This is an age of deception. Con men ply the roadways. Bogus alchemists pretend to turn one piece of silver into three. Devious nuns entice young women into adultery. Sorcerers use charmed talismans for mind control and murder. A pair of dubious monks extorts money from a powerful official and then spends it on whoring. A rich student tries to bribe the chief examiner, only to hand his money to an imposter. A eunuch kidnaps boys and consumes their "essence" in an attempt to regrow his penis. These are just a few of the entertaining and surprising tales to be found in this seventeenth-century work, said to be the earliest Chinese collection of swindle stories.
The Book of Swindles, compiled by an obscure writer from southern China, presents a fascinating tableau of criminal ingenuity. The flourishing economy of the late Ming period created overnight fortunes for merchants—and gave rise to a host of smooth operators, charlatans, forgers, and imposters seeking to siphon off some of the new wealth. The Book of Swindles, which was ostensibly written as a manual for self-protection in this shifting and unstable world, also offers an expert guide to the art of deception. Each story comes with commentary by the author, Zhang Yingyu, who expounds a moral lesson while also speaking as a connoisseur of the swindle. This volume, which contains annotated translations of just over half of the eighty-odd stories in Zhang's original collection, provides a wealth of detail on social life during the late Ming and offers words of warning for a world in peril.
Zhang Yingyu (fl. 1612–1617) lived during the Wanli period (1573–1620) of the Ming dynasty.
Christopher Rea is associate professor of Asian studies at the University of British Columbia. He is the author of The Age of Irreverence: A New History of Laughter in China (2015), and the editor of several books, including Humans, Beasts, and Ghosts: Stories and Essays by Qian Zhongshu (Columbia, 2011).
Bruce Rusk is associate professor of Asian studies at the University of British Columbia. He is the author of Critics and Commentators: The Book of Poems as Classic and Literature (2012).
Table of Contents
Maps Translators’ Introduction Type 1: Misdirection and Theft Stealing Silk with a Decoy Horse Handing Over Silver Before Running Off with It A Clever Trick on a Pig Seller Pilfering Green Cloth by Pretending to Steal a Goose Type 2: The Bag Drop Dropping a Bag by the Roadside to Set Up a Switcheroo Type 3: Money Changing A Daoist in a Boat Exchanges Some Gold Type 4: Misrepresentation Forged Letters from the Education Intendant Report Auspicious Dreams Using Broom Handles to Play a Joke on Sedan Bearers Type 5: False Relations Inciting a Friend to Commit Adultery and Swindling Away His Land Type 6: Brokers A Conniving Broker Takes Paper and Ends Up Paying with His Daughter A Destitute Broker Takes Some Wax to Pay Off Old Debts Type 7: Enticement to Gambling A Stern Warning to a Gambler Provokes Others to Entice Him to Relapse Type 8: Showing Off Wealth Impersonating the Son of an Official to Steal a Merchant’s Silver Flashy Clothing Incites Larceny Type 9: Scheming for Wealth Stealing a Business Partner’s Riches Only to Lose One’s Own Haughtiness Leads to a Lawsuit That Harms Wealth and Health Type 10: Robbery Robbing a Pawnshop by Pretending to Leave Goods There Type 11: Violence Sticking a Plaster in the Eyes to Steal a Silver Ingot Type 12: On Boats Bringing Mirrors Aboard a Boat Invites a Nefarious Plot Porters Run Off with Cargo from a Boat Type 13: Poetry Swindling the Salt Commissioner While Disguised as Daoists Chen Quan Scams His Way Into the Arms of a Famous Courtesan Type 14: Fake Silver Planting a Fake Ingot to Swindle a Farmer Type 15: Government Underlings Swindled on the Way Out of a Court Hearing An Officer Reprimands a Captured Criminal in Order to Halve His Flogging Type 16: Marriage Marrying a Street Cleaner and Provoking His Death Taking a Concubine from Another Province Leads to a Disastrous Lawsuit Type 17: Illicit Passion A Geomancer Uses His Wife to Steal a Good Seed Type 18: Women Coaxing a Sister-in-Law Into Adultery to Scam Oil and Meat Three Women Ride Off on Three Horses A Buddhist Nun Scatters Prayer Beads to Lure a Woman Into Adultery Type 19: Kidnapping A Eunuch Cooks Boys to Make a Tonic of Male Essence Type 20: Corruption in Education Pretending to Present Silver to an Education Commissioner Affixing Seals in a Functionary’s Chambers Silver with Sham Seals Is Switched for Bricks Robbed by a Gang While Sealing Silver in an Unoccupied Room A Fake Freeloader Takes Over a Con Money Stashed with an Innkeeper Is Burgled Type 21: Monks and Priests A Buddhist Monk Identifies a Cow as His Mother Eating Human Fetuses to Fake Fasting Type 22: Alchemy Trusting in Alchemy Harms an Entire Family A Foiled Alchemy Scam Leads to a Poisoning Type 23: Sorcery Using Dream Sorcery to Rob a Family Type 24: Pandering A Father Searching for His Wastrel Son Himself Falls Into Whoring Appendix 1: Preface to A New Book for Foiling Swindlers: Strange Tales from the Rivers and Lakes (1617), by Xiong Zhenji Appendix 2: Story Finding List Bibliography
