Amazing Views of Ancient and Modern Times (Dual-Color Illustrations and Text, Up and Down)

Author: (Ming) Bao Weng Laoren (Editor)
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2005-08-01
Features: Fiction is the complement of official history. The anecdotes of the transformed and the bent-old man recorded in the Zhuangzi and Liezi are not listed in history. The Journey of the Yellow Emperor to the West, The Legend of the Four Gentlemen, and The Spring and Autumn Annals of Wu and Yue all belong to the category of fiction. The tales such as Remnants of the Kaiyuan Era, The Crimson Thread, The Unparalleled, The Fragrant Pill, and The Hidden Maiden, as well as the records in The Disconnected Car and Yi Jian, are all called fiction, yet their style is refined and rarely discussed among the common folk. The actors Huang Fei Cuo and Jing Xin Mo performed (zaju), subtly satirizing current affairs. Though their stories were fantastical and popular among the masses, their original texts were not preserved. By the time of the Song Dynasty, Emperor Xiaozong had the imperial entourage gather extraordinary tales from the people, submitting them daily—these were called "storytellers," and the popular Romance of the Popular began to flourish. However, many of the stories were vulgar and crude, further hindered by taboos, making them tedious to read and hardly worth the effort. During the Yuan Dynasty, Shi and Luo two masters greatly advanced the art of fiction with works like Water Margin and Romance of the Three Kingdoms, which were both extraordinary and profound, leaving no room for comparison. Critics paired these two works with The Lament of Dongyan and The West Chamber, calling them the "Four Great Classics," a truly remarkable achievement. In the Ming Dynasty, with cultural refinement at its peak, authors flourished, whether in grand imperial works or in folk histories. The storytelling tradition also became specialized. Yet, The Golden Basin was criticized for its lewd content, while Journey to the West and Journey to the West in the West indulged in fantastical tales of painting ghosts. If these works had no relevance to morality, why were they worth reading in such quantity? Mo Han Zhai supplemented The Legend of the Demons, employing exquisite craftsmanship without losing its essence, placing it between the level of Water Margin and Romance of the Three Kingdoms. His compiled works All for the World, A Warning to the World, and A Awakening to the World vividly depicted the diverse aspects of human life and relationships, leaving readers deeply moved. Yet, like a final note in a melody, they returned to the virtues of simplicity. The master of the Empty Pavilion, using his pen as a weapon, created Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio, a work that required great effort to obtain but was well worth the search. Together, these two collections contain over two hundred stories, making them vast and difficult to fully appreciate. Moreover, Luo Ji collected them without discrimination, so how could every story be truly extraordinary? Just as printing presses multiply, so do the classics grow tedious—even in an era of excellence, there must be a few mediocre works. I propose to select the best hundred chapters and reprint them to create a grand collection. Yet, Bao Weng Laoren has already shared my sentiment, selecting forty works to compile The Marvels of Ancient and Modern Times.
The wonders of sea mirages and fire mountains may seem extraordinary, but they are not witnessed by the common eye, making them akin to the "ice bug" of suspicion. Thus, the true marvels of the world lie not in the extraordinary but in the ordinary. Benevolence, righteousness, propriety, and wisdom are called "common hearts"; loyalty, filial piety, chastity, and heroism are called "common actions"; good and evil retribution is called "common principles"; and sages, heroes, and the virtuous are called "common people." Yet, common hearts are rarely preserved, common actions are seldom practiced, common principles are seldom seen, and common people are seldom encountered. Thus, we marvel and speak of them. Those who hear may weep or sigh, rejoice or be astonished. The good are inspired, while the wicked feel shame and alarm, all contributing to the beauty of moral cultivation. Thus, what moves us most is the teaching of the most common. How can I know that the concerns of the common folk are not as important as those of the court? How can folk tales not align with official history? To view them as mere tales of swallowing swords, breathing fire, or thunder in summer and ice in winter is to lead people into confusion, utterly pointless. I hope those who read fiction will take this to heart.
Written by the laughing flower master of Suzhou