China bans 110 books

Author: None
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2001-05-01
Features:
- Most Collected: Grand in scale, unique both domestically and internationally, unparalleled in completeness.
- Least Censored: Unaltered in any word, preserving the original essence of the works. Even in cases requiring minimal edits compared to existing books, the revisions are the least.
- Best Editions: For works already published domestically, the best versions are selected; for those not yet published in China, they are rigorously imported from abroad or Taiwan, filling gaps in the literary landscape.
- Exquisite Introductions: Each volume includes an introduction explaining the edition and reasons for prohibition, introducing the content, and offering concise yet insightful evaluations. These introductions serve as navigational guides in the sea of books.
- High Value: This series provides invaluable materials for the study of the history of Chinese fiction and Chinese culture, holding significant literary and reading value, making it a worthy and refined gift.
The characteristics of this Forbidden Works Library: Frequently banned, rare, unprecedented, and now finally published. Due to the harsh control of feudal rulers over culture, and because banned novels deal with the liberation of humanity and freedom, oppose confinement and oppression, and depict sexuality, they were deemed intolerable by feudal regimes. Rulers consistently suppressed ideas unfavorable to the government, enforcing cultural control by banning books and destroying editions, leading to some uniquely valuable novels being repeatedly prohibited. Official bans caused certain novels to be suppressed the moment they were published, forcing them into secrecy and survival in difficult and isolated circulation. These banned novels are even rarer and harder to find than ordinary prohibited works, making them invaluable treasures whether for reading or collecting. The entire collection gathers 113 rare and extraordinary books from across the world, all of which are masterpieces among banned novels. These works were hidden for centuries and have now been painstakingly rescued by hundreds of experts over years, presented for the first time in a large-scale full-volume format.
Topics like Buddhism, Taoism, medicine, and health preservation are interwoven, with some works using erotic themes to advocate moderation—showing restraint rather than excess, teaching morality rather than indulgence, with profound intentions. These novels often involve Buddhism, Taoism, medicine, and philosophy, offering methods for health preservation, sexual techniques, anti-aging elixirs, and wake-up pills, covering a wide range of secrets. Dutch scholar Robert van Gulik's The Sex Life of Ancient Chinese Courtesans was compiled using such banned novels as its basis.
Words paint the cold of worldly affairs, failing to capture the myriad shapes of all classes. Tears in thought, describing the warmth and indifference of human relationships. Endless stories unfold of men and women in this world. The 113 works in this series were banned either due to excessive sexual content or political reasons and have now been meticulously organized by experts for the first large-scale domestic full-volume release—strange, novel, secret, and sensational, satisfying every curiosity. Complete, refined, detailed, and fascinating, this collection is truly unparalleled and unforgettable!
(Note: The original Chinese text contained some formatting issues with asterisks and unusual spacing. The translation assumes standard formatting conventions.)