Feng Menglong
Encyclopedia
Feng Menglong was a Chinese
vernacular writer and poet of the late Ming Dynasty
. He was born in Changzhou
, now Suzhou
, in Jiangsu
Province, People's Republic of China.
Feng was a proponent of the school of Li Zhi, which supported the importance of human feelings and behavior in literature. Most of his literary work was in editing and compiling histories, almanacs and novels. Two of his noteworthy novels are Pingyao Zhuan and Qing Shi. Another work, Dongzhou Lieguo Zhi ("Romance of the Eastern Zhou Kingdoms") has been turned into a TV show. In 1620 he published the Gujin Xiaoshuo ("Stories Old and New").
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
vernacular writer and poet of the late Ming Dynasty
Ming Dynasty
The Ming Dynasty, also Empire of the Great Ming, was the ruling dynasty of China from 1368 to 1644, following the collapse of the Mongol-led Yuan Dynasty. The Ming, "one of the greatest eras of orderly government and social stability in human history", was the last dynasty in China ruled by ethnic...
. He was born in Changzhou
Changzhou
Changzhou is a prefecture-level city in southern Jiangsu province of the People's Republic of China. It was previously known as Yanling, Lanling, Jinling, and Wujin. Located on the southern bank of the Yangtze River, Changzhou borders the provincial capital of Nanjing to the west, Zhenjiang to the...
, now Suzhou
Suzhou
Suzhou , previously transliterated as Su-chou, Suchow, and Soochow, is a major city located in the southeast of Jiangsu Province in Eastern China, located adjacent to Shanghai Municipality. The city is situated on the lower reaches of the Yangtze River and on the shores of Taihu Lake and is a part...
, in Jiangsu
Jiangsu
' is a province of the People's Republic of China, located along the east coast of the country. The name comes from jiang, short for the city of Jiangning , and su, for the city of Suzhou. The abbreviation for this province is "苏" , the second character of its name...
Province, People's Republic of China.
Feng was a proponent of the school of Li Zhi, which supported the importance of human feelings and behavior in literature. Most of his literary work was in editing and compiling histories, almanacs and novels. Two of his noteworthy novels are Pingyao Zhuan and Qing Shi. Another work, Dongzhou Lieguo Zhi ("Romance of the Eastern Zhou Kingdoms") has been turned into a TV show. In 1620 he published the Gujin Xiaoshuo ("Stories Old and New").
Works
- Jingshi TongyanJingshi TongyanJingshi Tongyan is the second of a trilogy of widely celebrated Ming Dynasty vernacular story collections, compiled and edited by Feng Menglong. The first compilation, called Gujin Xiaoshuo , which is sometimes also referred to as Yushi Mingyan was published in Suzhou in 1620...
- Pingyao Zhuan
- Qing Shi
- Gujin Xiaoshuo ("Stories Old and New") published (1620), also known as Yushi Mingyan (喻世明言) ("Illustrious Words to Instruct the World") selections translated by Cyril Birch, Stories from a Ming Collection: Translations of Chinese Short Stories Published in the Seventeenth Century (Bloomington,: Indiana University Press, 1959; rpr New York: Grove); translated in its entirety: Yang Shuihu, Yang Yunqin, Stories Old and New: A Ming Dynasty Collection (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2000)