Ear Food Records: Three Unusual Pens Discuss

Author: (Qing) Yue Jun, Xu Zhongyuan
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Features: Yue Jun, the author of Er Shi Lu, styled Yuanшу, styled Lianchang, was a native of Linchuan, Jiangxi. He was a successful candidate in the imperial examination during the Jiaqing era of the Qing Dynasty. From a young age, Yue Jun served as a counselor for local officials and traveled extensively. He recorded famous mountains, rivers, historical sites, and old cities in poetry. In his travels, he collected and compiled interesting anecdotes, which were later written into Er Shi Lu. In the stories of Er Shi Lu, the author focuses on depicting the deepest emotions and love of people. Works such as The Mad Woman, Zhou Yingru, and Zhang Biyun are tributes to the genuine human spirit. Er Shi Lu is distinguished by its romantic tales of love, a wealth of ghost stories, and folk legends. Additionally, Er Shi Lu contains several passages with progressive significance.
Xu Zhongyuan, styled Xiaoou, was a native of Songjiang. He began his career as a counselor and later rose to official status, experiencing ups and downs in his official career throughout his life. At the age of seventy-three, he was dismissed from office and settled in Wulin, where he wrote San Yi Bi Tan. The key difference between San Yi Bi Tan and other anecdotal novels lies in its lack of focus on supernatural tales or ghost stories. Instead, it presents worldly anecdotes and stories observed through the eyes of an experienced official who rose from a clerk to a government position. Works such as The Litigant, Strange Encounters in the Imperial Examination System, The Willow Bailiff, Miao Customs, and The Injustice of the Qianwei Woman are examples of such observations.