Waking World Classics (1-3) - Fragrant Book

Author: (Ming) Feng Menglong
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-07-01
Features:▼Complete Content▼Sandalwood Aroma▼Compact and Lightweight▼Original Illustrations▼Portable
Awakening World Stories 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 Ziyuyou, Mo Han Zhai Master, and Gu Qu San Ren. Throughout his life, he adapted and compiled numerous novels. Awakening World Stories, along with the other two storytelling collections he edited—Worldly Wisdom Stories and Admonitory World Stories—are collectively known as the "Three Words."
This work was published slightly later than the other two and contains fewer Song and Yuan Dynasty storytelling tales compared to the first two books, accounting for about one-sixth of the entire collection. Some confirmed Song and Yuan-era works include The Letter from the Water Bay Fox to Tianhu, The Demise of Jinhai Ling Due to Excessive Desire, Zheng Jieshi’s Achievement with the Divine Armbow, and The Misfortune Born from a Joke about the Fifteen Guan. When compiling these old stories, Feng Menglong made revisions, polished the tales written by Ming Dynasty authors, and even wrote some himself. Many of the 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 handling such themes, the author paid attention to the relationship between historical truth and artistic truth.
The book includes forty stories with diverse styles, some sourced from historical records, others from historical notes and novels throughout the dynasties, while the majority originate directly from folk legends and the realities of social life. Through these plots and characters, it reflects the social life and people’s aspirations of that time from different perspectives and to varying degrees.
This is Awakening World Stories from the "Three Words," consisting of forty volumes. The earliest edition of this book was the Ming Dynasty Jin Qimao Dingmao edition published by Ye Jingchi of Jin Chang, now preserved in the Imperial Household Library in Japan. Additionally, there is the Ming Dynasty Jin Chang Ye Jingxi edition.