Wake-up World Classics

Author: Feng Menglong
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2001-01-01
Features: A Collection of Stories for Awakening the World is a collection of storytelling novels compiled by Feng Menglong (1574–1646) in the late Ming Dynasty. Feng Menglong was a native of Changzhou, styled Youlong, and also known by the pen names Long Ziyou, Master of Muhanzhai, and Guqu Sanren, among others. He adapted and compiled numerous novels throughout his life. A Collection of Stories for Awakening the World, together with the other two storytelling novel collections he edited—A Collection of Stories for Teaching the World and A Collection of Stories for Warning the World—are collectively known as the "Three Canons." This book was published slightly later than the other two and contains fewer Song and Yuan Dynasty storytelling tales, accounting for about one-sixth of the entire collection. Some of the confirmed Song and Yuan-era works include The Letter from the Water Bay to the Fox Spirit, The Demise of the Man of Jinhai Ling Due to Excessive Desire, Zheng Jieshi's Achievement with the Divine Bow, and The Misfortune Brought by a Joke in the Fifteen Guan Case. When compiling these ancient tales, Feng Menglong made revisions, polished the stories written by Ming Dynasty authors, and even wrote some himself. Many works in this book draw from historical events, but the historical figures and events have been literaryized and typified, not strictly adhering to historical facts. When dealing with such themes, the author paid attention to the relationship between historical truth and artistic truth.