500（）

Author: Zhang Bing
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-07-01
Features: Following the flourishing Tang poetry, Song lyrics, and Yuan qu (quyi), the Ming and Qing dynasties saw the rise of novels, which were diverse in content and style, vibrant and colorful. However, among the vast sea of Ming and Qing novels, due to their scattered locations, complex versions, and numerous private collections, it was not easy to read them all. This book aims to present the original form of Ming and Qing novels by carefully selecting 500 works from the numerous available ones, covering both public and private collections and encompassing various schools of thought. The selected novels span from the first year of the Hongwu era (1368) in the Ming Dynasty to the end of the final lunar year of the Xinhai Revolution in 1911. Some collections of storytelling novels from the Ming Dynasty, which include individual stories from the Song and Yuan periods, such as Sixty Novels, are also included. Works written before the third year of the Xuantong era (1911) in the Qing Dynasty, even if completed and published later during the Republican period, are also included, such as The Strange Case of Guo Gong with the Sealed Seal. The book covers all genres of Ming and Qing novels, such as historical romances, heroic legends, supernatural tales, social stories, martial heroism and detective fiction, satire, erotic tales, and moral condemnation. It also includes various literary forms, such as vernacular long novels, vernacular short stories, and classical notes. Some erotic novels, which occupy a significant portion of Ming and Qing novels and are an indispensable part of social stories, hold an important position in the development of Ming and Qing novels. To reflect the overall picture of Ming and Qing novels, this book also includes them in appropriate quantities. Each selected novel in the book provides information on its version and transmission, along with a summary of its plot, aiming to help enthusiasts of Ming and Qing novels understand the overall landscape and stylistic features of these works. The book serves as both a reference tool for classical literature researchers and a source for general readers to explore and appreciate Ming and Qing novels.