Mirage

Anonymous.Translated by Patrick Hanan

• Publisher: The Chinese University of Hong Kong
• Year: 2014
• eBook ISBN: 9789629965815

The young son of the head of the Chinese traders' association, the men licensed to deal with foreign merchants in the port of Guangzhou, is suddenly burdened with responsibility for his powerful family upon his father's sudden death. A latter-day Baoyu, but with far stronger sexual impulses, the son learns both to tame his own libido to some degree and to conduct himself prudently in the Guangzhou society of his time. All of this appears in a comparatively little-known and little-studied novel called Shenlou zhi ???, which is here translated for the first time.The novel was actually first published in 1804, several decades before opium became a factor in the China trade. It is not only by far the earliest novel to deal with that trade, but also one of the earliest accounts of it. Furthermore, it has been found to be closely connected to events that occurred in Guangzhou and Huizhou in the years just before the time of its publication—the arrival of a new Superintendent of Customs in Guangzhou and the outbreak of rebellion in Huizhou. This strikingly original work develops the culture of adolescence that was first described in Honglou meng ??? and also relishes, in its account of the rebellion, the romantic conventions of Shuihu zhuan ???.

Table of contents

• Half Title Page
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Introduction
• 1. Riches arouse the superintendent’s interest | Connections lead to the traders’ release
• 2. Li Jiangshan interc edes in a difficult dispute | Su Wankui withdraws at the height of his career
• 3. Suxin bemoans her fate as a beauty | Jishi searc hes for sex in the night
• 4. In Break-Cassia Studio a pair of lovers open acc ounts | At the Double Ninth festival the class visits Mt. Yuexiu
• 5. Matchmaking causes two birds to lose their feathers | Flirtation leads to one sister’s falling in love
• 6. Heh Zhifu installs mistresses in a separate wing | Li Jiangshan comes upon a hero in Qujiang county
• 7. An ambitious river police chief plays along | A humiliated customs official hangs himself
• 8. Shen Jin is restored to office by imperial grace | Su Wankui dies on hearing of a robbery
• 9. In burning old deeds a son carr ies out his father’swishes | By faking a prayer a priest engages in a lasciviousact
• 10. Lü Youkui forms an alliance at an inn | Yao Huowu is thrown into jail in Haifeng
• 11. Feng Gang catches a tiger on Goat’s Foot Ridge | Ho Wu kills an ox at Phoenix Tail River1
• 12. Hearing of his brother’s death, a prisoner breaksout of jail | Taking advantage of a visit, an abbot gains a gem
• 13. Emerging from reclusion, he reviews commanders | A bandit for the present, he is awarded high rank
• 14. Faced with a cr uel husband, she bites her tongueand endures her shame | Meeting an artful woman, he hopes for sex but getsfeces instead
• 15. Three scoundrels set a trap | Four beauties disappear
• 16. Reunion, as Qiao rejoins her lord | Justice, as Shangguan punishes scoundrels
• 17. Wu Biyuan lays his complaint before the censor | Su Jishi flees to Qingyuan to escape danger
• 18. Vice-president Yuan impounds Heh’s possessions | Governor-general Hu withdraws to Huizhou
• 19. A girl suffers a tragic fate at New Year’s | An in-law embarks on a literary career
• 20. Yao Huowu rebuffs Mola | Wen Chuncai outdoes Bian Ruyu
• 21. A friend’s letter leads a hero to submit | A year’s leave allows a censor to marr y
• 22. After receiving high office, a civil official joins the army | While taking defensive measures, a demon practices magic
• 23. Commander Yao triumphs in a single night | Iron Mouth Lei reads faces and predicts lives
• 24. His womenfolk compose beautiful lines | His brothers sing a song of court delight