Early Edition of Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio - Fully Illustrated Edition

Author: Ling Mengchu
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2003-06-01
Features: The First Collection of Surprising Stories (Chu Ke Pa An Qi Jing) is a collection of fictional tales written in the late Ming Dynasty by Ling Mengchu. It was completed in the seventh year of the Tianqi reign (1627) of the Ming Dynasty and published by the Shang You Tang publishing house the following year. Later, Ling Mengchu compiled The Second Collection of Surprising Stories, which was published in the fifth year of the Chongzhen reign (1632) of the Ming Dynasty. The two books are collectively referred to as "The Two Paks." The First Collection of Surprising Stories originally consisted of forty volumes with forty tales, but the original manuscript is lost. The earliest and most complete version now available is the Shang You Tang edition preserved in the National Diet Library of Japan, which contains thirty-nine volumes (missing volume twenty-three), corresponding to the actual thirty-nine tales.