Mirror Fluctuation (Illustrated Text, Upper and Lower Volumes)

Author: Li Ruzhen (Qing Dynasty)
Publisher:
Publication Date: 2005-07-01
Features: This book is part of the "Classical Popular Fiction Graphic Series." It selects and incorporates the original "full illustrations" and "embroidered portraits" from several ancient vernacular popular novels with a wide readership, using modern techniques to recreate them in the new edition, making the book more exquisite. A Journey to the West is a famous work of ancient vernacular fiction in China, consisting of 100 chapters. The first half depicts the travels of Tang Ao, Lin Zhiyang, and the Elder Brother of Many Years through dozens of countries abroad, describing the local customs, deities, demons, and strange plants, birds, animals, and rain. The author's playful descriptions are engaging. The second half records the various cultural activities of one hundred talented women, including Tang Guichen and others, after passing the imperial examination held by Empress Wu Zetian, such as playing the qin, chess, calligraphy, painting, divination, astrology, phonology, arithmetic, lantern riddles, and drinking games, with detailed descriptions. The illustrated edition of A Journey to the West we are publishing uses the 1888 Shanghai Dianshi Zhai stone-printed edition as the base text for proofreading and editing, supplemented by the 1832 Jiezi Yuan reprinted edition and other popular versions. The illustrations are selected from both the base text and the Jiezi Yuan reprinted edition. There are 100 full illustrations, each paired with a chapter of the novel. Only a few of the one hundred talented women appear in the first fifty chapters, while most appear in groups in the latter half. Each has an embroidered portrait and accompanying praise, which we have arranged in order of their examination rankings and inserted in each chapter.