Amazing Tales First Series: Panda Books

Chinese Title: 熊猫丛书：初刻拍案惊奇
Title: Amazing Tales First Series

  ISBN: 9787119033518

  Edition: English

  Publishing Date: 2005-01

  Author/Translator: Ling Mengchu/Wen Jingen 

Publishing House: Foreign Languages Press

Format: 32mo Cover: P

Page: 360pp Spec: 203*140mm

Introduction:

A Perennial Bestseller on Townsfolk Life Amazing Tales-First Series together with Amazing Tales-Second Series authored by Ling Mengchu (1580-1644), a famous writer of venacular stories, have topped the best-loved works of Chinese fiction in the past centuries. Stories from the collections are known to almost everyone in China. In close-knit plots, often punctuated with surprising denouements, and vivid colloquial language, these stories cover a wide range of subjects, from young men and women in love and family disputes to complicated legal cases. Now both books have been translated into English. In Amazing Tales -- First Series l8 stories are selected from the original 40 to sing the praise of fidelity of love and all-weather friendship, expose the greed of some nefarious monks and nuns for sex and wealth, and urge the authorities to uphold justice in handling cases. While enjoying these fascinating tales, the reader can get a glimpse of the ethics, customs, and social life of seventeenth-century China.

Content:

Tale 1

Mr Fortune Comes Across Red Fruit from Dongting;A Persian M erchant Discerns the Shell of a Drum Dragon

Tale 2

Escaping Disgrace Yao Dizhu Encounters Disgrace;Making an Error Zheng Yue'e Utilizes the Error

Tale 3

Liu Dongshan Brags of His Prowess at a City Gate;Eighteenth Brother Shows off Marvels in a Village Tavern

Tale 4

Nun Zhao Ensnares a Beauty with Narcotic Wine;Scholar Jia Take His Revenge with an Ingenious Plot

Tale 5

General Woolly Pays the Debt of a Dinner; Chen Dalang Reunites with His Lost Kinfolk

Tale 6

Schoolar Han Acquires a Pretty Wife Amidst the Chaos; Prefect Wu Confirms a Marriage Contract in Favor of Talent

Tale 7

An Evil Boat Owner Takes Money for an Unidentified Corpse;A Base Servant Files an Accusation about an Alleged Murder

Tale 8

Zhao the Sixth Dies at the Hand of His Pampered Son;Magistrate Zhang Punishes the Evil with an Irrevocable Death Verdict