Vignettes from the Late Ming: A Hsiao-p'in Anthology

by Yang Ye (Translator)

Overview

This anthology presents seventy translated and annotated short essays, or hsiao-p’in, by fourteen well-known sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Chinese writers. Hsiao-p’in, characterized by spontaneity and brevity, were a relatively informal variation on the established classical prose style in which all scholars were trained. Written primarily to amuse and entertain the reader, hsiao-p’in reflect the rise of individualism in the late Ming period and collectively provide a panorama of the colorful life of the age. Critics condemned the genre as escapist because of its focus on life’s sensual pleasures and triviality, and over the next two centuries many of these playful and often irreverent works were officially censored. Today, the essays provide valuable and rare accounts of the details over everyday life in Ming China as well as displays of wit and delightful turns of phrase.

The open access publication of this book was made possible by a grant from the James P. Geiss and Margaret Y. Hsu Foundation.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780295977331
Publisher:	University of Washington Press
Publication date:	03/01/1999
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	216
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.44(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Yang Ye is professor emeritus and former director of the East Asian Languages and Civilizations Program at the University of California, Riverside.

Table of Contents

Vignettes from the Late Ming

Acknowledgments

Hsiao-p'in of the late Ming: An Introduction

Editorial Notes

Map

Kuei Yu-kuang

1) Foreword on "Reflections on The Book of Documents"

2) A Parable of Urns

3) Inscription on the Wall of the Wild Crane Belvedere

4) The Craggy Gazebo

5) The Hsiang-chi Belvedere

6) An Epitaph for Chillyposy

Lu Shu-sheng

1) Inkslab Den

2) Bitter Bamboo

3) A Trip to Wei Village

4) A Short Note about My Six Attendants in Retirement

5) Inscription on Two Paintings in My Collection

6) Inscription on a Portrait of Tung-p'o Wearing Bamboo Hat and Clogs

Hsü Wei

3) To Ma Ts'e-chih

4) Foreword to Yeh Tzu-shu's Poetry

5) Another Colophon (On the Model Script "The Seventeenth" in the Collection of Minister Chu of the Court of the Imperial Stud)

6) A Dream

Li Chih

1) Three Fools

2) In Praise of Liu Hsieh

3) A Lament for the Passing

4) Inscription on a Portrait of Confucius at the Iris Buddhist Shrine

5) Essay: On the Mind of a Child

T'u Lung

1) A Letter in Reply to Li Wei-yin

2) To a Friend, while Staying in the Capital

3) To a Friend, after Coming Home in Retirement

Ch'en Chi-ju

2) Trips to See Peach in Bloom

3) Inscription on Wang Chung-tsun's A History of Flowers

4) A Colophon to A History of Flowers

5) A Colophon to A Profile of Yao P'ing-chung

6) Selections from Privacies in the Mountains

Yüan Tsung-tao

1) Little Western Paradise

2) A Trip to Sukhavati Temple

3) A Trip to Yüeh-yang

4) Selections from Miscellanea

Yüan Hung-tao

2) First Trip to West Lake

3) Waiting for the Moon: An Evening Trip to the Six Bridges

4) A Trip to the Six Bridges after a Rain

5) Mirror Lake

6) A Trip to Brimming Well

7) A Trip to High Beam Bridge

8) A Biography of the Stupid but Efficient Ones

9) Essay: A Biography of Hsü Wen-ch'ang

Yüan Chung-tao

1) Foreword to The Sea of Misery

2) Shady Terrace

3) Selections from Wood Shavings of Daily Life

Chung Hsing

1) Flower-Washing Brook

2) To Ch'en Chi-ju

3) A Colophon to My Poetry Collection

4) Colophon to A Drinker's Manual (Four Passages)

5) Inscription after Yüan Hung-tao's Calligraphy

6) Inscription on My Portrait

Li Liu-fang

1) A Short Note about My Trips to Tiger Hill

2) A Short Note about My Trips to Boulder Lake

3) Inscriptions on An Album of Recumbent Travels in Chiang-nan (Four Passages)

