Fěnzhuānglóu Quánzhuàn 粉妝樓全傳
The Complete Tale of the Powder-and-Rouge Tower by 無名氏 (撰)
About the work
Fěnzhuānglóu Quánzhuàn 粉妝樓全傳 is an 80-huí (chapter) Qīng-dynasty martial-romance novel (wǔxiá yīngxióng chuānqí 武俠英雄傳奇). It continues the heroic genealogies of the Suí–Táng military noble families first celebrated in Luó Guānzhōng’s 羅貫中 Suí-Táng Yǎnyì 隋唐演義, tracing the loyal-and-righteous descendants of such houses as the Qín 秦 and Luó 羅 clans into the next generation. The narrative interweaves military adventure, chivalric brotherhood, and romantic intrigue, championing the principle that “good men must have worthy posterity, while the wicked shall not prevail.”
Tiyao
No tiyao found in source.
Abstract
The preface, signed “Zhúxī Shānrén 竹溪山人” and dated Dàoguāng rénchén 道光壬辰 (the first month of spring, 1832), states that the compiler encountered an old manuscript of Fěnzhuānglóu while passing through Guǎnglíng 廣陵 (Yangzhou), attributed it to Luó Guānzhōng but long kept private, and undertook a fresh collation to correct scribal errors before committing the text to printing blocks. The preface presents the work as a companion to Suí-Táng Yǎnyì, focusing on the secondary generation of heroes — loyal men and chaste women, chivalric knights and famous scholars — and frames the narrative purpose as moral: to ensure that good families are remembered while villains are punished. The attribution to Luó Guānzhōng is almost certainly fictitious; the internal style and references point to a Qīng composition, with the 1832 preface representing the date of the received edition. The author’s true identity is unknown; “Zhúxī Shānrén” is a pseudonym of the compiler/editor rather than the original author. The work circulates in a single received text of 80 chapters, structured around the Tang founding heroes’ offspring and an elaborate web of loyalties and marriages across the Qín 秦, Luó 羅, Bǎi 柏, Hóu 侯, and Qí 祁 families.
Wilkinson (Chinese History: A New Manual) does not list this novel specifically; it belongs to the broad tradition of Suí–Táng military romance that also produced Shuō Táng 說唐 and Shuō Táng Hòuzhuan 說唐後傳, a genre not individually surveyed there.
Translations and research
No substantial secondary literature located.
Links
- Ctext.org: no dedicated entry located.