident that the economic foundations of feudal society were beginning to shake. A similar situation can be seen in Xu the Old Servant's Righteous Fury Leads to Marriage. Many works in A Dream of Splendid Dreams still revolve around the themes of marriage and love, where the progressive ideological views of the compiler, Feng Menglong, are particularly prominent. The Oil Seller's Exclusive Claim to the Beauty illustrates how a free marriage based on mutual respect and love ultimately triumphs over a transactional marriage based solely on money and status, a story that has endured for centuries. Additionally, such cases as Qiao the Magistrate's fair judgment in resolving a contentious lawsuit involving three families, and the County Magistrate of Wujiang, who ruled in favor of Qian Qing and Qiu Fang as husband and wife based on their mutual consent, especially the consent of the woman's family, and punished You Chen for inciting trouble—all were acts that brought great satisfaction to people at the time. Of course, among the dozens of works in A Dream of Splendid Dreams, various feudal ideologies inevitably surface, such as the emphasis on lineage continuation, fatalism, and the concept of karmic retribution. Some works even include descriptions of sexual behavior, all of which should be approached critically. However, the overall theme of San Yan (which includes A Dream of Splendid Dreams, A Collection of Stories from the Ming Dynasty, and A Dream of the Red Chamber), which advocates for the promotion of virtue and punishment of evil, is commendable. San Yan reflects various aspects of late feudal Chinese society and serves as an encyclopedic work documenting the social life of the Song and Ming dynasties, possessing significant cognitive and artistic value. The collation of this book is based on the edition published in Suzhou by Ye Jingchi in the seventh year of the Tianqi period (1627), with reference to other versions. Obvious errors in the original text have been corrected, and doubtful points are annotated. Traditional characters have been converted to simplified characters, variant characters to standardized forms, and homophones retained with annotations. Ancient names and places are preserved in their original forms, as are commonly used characters in ancient literature, especially in vernacular novels.