Yīngyún Mèng Zhuàn 英雲夢傳
The Story of Yingyun’s Dream by 無名氏 (anonymous)
About the work
Yīngyún Mèng Zhuàn 英雲夢傳 is a Qing dynasty romantic novel (cáizǐ jiārén xiǎoshuō 才子佳人小說) in 16 chapters (huí 回), attributed to an anonymous author (wúmíng shì 無名氏). It is set during the Dezong 德宗 reign of the Tang dynasty and follows the intertwined romantic and martial fortunes of a brilliant young scholar whose three-life bond with two remarkable women drives the narrative through separation, reunion, examination success, and ultimate happiness.
Tiyao
No tiyao found in source.
Prefaces
The novel is preceded by a biānyán 弁言 (foreword) and a preface signed by a friend of the actual author. According to the preface, the writer discovered the manuscript in the autumn of a guǐmǎo 癸卯 year (the ancient-style designation 昭陽單閼 confirms this; the most plausible Qing guǐmǎo year is 1843, though 1903 cannot be excluded) when he was staying at Tongshan 銅山 in Shiliang 石梁, together with a friend named Sōngyún 松雲. The preface writer, identifying himself as Sǎohuā Tóutuó Shèngzhāi Shì 掃花頭陀剩齋氏 (“Remaining-Studio Monk Who Sweeps Flowers, from the same village”), praises the novel for depicting a “passionate fool” (qíngchī 情癡) whose three-life bond is so vividly rendered that the story seems real, though the author (Sōngyún) candidly says “there may or may not have been such people.” The preface was written in the first month (liángyuè 良月, i.e., the tenth lunar month) of the guǐmǎo year.
Abstract
The novel opens with a poem reflecting on the transience of life (“Human life’s illusions all become dreams”) before introducing the protagonist in the Tang Dezong period. The sixteen-chapter narrative follows a young scholar through romantic encounters in Suzhou (Mountain Pond 山塘, Xuanmu 玄墓), examination misfortunes and successes, entanglements with a beautiful woman named Yīngyún 英雲 and possibly others, and resolution through official appointment and reunion.
The title Yīngyún Mèng Zhuàn — “The Story of Yingyun’s Dream” — suggests that the central female figure is Yīngyún 英雲, and that a prophetic or revelatory dream is central to the plot. The chapter headings reference Suzhou landmarks (Mountain Pond 山塘, Xuanmu 玄墓 — a famous Buddhist site at Lake Taihu), Wu opera girls (wú nā 吳娃), the examination grounds at the autumn imperial trial, the hero’s “calamity at river crossing” (chapter 6), and a final double examination triumph, reunion, and the birth of twins (chapter 14).
The author Sōngyún 松雲 — “Pine-Cloud” — is a pen name; no further identification is possible. The preface writer Sǎohuā Tóutuó Shèngzhāi Shì is likewise a pseudonym. The work does not appear in the major Qing fiction bibliographies of Sun Kaidi 孫楷第 or Ōtsuka Hidetaka 大塚秀高, suggesting it circulated primarily in manuscript or in limited-circulation woodblock editions.
The novel is a competent but conventional example of the cáizǐ jiārén genre: a poor but gifted scholar, one or more beautiful and talented women, romantic obstacles created by family opposition or villainous rivals, examination triumph, and polygamous resolution. The Suzhou setting and the Tang historical frame are both standard markers of the genre.
Translations and research
No substantial secondary literature located.