Fairy Tales of the World - Complete 10 Volumes

Author: Yue Leshan
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2004-01-01
Features: ★ Strange Tales of This World is a monumental novel completed by the late Qing scholar Yue Leshan over a decade. The original manuscript is written in small regular script with a brush from beginning to end, displaying a graceful and flowing style, a unique format, and a distinctive scholarly charm. This epic work, after enduring hardships for over sixty years, has finally been published. ★ The book vividly and excellently records the politics, economy, military affairs, diplomacy, ideology, culture, folklore, and social conditions of the period from the early years of the Guangxu Emperor to the early years of the Republic of China. ★ The entire book consists of 800 chapters, approximately 3.6 million words. In terms of its immense scale, the extensive and profound social content, the lifelike portrayal of numerous characters, and the distinctive linguistic features, it fully deserves the title of "The Most Strange Book of the Republic of China." ★ The work creates a multitude of vivid and lifelike artistic images of people from all classes, strata, ethnic groups, and foreigners. It particularly directly depicts and portrays the words, deeds, expressions, and court life of figures such as Empress Dowager Cixi, Emperor Guangxu, and Li Lianying. This book uses the ethereal "strange tales" of a (fairy-tale pavilion in the sky) to write the legendary tales of the real world and its myriad inhabitants, constructing the joys and sorrows, rises and falls of the protagonist Qiu Shan. The book spans three or four decades from the early years of the Guangxu Emperor to the early years of the Republic of China in terms of time; it covers most of China from Beijing to the North China Plain, Northwest, East China, and even the South China Sea in terms of geography; it involves over 1,200 characters, ranging from emperors, empresses, generals, and ministers at the top to regional governors, officials at all levels, clerks, and laborers in the middle, to mountain villagers, urban commoners, soldiers, and bandits at the bottom. The content includes not only major historical events such as the First Sino-Japanese War, the Hundred Days' Reform, the Boxer Uprising, the Xinhai Revolution, and the Northern-South Peace Conference but also natural landscapes, mineral resources, famous scenic spots, and historical sites. It vividly and excellently records the politics, economy, military affairs, diplomacy, ideology, culture, folklore, and social conditions of this period. The stories are both fierce, with cavalry charges and the clash of swords, bloody battles that shake the heavens and earth, and tender, with cherries turning red and banana leaves greening, depicting the love, desire, affection, and romance of hundreds of wealthy and delicate women, scholarly ladies, charming beauties, and heroic women, all entangled in life and death for Qiu Shan, with lingering and poignant emotions. The entire book consists of 800 chapters, approximately 3.6 million words. In terms of its immense scale, the extensive and profound social content, the lifelike portrayal of numerous characters, and the distinctive linguistic features, it fully deserves the title of "The Most Strange Book of the Republic of China."