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喻世明言

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Text ID
KR4k0084
Date
1620–1627
Dynasty
明

Yùshì Míngyán 喻世明言

Illustrious Words to Instruct the World by 馮夢龍 (著)

About the work

Yùshì Míngyán 喻世明言 (Illustrious Words to Instruct the World) is a collection of forty vernacular short stories (huàběn 話本) compiled and edited by Féng Mènglóng 馮夢龍 (1574–1646), first published around 1620 under the title Gǔjīn Xiǎoshuō 古今小說 (Tales Old and New). It forms the first of the three collections known collectively as the Sānyán 三言 (“Three Words”): Yùshì Míngyán, Jǐngshì Tōngyán 警世通言, and Xǐngshì Héngyán 醒世恒言. The forty stories draw on Sòng and Yuán oral storytelling (shuōhuà 說話) traditions as well as literary sources, presenting tales of merchants, scholars, lovers, ghosts, and Buddhist morality.

This entry (KR4k0084) represents a second edition of the same text as KR4k0080. The KR4k0084 source file (approximately 70,862 lines) contains the complete forty juǎn 卷 in two parts (第一部, juǎn 1–20; 第二部, juǎn 21–40), labeled separately, whereas the KR4k0080 source file (approximately 68,351 lines) presents the full text as a single continuous unit labeled 上 (upper). The table of contents, story titles, and preface (xù 敘) in both editions are nearly identical, the principal differences being textual variation in orthography and punctuation. KR4k0084 divides the collection into two separately titled parts, which may reflect a different block-print edition tradition; it should be consulted alongside KR4k0080 when studying textual variants.

The preface (xù), preserved in both editions, is one of the canonical documents in the history of Chinese vernacular fiction. It traces the genealogy of popular narrative from the Zhōu dynasty storytellers and the Táng chuánqí 傳奇 through the Southern Sòng court storytellers and the great Míng historical novels. Féng argues that popular fiction serves the same moral purpose as the Classics, reaching the “village ear” (lǐ ěr 裡耳) that cannot be reached by classical texts alone.

Tiyao

No tiyao found in source.

Abstract

The Yùshì Míngyán was originally published c. 1620 as Gǔjīn Xiǎoshuō 古今小說; the present title was adopted in later printings. Féng Mènglóng 馮夢龍 (1574–1646; CBDB id 131175) was a native of Sūzhōu 蘇州, Jiāngsū, known for his prolific compilation and editing of vernacular fiction, drama, and joke collections. The CBDB records his birth year as 1574 and death year as 1646, consistent with the Míng rén zhuànjì zīliào suǒyǐn 明人傳記資料索引 (page 625). He passed the jǔrén 舉人 examination only in 1631, at the age of fifty-seven, and served briefly as a magistrate of Shòuníng 壽寧, Fújiàn, in his final years.

The Sānyán collections drew on earlier vernacular storytelling manuscripts (the so-called “prompt books” for professional storytellers), which Féng revised, extended, and supplemented with new compositions. Scholarly debate continues over how much of the Yùshì Míngyán represents genuine Sòng/Yuán storytelling material versus Féng’s own compositions or those of his contemporaries. The 120 stories of the Sānyán corpus are the largest surviving body of pre-modern Chinese vernacular short fiction.

The Sānyán erpài 三言二拍 corpus (the three Féng collections plus the two Pāi’àn Jīngqí 拍案驚奇 by Líng Mènghū 凌濛初) is the standard object of study for Míng vernacular short fiction. Endymion Wilkinson (Chinese History: A New Manual, §53.3.2) notes that the 120 stories have been translated into English by Shūhuì Yáng and Yúnqìn Yáng (University of Washington Press, 2000–2009).

This edition (KR4k0084) contains the same forty stories as KR4k0080 but in a two-part format; textual variants between the two editions have not been systematically analyzed in this entry.

Translations and research

  • Yang, Shuhui, and Yunqin Yang, trans. Stories Old and New: A Ming Dynasty Collection (Yùshì Míngyán). Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2000. (Complete translation.)
  • Hanan, Patrick. The Chinese Short Story: Studies in Dating, Authorship, and Composition. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1973.
  • Hanan, Patrick. The Chinese Vernacular Story. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1981.
  • Idema, Wilt, and Lloyd Haft. A Guide to Chinese Literature. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1997, pp. 201–204.

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