Mirage

by Patrick Hanan (Translator)

Overview

First published anonymously in 1804—its author remains unknown—Mirage is set in Guangzhou (Canton), some decades before the city was overwhelmed by the opium trade and the Opium War. Su Jishi, the adolescent son of the head of the Chinese traders’ association, the men licensed to deal with foreign merchants in the port, is suddenly burdened with responsibility for his powerful family after his father’s unexpected death. More interested in sex than money, Su Jishi learns to navigate between pleasure and commerce, as rebellions erupt just outside the city.

At the crossroads of two of the greatest Chinese books—the aristocratic coming-of-age novel, The Story of the Stone (The Dream of the Red Chamber) and the military epic Outlaws of the Marsh—Mirage is panorama of libertines and concubines, lecherous monks and celibate soldiers, corrupt officials and drunken scholars. As entertaining as a bestseller, it is a hectic recreation of vanished mores and customs, and the life of a Chinese city as it was beginning to discover—and deal with—the rest of the world.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9789629968410
Publisher:	New York Review Books
Publication date:	06/21/2016
Sold by:	Penguin Random House Publisher Services
Format:	eBook
Pages:	496
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

Patrick Hanan (1927–2014) was Victor S. Thomas Professor of Chinese Literature at Harvard University. He was the author of The Chinese Short Story, The Chinese Vernacular Story, and The Invention of Li Yu, and the translator of many works of late imperial Chinese fiction, including The Sea of Regret and the cult classic, The Carnal Prayer Mat.

Table of Contents

Introduction ix

Chapter 1 Riches arouse the superintendent's interest Connections lead to the traders' release 1

Chapter 2 Li Jiangshan intercedes in a difficult dispute Su Wankui withdraws at the height of his career 17

Chapter 3 Suxin bemoans her fate as a beauty Jishi searches for sex in the night 31

Chapter 4 In Break-Cassia Studio a pair of lovers open accounts At the Double Ninth festival the class visits Mt. Yuexiu 47

Chapter 5 Matchmaking causes two birds to lose their feathers Flirtation leads to one sister's falling in love 65

Chapter 6 Heh Zhifu installs mistresses in a separate wing Li Jiangshan comes upon a hero in Qujiang county 79

Chapter 7 An ambitious river police chief plays along A humiliated customs official hangs himself 95

Chapter 8 Shen Jin is restored to office by imperial grace Su Wankui dies on hearing of a robbery 111

Chapter 9 In burning old deeds a son carries out his father's wishes By faking a prayer a priest engages in a lascivious act 129

Chapter 10 Lü Youkui forms an alliance at an inn Yao Huowu is thrown into jail in Haifeng 143

Chapter 11 Feng Gang catches a tiger on Goat's Foot Ridge Ho Wu Kills an ox at Phoenix Tail River 159

Chapter 12 Hearing of his brother's death, a prisoner breaks out of jail Taking advantage of a visit, an abbot gains a gem 173

Chapter 13 Emerging from reclusion, he reviews commanders A bandit for the present, he is awarded high rank 189

Chapter 14 Faced with a cruel husband, she bites her tongue and endures her shame Meeting an artful woman, he hopes for sex but gets feces instead 205

Chapter 15 Three scoundrels set a trap Four beauties disappear 221

Chapter 16 Reunion, as Qiao rejoins her lord Justice, as Shangguan punishes scoundrels 237

Chapter 17 Wu Biyuan lays his complaint before the censor Su Jishi flees to Qingyuan to escape danger 255

Chapter 18 Vice-president Yuan impounds Heh's possessions Governor-general Hu withdraws to Huizhou 273

Chapter 19 A girl suffers a tragic fate at New Year's An in-law embarks on a literary career 289

Chapter 20 Yao Huowu rebuffs Mola Wen Chuncai outdoes Bian Ruyu 303

Chapter 21 A friend's letter leads a hero to submit A year's leave allows a censor to marry 317

Chapter 22 After receiving high office, a civil official joins the army While taking defensive measures, a demon practices magic 333

Chapter 23 Commander Yao triumphs in a single night Iron Mouth Lei reads faces and predicts lives 345

Chapter 24 His womenfolk compose beautiful lines His brothers sing a song of court delight 359

Editorial Reviews

The translation is superb.... Highly recommended.

Choice

"Patrick Hanan’s most recently published translation, Mirage is historically significant for two reasons. First, the 1804 novel is the earliest to describe the lives of Guangdong merchants who traded with the West. Second, it is the last translation completed by Patrick Hanan, the foremost scholarly authority on premodern Chinese short fiction in the Western world and a prolific translator of that same fiction, before his death in 2014. In both his translation and his scholarship, Hanan was relentlessly attentive to the elegant touches that animated works of fiction like Mirage, to works that took seriously the craft of entertainment and the lives and values of ordinary people." —Dylan Suher, Asymptote

"The anonymous author of Mirage fuses the tropes of its literary forebears to create a compelling portrait of a society on the cusp of a destabilising modernity, with the structures—bureaucratic, military and social—which have held the Empire in place becoming corrupted and weakened by avarice and moral decrepitude….the late Harvard scholar Patrick Hanan has rendered the novel into a clear, vernacular English, and has avoided weighing the edition down with lengthy footnotes or commentaries; this is very much a translation to be read and enjoyed.” —Asian Review of Books

“Mirage is a key work from the critical period of the early nineteenth century. It resembles a modern-day R-rated movie, touching on serious issues but containing scenes of explicit sexual pleasure and violent conflict.”—Keith McMahon

From the Publisher