Shèn Lóu Zhì Quánzhuàn 蜃樓志全傳
The Complete Chronicle of the Mirage Tower by 庚嶺勞人 (撰)
About the work
Shèn Lóu Zhì Quánzhuàn 蜃樓志全傳 (The Complete Chronicle of the Mirage Tower) is a Qīng-dynasty vernacular novel in 24 huí 回, written under the pen name Gēnglǐng Láorén 庚嶺勞人 (The Toiler of Gengridge — an allusion to the Méilǐng Pass 梅嶺 on the Jiāngxī–Guǎngdōng border). The novel is set in Guǎngdōng 廣東 (Canton) and deals with the world of Cantonese commerce, social life, and official conduct. The title “Mirage Tower” (shèn lóu 蜃樓) evokes the illusory and transient nature of worldly success.
Tiyao
No tiyao found in source.
The source file opens with a preface (序) signed by Luófú Jūshì 羅浮居士 (The Recluse of Luofushan). In it, the preface-writer describes the novel’s aims: unlike fiction that deals in gods and immortals, ghosts and monsters, or that offends against decorum in its treatment of love, this work is grounded in everyday life — “the local scenery, by no means a castle in the air.” He praises it for “speaking of love without injuring elegance, speaking of military affairs without harming the people, achieving karmic retribution without mentioning it, and achieving structural coherence without appearing to seek it — founded on heavenly principle, national law, and human feeling, differing from others not by design but by natural accomplishment.” The preface notes that the author was born and raised in Yuèdōng 粵東 (Guangdong) and wrote of what he knew at first hand.
Abstract
Shèn Lóu Zhì Quánzhuàn is among the few surviving Qīng novels set in the Cantonese commercial world. The author’s pseudonym Gēnglǐng Láorén 庚嶺勞人 evokes the Méilǐng Pass 梅嶺 (also called Gēnglǐng 庚嶺), which historically divided Guǎngdōng from Jiāngxī and was a major route for trade and travel. The preface-writer Luófú Jūshì likewise alludes to Luófushan 羅浮山, a famous Guǎngdōng mountain, suggesting the author and his circle had strong Cantonese connections.
The novel’s 24 chapters narrate interlocking stories of merchant families, corrupt officials, and righteous heroes in the Guǎngzhōu region. Major characters include Li Guodong 李國棟 and Su Wankui 蘇萬魁, whose fortunes rise and fall in the commercial and official world of the Pearl River delta. The plot encompasses the Canton trade milieu, local government malfeasance, and the trials of women caught in polygamous households. The chapter headings — including episodes such as “Sū Xiào’guān Goes Looking for Beauty on a Dark Night” (回三) and “Zhōu Guān, a Minor Official, Hangs Himself from Shame” (回七) — indicate a realistic, socially engaged mode of fiction.
The preface states that the author grew up in Guǎngdōng and drew on personal knowledge; this, combined with the pen name, strongly suggests a Guǎngdōng or Jiāngxī origin. The work has been dated to the late eighteenth century, probably the Qiánlóng 乾隆 or early Jiāqìng 嘉慶 period (c. 1780–1800), on stylistic grounds and by comparison with similar Cantonese social fiction, though no dated preface or colophon has been located to fix the date precisely. The identity of the author remains unknown. No entry for this work or pen name has been found in CBDB.
Translations and research
No substantial secondary literature located.