Idle Talk under the Bean Arbor: A Seventeenth-Century Chinese Story Collection

by Aina the Layman, Ziran the Eccentric Wanderer (With), Robert E. Hegel (Editor)

Overview

Written around 1660, the unique Chinese short story collection Idle Talk under the Bean Arbor (Doupeng xianhua), by the author known only as Aina the Layman, uses the seemingly innocuous setting of neighbors swapping yarns on hot summer days under a shady arbor to create a series of stories that embody deep disillusionment with traditional values. The tales, ostensibly told by different narrators, parody heroic legends and explore issues that contributed to the fall of the Ming dynasty a couple of decades before this collection was written, including self-centeredness and social violence. These stories speak to all troubled times, demanding that readers confront the pretense that may lurk behind moralistic stances.

Idle Talk under the Bean Arbor presents all twelve stories in English translation along with notes from the original commentator, as well as a helpful introduction and analysis of individual stories.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780295999975
Publisher:	University of Washington Press
Publication date:	04/03/2017
Pages:	320
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Robert E. Hegel is Liselotte Dieckmann Professor of Comparative Literature and professor of Chinese at Washington University. The translators are Lane J. Harris, Robert Hegel, Li Fang-yu, Li Qiancheng, Mei Chun, Lindsey Waldrop, Annelise Finegan Wasmoen, Alexander C. Wille, Xu Yunjing, and Zhang Jing.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments ix

Introduction: Gossip and Exaggeration in Aina's Short Stories Robert E. Hegel xi

Terms of Measurement and Titles xxv

Chronology of China's Historical Periods (Dynasties and States) xxvii

Idle Talk Under the Bean Arbor

Preface Dashed off by Whistling Crane of the Empty Heavens Translated Li Qiancheng 5

Foreword Written by Aina the Layman from Shengshui With Commentary by Ziran the Eccentric Wanderer from Yuanhu Translated Li Qiancheng 7

Session 1 Jie Zhitui Sets Fire to His Jealous Wife Translated Mei Chun Lane J. Harris 9

Session 2 Fan Li Drowns Xishi in West Lake Translated Li Fang-yu 23

Session 3 A Court-Appointed Gentleman Squanders His Wealth but Takes Power Translated Alexander C. Wille 37

Session 4 The Commissioner's Son Wastes His Patrimony to Revive the Family Translated Li Fang-yu 57

Session 5 The Little Beggar Who Was Truly Filial Translated Zhang Jing 72

Session 6 The Exalted Monks Who Faked Transcendence Translated Zhang jing 86

Session 7 On Shouyang Mountain, Shuqi Becomes a Turncoat Translated Mei Chun Lane J. Harris 101

Session 8 With a Transparent Stone, Master Wei Opens Blind Eyes Translated Alexander C. Wille 117

Session 9 Liu the Brave Tests a Horse on the Yuyang Road Translated Annelise Finegan Wasmoen 132

Session 10 Freeloader Jia Forms a League on Tiger Hill Translated Robert E. Hegel Xu Yunjing 148

Session 11 In Death, Commander Dang Beheads His Enemy Translated Lindsey Waldrop 170

Session 12 In Detail, Rector Chen Discourses on the Cosmos Translated Robert E. Hegel 187

Afterthoughts on Stories 211

Historical and Cultural References 223

Notes 247

Glossary of Chinese Characters 273

Bibliography 281

Contributors 287

What People are Saying About This

Grace S. Fong

"A landmark collection of short stories from the early Qing, Idle Talk under the Bean Arbor brings sophisticated innovations to the vernacular storytelling tradition. Refreshingly shorn of the formulaic didacticism of its late Ming predecessors, these stories’ pervasive irony, dark humor, subversive views of history and cynical exposure of moral bankruptcy are conveyed in a lively vernacular expertly rendered by the dedicated team of translators under Robert Hegel’s seasoned editorship. Highly recommended."

