Chīrén Fú 癡人福
Fortune of a Fool by 不題撰人 (author unnamed)
About the work
Chīrén Fú 癡人福 (Fortune of a Fool) is a Qīng-dynasty vernacular novel in eight huì 回 (chapters) of anonymous authorship. The catalog entry records the author as bù tí zhuàn rén 不題撰人 (author’s name not given), following the Qīng convention of pseudonymous or anonymous popular fiction. The preface, signed by “Méishí Shānrén” 梅石山人 and dated to “Qìng shí nián chūnyuè” 慶十年春月 (Spring of the tenth year of Qìng, i.e., Jiāqìng 慶 = Jiāqìng reign 嘉慶, tenth year = 1805), describes the work as found in an old manuscript (chāoběn 抄本) that the preface-writer had reprinted and circulated. The preface-writer Méishí Shānrén is also of unknown identity.
The novel concerns a group of characters whose fortunes are reversed by their own “foolishness” (chī 癡) — a term in this context meaning naïve virtue or single-minded devotion — which turns out to be the vehicle of heaven’s reward. The eight chapters follow:
- 醜郎君巧設鴛鴦計 (The ugly young man devises a mandarin-duck scheme)
- 美佳人智謀觀音堂 (The beautiful woman schemes at the Guanyin temple)
- 醜媳婦隱妒侍夫 (The ugly wife conceals her jealousy to serve her husband)
- 好家人潛心奉主 (The good servant devotedly serves the master)
- 唐夫人背夫遣妾 (Lady Tang, behind her husband’s back, dismisses the concubine)
- 田家仆爲國籌餉 (The Tian family servant raises funds for the state)
- 唐子才智定鴛鴦, 內應外合奏功捷 (Tang Zicai’s resourcefulness unites the couple)
- 田北平虔誠沐浴, 變形換面受皇恩 (Tian Beiping’s piety earns imperial grace)
The novel’s moral framework — that foolish sincerity (chīchéng 癡誠) is rewarded by heaven while worldly cleverness is ultimately punished — is standard in morality fiction of the Jiāqìng era.
Prefaces
The preface by Méishí Shānrén (dated Spring 1805) explains that he found the text as an incomplete manuscript copy (cányuǎn zhōng 殘卷中), recognized its moral value despite its unpretentious style, and had it reprinted. He urges readers to “broadly circulate it” (guǎng wéi chuánbù 廣爲傳佈) and hopes it will serve as a moral corrective.
Abstract
Chīrén Fú is an early-nineteenth-century anonymous Qīng moral novel, whose preface dates its (re-)printing to 1805 (Jiāqìng 10). The original composition date is unknown — the preface characterizes the manuscript as an older text (cányuǎn 殘卷), suggesting possible late-Qīng or even late-Míng origin, but without further evidence a composition bracket of ca. 1800–1820 is adopted here as the date of the received version.
The novel belongs to the tradition of morality fiction (shàn shū 善書 adjacent) that flourished in the Qīng, using domestic narratives of marital loyalty, servant devotion, and unexpected dynastic service to illustrate karmic reward. The use of “ugly” male protagonists who receive beautiful wives — a structural inversion of normal romance convention — as a test of the female protagonist’s virtue is a notable feature. The preface’s claim that the work is “not inferior to the Four Great Novels” (zhēn bù yà yú sì dà qíshū 真不亞於四大奇書) is a conventional piece of publisher’s hyperbole.
The work is not recorded in the Sìkù quánshū 四庫全書 or major Qīng bibliographic catalogs.
Translations and research
No substantial secondary literature located.
Links
- Kanripo text: https://www.kanripo.org/text/KR4k0088/