Dù Piàn Xīnshū 杜騙新書
New Book for Foiling Swindlers by 張應俞
About the work
A one-juàn compendium of swindle types and cautionary stories organized in twenty-four categories, compiled by 張應俞 Zhāng Yìngyú (fl. ca. 1617; catalog romanization 张应俞). The title means literally “New book for blocking (dù 杜) swindles (piàn 騙).” Each of the twenty-four categories (lèi 類) groups together several case narratives illustrating a particular type of con, ranging from common street fraud to more elaborate impostures:
- Tuōbāo piàn 脫剝騙 (Clothes-stripping swindles)
- Diūbāo piàn 丟包騙 (Purse-drop swindles)
- Huànyín piàn 換銀騙 (Silver-exchange swindles)
- Jiājì piàn 僧道騙 (Clergy imposture swindles)
- Liàn dān piàn 煉丹騙 (Alchemical-elixir swindles)
- Yǐn piāo piàn 引嫖騙 (Prostitution-lure swindles)
(and twenty others; see table of contents in source file).
Tiyao
No tiyao found in source.
Abstract
張應俞 Zhāng Yìngyú (fl. ca. 1617) is known only as the author of this work. No CBDB record has been identified. The Dù Piàn Xīnshū belongs to a genre of Ming practical literature (shìyòng shūjí 實用書籍) that offered both entertainment and cautionary guidance for merchants and travelers in an increasingly commercialized and mobile society. It is set in the late Míng Jiāngnanregion (Fujian, Jiangxi, the Yangtze delta), and many of its case narratives feature merchants, travelers, and townspeople.
The work has attracted scholarly attention as a source for late-Míng commercial culture, urban crime, and vernacular narrative technique. The stories are told in a semi-fictional, anecdote-based style, each concluding with a moralistic summary. The twenty-four categories cover the full range of documented con-schemes, from simple street tricks to elaborate long-game impersonations. As a document of late-Míng vernacular language and social history, it is an important source for the period’s material culture and ethical anxieties about commercial society.
The English translation by Rea and Rusk (2017) is the principal access point for non-Chinese readers.
Translations and research
- Rea, Christopher G., and Bruce Rusk, tr. 2017. Scheming swindlers: Con artists and their victims in late imperial China. ColUP. Full annotated English translation with extensive introduction to Ming fraud literature and social context.
Links
- Wikidata: no dedicated entry located