Féng Mènglóng 馮夢龍 (1574–1646; CBDB 131175, note: the biography reference is Míng-rén chuánjì zīliào suǒyǐn 明人傳記資料索引, p. 625), zì Yóulóng 猶龍, hào Mòhánzhāi zhǔrén 墨憨齋主人 and Lóngzǐyóu 龍子猶, of Cháng-zhōu 長洲 (present-day Sūzhōu 蘇州, Jiāngsū). One of the most prolific and influential editors, anthologists, and fiction writers of the late Míng period.
Féng passed the xiùcái 秀才 examination and spent decades in Sūzhōu engaged in the book trade and literary culture before finally obtaining the gōngshēng 貢生 degree. In 1634 he was appointed magistrate of Shòuníng 壽寧 county (Fújiàn), serving until 1638. After the fall of the Míng he refused to serve under the Qīng and died in 1646.
His most celebrated achievement is the compilation of the three Sānyán 三言 collections of vernacular short fiction:
- Yùshì Míng-yán 喻世明言 (KR4k0080; originally Gǔjīn Xiǎoshuō 古今小說, ca. 1620)
- Jǐngshì Tōng-yán 警世通言 (ca. 1624)
- Xǐngshì Héng-yán 醒世恆言 (KR4k0072; 1627)
These 120 stories, revised and supplemented from Song and Yuan oral performance scripts (huáběn 話本), are the canonical repository of late-Míng vernacular fiction and have been translated in full into English by Shuhui Yang and Yunqin Yang (University of Washington Press, 2000–9).
Beyond the Sānyán, Féng compiled the historical fiction Dōng-Zhōu Lièguó Zhì 東周列國誌, the joke anthology Xiào-fǔ 笑府 (1610s), the survey Gǔjīn Tán-gài 古今談概 (1620), and edited the dramatic anthology Mòhán-zhāi dìngběn 墨憨齋定本. He also wrote the historical record Jiǎshēn jìshì 甲申紀事 (Record of events in the jiǎshēn year [1644]), written from a loyalist Ming perspective.