Idle Talk under the Bean Arbor
eBook - ePub

Idle Talk under the Bean Arbor

A Seventeenth-Century Chinese Story Collection

  1. 320 pages
  2. English
  3. ePUB (mobile friendly)
  4. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub

Idle Talk under the Bean Arbor

A Seventeenth-Century Chinese Story Collection

About this book

Written around 1660, the unique Chinese short story collection Idle Talk under the Bean Arbor (Doupeng xianhua), by the author known only as Aina the Layman, uses the seemingly innocuous setting of neighbors swapping yarns on hot summer days under a shady arbor to create a series of stories that embody deep disillusionment with traditional values. The tales, ostensibly told by different narrators, parody heroic legends and explore issues that contributed to the fall of the Ming dynasty a couple of decades before this collection was written, including self-centeredness and social violence. These stories speak to all troubled times, demanding that readers confront the pretense that may lurk behind moralistic stances. Idle Talk under the Bean Arbor presents all twelve stories in English translation along with notes from the original commentator, as well as a helpful introduction and analysis of individual stories.

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Yes, you can access Idle Talk under the Bean Arbor by Aina the Layman,Ziran the Eccentric Wanderer, Robert E. Hegel in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Literature & Chinese History. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.

Table of contents

  1. Cover
  2. Title Page
  3. Copyright
  4. Dedication
  5. Contents
  6. Acknowledgments
  7. Introduction: Gossip and Exaggeration in Aina’s Short Stories
  8. Terms of Measurement and Titles
  9. Chronology of China’s Historical Periods (Dynasties and States)
  10. Idle Talk Under the Bean Arbor
  11. Preface Dashed off by Whistling Crane of the Empty Heavens
  12. Foreword Written by Aina the Layman from Shengshui With Commentary by Ziran the Eccentric Wanderer from Yuanhu
  13. Session 1 Jie Zhitui Sets Fire to His Jealous Wife
  14. Session 2 Fan Li Drowns Xishi in West Lake
  15. Session 3 A Court-Appointed Gentleman Squanders His Wealth but Takes Power
  16. Session 4 The Commissioner’s Son Wastes His Patrimony to Revive the Family
  17. Session 5 The Little Beggar Who Was Truly Filial
  18. Session 6 The Exalted Monks Who Faked Transcendence
  19. Session 7 On Shouyang Mountain, Shuqi Becomes a Turncoat
  20. Session 8 With a Transparent Stone, Master Wei Opens Blind Eyes
  21. Session 9 Liu the Brave Tests a Horse on the Yuyang Road
  22. Session 10 Freeloader Jia Forms a League on Tiger Hill
  23. Session 11 In Death, Commander Dang Beheads His Enemy
  24. Session 12 In Detail, Rector Chen Discourses on the Cosmos
  25. Afterthoughts on Stories
  26. Historical and Cultural References
  27. Notes
  28. Glossary of Chinese Characters
  29. Bibliography
  30. Contributors