Stories Old and New is the first complete translation of Feng Menglong's Gujin xiaoshuo (also known as Yushi mingyan, or Illustrious Words to Instruct the World), a collection of forty short stories first published in 1620 in China. This is considered the best of Feng's three such collections and was a pivotal work in the development of vernacular fiction. The stories are valuable as examples of early fiction and for their detailed depiction of daily life among a broad range of social classes.
The stories are populated by scholars and courtesans, spirits and ghosts, Buddhist monks and nuns, pirates and emperors, and officials both virtuous and corrupt. Characters find themselves involved in political intrigue, tests of friendship, inheritance disputes, extramarital affairs, and visits to the underworld. Social mores are examined through playful manipulations of plot and subplot. Virtue is eventually rewarded (though perhaps not in this life), and the world -- seen and unseen -- is depicted as a complicated but ultimately logical and understandable place. The streets and abodes of late-Ming China, and the characters who populate them, come alive in Shuhui Yang and Yunqin Yang's smooth and colorful translation of these entertaining tales.
Stories Old and New has been published in China in numerous editions. Although English translations of some of the stories have appeared in journals and anthologies, until now, nowhere have the stories been presented sequentially in thematic pairs as arranged by Feng Menglong. This unabridged translation is illustrated with a selection of woodcuts from the original Ming edition and includes Feng's interlinear notes and marginal comments, as well asall of the verse woven throughout the text.
