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 18 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.
As Amazing Tales—First Series by Ling Mengchu (1580-1644) made a hit, the publisher urged him to write a sequel to it. This gave rise to Amazing Tales—Second Series, which has become another bestseller for the last few centuries. Our English version of the Second Series features 19 stories carefully chosen from the original 40. In fascinating plots and a highly expressive colloquial language, they are mostly about women’s fate, their miserable existence in a polygamous society, their daring struggle for genuine love, and their implications in legal cases. All these shed precious light on the social mosaic of seventeenth-century China.
