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:	9780295746111
Publisher:	University of Washington Press
Publication date:	09/03/2019
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	320
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.72(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

Introduction | Gossip and Exaggeration in Aina’s Short Stories / Robert E. Hegel

Terms of Measurement and Titles

Chronology of China’s Historical Periods (Dynasties and States)

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

Foreword written by Aina the Layman from Shengshui, with Commentary by Ziran the Eccentric Wanderer from Yuanhu / Translated by Li Qiancheng

Session 1: Jie Zhitui Sets Fire to His Jealous Wife / Translated by Mei Chun and Lane J. Harris

Session 2: Fan Li Drowns Xishi in West Lake / Translated by Li Fang-yu

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

Session 4: The Commissioner’s Son Wastes His Patrimony to Revive the Family / Translated by Li Fang-yu

Session 5: The Little Beggar Who Was Truly Filial / Translated by Zhang Jing

Session 6: The Exalted Monks Who Faked Transcendence / Translated by Zhang Jing

Session 7: On Shouyang Mountain, Shuqi Becomes a Turncoat / Translated by Mei Chun and Lane J. Harris

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

Session 9: Liu the Brave Tests a Horse on the Yuyang Road / Translated by Annelise Finegan Wasmoen

Session 10: Freeloader Jia Forms a League on Tiger Hill / Translated by Robert E. Hegel and Xu Yunjing

Session 11: In Death, Commander Dang Beheads His Enemy / Translated by Lindsey Waldrop

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

Afterthoughts on Stories

Historical and Cultural References

Notes

Glossary of Chinese Characters

Bibliography

Contributors

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."

Editorial Reviews

"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

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

"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