Maram Epstein

"This use of a frame story has elicited frequent comparisons to the Decameron. . . . [And since the collection] was written shortly after the fall of the Ming, the stories offer a complex range of attitudes toward the values of dynastic loyalty and martyrdom."

Editorial Reviews

"Robert Hegel's rich and complex edition of Idle Talk under the Bean Arbor will be important not only for scholars of Chinese and comparative literature, but also for learning and teaching about Chinese culture at all levels."

Chinese Literature: Essays

"After publishing in three handsome volumes a complete translation of Feng Menglong’s celebrated Sanyan trilogy, the University of Washington Press has now performed a further service for students of Chinese literature by releasing a translation of another seventeenth-century story collection, Doupeng xianhua, or Idle Talk under the Bean Arbor... The twelve stories are linked with a nar-rative frame that imagines a series of storytelling sessions under the shade of a bean arbor that take place over a period of weeks from early summer to late autumn. There is much to commend in this English edition."

Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies

"Editor Robert Hegel has assembled an erudite team of luminaries in late imperial translation and scholarship. . . . It is, in short, a valuable and comprehensive research tool for the original Doupeng xianhua in particular and for late imperial fiction in general. Being so many different things, the volume is accessible and useful to a number of audiences: casual readers looking to escape the heat of a summer afternoon reading; undergraduates familiarizing themselves with the breadth and depth of Chinese letters; and specialists in the field."

China Review International - Nathaniel Isaacson

"Thisfirst complete English-language translation, edited by Hegel, gives Idle Talk the treatment it deserves...a vital addition to English-language translations of late imperial literature."

Journal of Asian Studies

"With ample paratextual material, a creative and skilled array of translators, and expert framing by the collection’s key editor and translator, Robert Hegel, Idle Talk in its English translation conveys both the complex contents and the multilayered pleasures of its early Qing original.Modern Chinese Literature and Culture"

Modern Chinese Literature and Culture

After publishing in three handsome volumes a complete translation of Feng Menglong's celebrated Sanyan trilogy, the University of Washington Press has now performed a further service for students of Chinese literature by releasing a translation of another seventeenth-century story collection, Doupeng xianhua, or Idle Talk under the Bean Arbor... The twelve stories are linked with a nar-rative frame that imagines a series of storytelling sessions under the shade of a bean arbor that take place over a period of weeks from early summer to late autumn. There is much to commend in this English edition.

-- "Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies"

Editor Robert Hegel has assembled an erudite team of luminaries in late imperial translation and scholarship. . . . It is, in short, a valuable and comprehensive research tool for the original Doupeng xianhua in particular and for late imperial fiction in general. Being so many different things, the volume is accessible and useful to a number of audiences: casual readers looking to escape the heat of a summer afternoon reading; undergraduates familiarizing themselves with the breadth and depth of Chinese letters; and specialists in the field.

--Nathaniel Isaacson "China Review International"

Robert Hegel's rich and complex edition of Idle Talk under the Bean Arbor will be important not only for scholars of Chinese and comparative literature, but also for learning and teaching about Chinese culture at all levels.

-- "Chinese Literature: Essays, Articles, Reviews (CLEAR) - Modern"

This first complete English translation of this collection will not only be warmly welcomed by teachers of Chinese literature, but should also be of interest to schol-ars of Chinese and comparative intellectual history...an extremely welcome addition to the corpus of available translations from premodern Chinese literature. It introduces the Anglophone world to a fascinating collection by a highly original mind. It is to be hoped that it will not only be widely used in undergraduate and graduate class-es, but also will find its way to a more general audience.

-- "T'oung Pao"

Thisfirst complete English-language translation, edited by Hegel, gives Idle Talk the treatment it deserves...a vital addition to English-language translations of late imperial literature.

-- "Journal of Asian Studies"

With ample paratextual material, a creative and skilled array of translators, and expert framing by the collection's key editor and translator, Robert Hegel, Idle Talk in its English translation conveys both the complex contents and the multilayered pleasures of its early Qing original.Modern Chinese Literature and Culture

-- "Modern Chinese Literature and Culture"

From the Publisher