Songming Huaben Kuade - Listening to the Ancients Tell Stories

Author: Hu Wanchuan (Editor)
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-01-01
Features: The books selected here are ones you will inevitably read at some point in your lifetime, whether you are ten, thirty, or seventy years old! A minimalist reading list of Chinese culture. From the vast collection of ancient classics, sixty masterpieces have been chosen for the first time to be presented in an accessible and engaging format, fully showcasing the style and essence of Chinese culture over five thousand years. Renowned Taiwanese scholar of Chinese classics revisits the classics with a 21st-century perspective, traversing time and space, guiding you through the "unfenced museum of Chinese culture."
Spring is as intoxicating as wine, cicadas listen to orioles singing through the curtains; small bridges are adorned with fragrant willow catkins, and red peach blossoms scatter on the mountain temples. The orioles grow old, butterflies flutter east and west, and spring returns, leaving endless sorrow behind: grass on the steps is blurred by morning rain, and pear blossoms dance across the ground with the morning breeze.
Storytelling was once the most common and popular form of mass entertainment in China, especially during the Song Dynasty. However, at some point, it vanished under the impact of broadcasting, film, and television. To allow readers to explore a wider range of content in storytelling novels, each piece included in this book represents different themes such as supernatural tales, martial chivalry, romance, and legal cases.
Regarding the adaptation of the original works, the editor has primarily aimed to preserve the distinctive characteristics of storytelling novels. To help readers appreciate the form, content, and unique style of storytelling novels through enjoyable reading, the editor has made every effort to maintain the spirit of the original works, with minimal changes, except where the plot of the original work was disjointed or the language was too obscure. Storytelling novels are originally colloquial fiction, and if the editor had made too many alterations, it might have damaged the original essence or even turned it into the editor's own novel, losing its significance.
The editor believes that after reading the pieces in this book, readers will gain a solid understanding of this unique Chinese literary genre, both in its content and form. This is also one of the editor's wishes.