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Author: Lu Renlong
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2005-03-01
Features: Xingshi Yan is an outstanding collection of mock-conversational narrative novels published during the Chongzhen era of the Ming Dynasty. Its full title is Zhengxiao Guan Pingding Tongsu Yanyi Xingshi Yan, consisting of ten volumes and forty chapters, written by Lu Renlong. The original manuscript is now preserved in the Kui Zhang Ge of Seoul National University in South Korea. Since the late Ming Dynasty and early Qing Dynasty, this book has long been lost to the world, unknown to many. It is not mentioned in Ming and Qing literature, nor is it listed in the bibliographies of scholars such as Wang Gulu, Sun Jiaodi, Zheng Zhenduo, and Ohno Hidetaka. The only known reference to Xingshi Yan is in the Zhengxiao Guan edition of Huangming Shiliujia Xiaopin. The book contains two pages of a call for contributions, stating, "Contributions are welcome at the home of Lu Yuhou in Huashi, Hangzhou, and at the residence of Lin Jifang and Wang Fuchu in Cheng'en Temple, Jinling." The list of books to be published mentions, "Publishing Xingshi Yan Erji, collecting rare stories from across the country."① Whether this Xingshi Yan Erji was ever completed remains unknown, but the Yiji must have been finished, as it is the Xingshi Yan we have today. precisely because of the near-total lack of knowledge about Xingshi Yan, many unresolved questions have been left in the study of Ming Dynasty popular fiction, especially mock-conversational narrative novels. Thus, it can be said that the discovery of Xingshi Yan has filled a gap in the history of ancient vernacular fiction. According to the Kui Zhang Ge Library Catalogue of Chinese Manuscripts·Collective Works·Fiction Category, Xingshi Yan now survives in eleven volumes, without a preface, table of contents, or illustrations, containing only the forty chapters of the main text. According to Mr. Chen Qinghao's research, the original book should have been eleven volumes: the first volume contained the preface, table of contents, and forty pages with eighty illustrations, while the remaining ten volumes contained the main text, with four chapters per volume bound as a single volume. The first volume is now lost, leaving only the main text. The eleven volumes we have today were later reassembled and are not in their original form. Although the preface and table of contents of the original book are no longer extant, some illustrations can still be found. While studying the Bieben Ercie Padianqing preserved in the Bibliothèque Nationale de France in Paris, Mr. Chen Qinghao discovered that the first volume originally contained seventeen pages with thirty-four illustrations, including pages (two illustrations) taken from Feng Menglong's Xingshi Hengyan, Volume 7, Qian Xiucai Cuozhan Fenghuang Youqun; the third page (two illustrations) from Xingshi Hengyan, Volume 8, Qiao Guanzhang Luandian Yuanyang Pufa. The origin of the second page remains to be investigated. From the fourth page to the seventeenth page, there are twenty-eight illustrations, all from Xingshi Yan.① In this edition, we have placed these twenty-eight illustrations at the beginning of the book for reference. The author of Xingshi Yan is Lu Renlong, and the publisher and annotator is Lu Renlong's brother, Lu Yunlong, a renowned Hangzhou book dealer. Each chapter of the book begins with Lu Renlong's signature, such as "Qiantang Lu Renlong Jun Yifu," "Qiantang Jun Yilong Lu Renlong," "Qiantang Lu Renlong," or "Qiantang Lu Jun Yifu," using terms like "yǎn," "yanyi," "jí," "zhuàn," or "biān." This indicates that Lu Renlong's courtesy name was Jun Yifu and that he was from Qiantang (now Hangzhou, Zhejiang). Xingshi Yan is a specialized collection of mock-conversational narrative novels independently created by Lu Renlong.