Okay, here is the translation following your instructions: The First Strange Stories from the Table

Author: (Ming) Ling Mengchu / Tang Songbo (ed.)
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-12-01
Features: The creation of Chinese short stories in the late Ming Dynasty achieved remarkable accomplishments. Following the "Three Words" (San Yan), the "First Strange Stories" (Chu Ke Pa An Jing) and "Second Strange Stories" (Er Ke Pa An Jing) emerged, collectively known as "The Two Strange Stories" (Er Pai). They are also a precious literary heritage of ancient China. The author of "The Two Strange Stories," [Ming] Ling Mengchu (1580—1644), styled Xuanfang, styled Chu Cheng, styled Jike Guan Zhe, was from Wucheng, Huizhou (now Wuxing, Zhejiang). Ling Mengchu was born into a scholarly family. In his youth, he repeatedly failed the imperial examinations and turned to writing and publishing books instead. In the seventh year of the Chongzhen reign (1634), he was selected as a deputy scholar and appointed as the county magistrate of Shanghai, overseeing coastal defense and clearing up the accumulated corruption in the salt fields. In the fifteenth year of the Chongzhen reign, he was promoted to the position of assistant magistrate of Xuzhou and concurrently served in Fangcun. In the seventeenth year of the Chongzhen reign, when Li Zicheng's army approached Xuzhou, Ling Mengchu refused to surrender and died of grief and blood vomiting. He wrote extensively in his lifetime, with his greatest contribution lying in the creation of popular literature. The guiding ideology of "Pa An Jing" is also to promote virtue and punish evil. The author claimed, "I focus on admonition, hence I repeatedly emphasize this in each chapter." At times, the discussions may become overly verbose, but some of them are worth noting, such as the opening discussion on bandits in Volume Eight, which directly targets the ruling class and is not empty talk. Due to the limitations of historical conditions, the book reflects a strong sense of fatalism, as well as concepts like karma and patriarchal values. In some passages, descriptions of sexual behavior are quite explicit, and we should adopt a critical attitude toward these.