Xiu Zhou Feng Huai

Author: Wu Xiangzhou
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-01-01
Features: Reading the book Xiu Zhou Feng Huai, one can see the author's extensive and profound reading, as well as his diligent and deep efforts. He determines that the "Hui Xiang Ge Master" is Huang Yuanjie and offers many new interpretations of Zhu Zhu Zhai and the "Two Hundred Rhymes of Feng Huai." For example, chapters like "Xue Susu, the 'Flying Horse with Arrows'," "Huang Yuanjie, the 'Female Mountain Person'," and "Wife Too Clever, Husband Too Eccentric—A Memoir of Wang Zhongqu and Jin Liying" are all highly engaging. The book also includes a chapter dedicated to the vicissitudes of the "Zhou Yun Stone," one of the three famous stones of Jiangnan, leaving readers moved.
Brother Xiangzhou named the book Xiu Zhou Feng Huai. I believe he must be referring to the latter, depicting the charming and alluring tales of women in the Ming and Qing-era Jiaxing. However, Brother Xiangzhou once wrote in a poem: "Born in an era of great calamity, I lament the burning of Qin and Ying's pits. Reflecting in my purse, the snow, ice, and frost, I secretly read under the moonlit night." He also said: "Pounding the railings, my heart aches under the setting sun and withered willows. In vain I search for the beauty of the land and customs, lost in endless longing. Heartbroken, I am often foolish, half a box of pipa songs, whose dreams do they belong to?"
From this, it seems he may also be expressing his own sentiments through Xiu Zhou Feng Huai, as described in Qian Muzhao's poem: "With Feng Huai, the rough edges are smoothed." I wonder if that is the case.