4) Horizontal Pond

5) Boulder Lake

6) Tiger Hill

7) Divinity Cliff

1) Inscription on A Picture of Solitary Hill on a Moonlit Night

Wang Ssu-jen

1) A Trip to Brimming Well

2) A Trip to Wisdom Hill and Tin Hill

3) Passing by the Small Ocean

4) Shan-hsi Brook

T'an Yüan-ch'un

1) First Trip to Black Dragon Pond

2) Second Trip to Black Dragon Pond

3) Third Trip to Black Dragon Pond

Chang Tai

1) Selections from Dream Memories from the T'ao Hut

2) A Night Performance at Golden Hill

3) Plum Blossoms Bookroom

4) Drinking Tea at Pop Min's

5) Viewing the Snow from the Mid-Lake Gazebo

6) Yao Chien-shu's Paintings

7) Moon at Censer Peak

8) Liu Ching-t'ing the Storyteller

9) West Lake on the Fifteenth Night of the Seventh Month

10) Wang Yüeh-sheng

11) Crab Parties

12) Lang-hsüan, Land of Enchantment

1) An Epitaph for Myself

2) Preface to Searching for West Lake in Dreams

Appendix A: Table of Chinese Historical Dynasties

Appendix B: Late Ming through Early Ch'ing Reign Periods

Notes

Bibliography

Index

What People are Saying About This

David R. Knechtges

Vignettes from the Late Ming is a judicious selection of informal essays... [that] introduce aspects of traditional Chinese life that one cannot read about in more formal types of writing. These essays also tell us something about late—Ming sensibility and introduce the personality of some very interesting thinkers and writers... A most welcome work.

Jonathan Chaves

The selection is excellent; the best writers are included, and good examples by each. There is no [other] such anthology... available in any Western language.

Editorial Reviews

"This slim—and handsome—volume constitutes a very fine contribution to the recent flurry of translations of traditional Chinese literature, one that can serve as both textbook and reference for a variety of readers."

Journal of Asian and African Studies - Robert Hegel

"Xiaopin, those brief, informal, and anecdotal essays that we associate with the late Ming, have been virtually invisible in the body of Chinese literature available in English translation. We have needed an anthology like Professor Ye’s for some time, and for a number of reasons. Xiaopin (or as Ye handily calls it, the “vignette”) is a delightful and approachable genre full of engaging but intimate surprises, and is thus a wonderful addition to a Chinese literature syllabus. Xioapin also help a great deal in rounding out our understanding of how the late imperial literati we encounter in historical studies perceived their embeddedness in a world that was only half public. Professor Ye has helped us get around the difficulty of Ming Classical Chinese by giving us a book of late-Ming informal prose that will be useful and engaging in undergraduate literature courses taught in English, but it deserves to be noticed by a wider readership as well."

Ming Studies - Philip Kafalas

"Xiaopin, those brief, informal, and anecdotal essays that we associate with the late Ming, have been virtually invisible in the body of Chinese literature available in English translation. We have needed an anthology like Professor Ye's for some time, and for a number of reasons. Xiaopin (or as Ye handily calls it, the "vignette") is a delightful and approachable genre full of engaging but intimate surprises, and is thus a wonderful addition to a Chinese literature syllabus. Xioapin also help a great deal in rounding out our understanding of how the late imperial literati we encounter in historical studies perceived their embeddedness in a world that was only half public. Professor Ye has helped us get around the difficulty of Ming Classical Chinese by giving us a book of late-Ming informal prose that will be useful and engaging in undergraduate literature courses taught in English, but it deserves to be noticed by a wider readership as well."--Philip Kafalas, Ming Studies

"This book is well-produced and well-designed. It is also itself like a hsiao-p'in, short and elegant."--Sino-Platonic Papers 98

"This slim volume makes a major contribution to the field of Ming literary history. Yang Ye's selection of texts and his elegant translations bring to the English-reading audience a representative yet varied sample of the xiaopin genre, which flourished in the final decades of the sixteenth and through the seventeenth centuries. These brief writings, dealing with the concerns, experiences, and objects of everyday life as well as with exotic and transitory phenomena, provide a unique window into Chinese society during an age of mounting crises and widespread anxiety. Yang Ye's anthology of xiaopin translations is a welcome and significant addition to the corpus of Ming texts available in translation."--Kenneth Hammond, Journal of Asian Studies

"This slim--and handsome--volume constitutes a very fine contribution to the recent flurry of translations of traditional Chinese literature, one that can serve as both textbook and reference for a variety of readers."--Robert Hegel, Journal of Asian and African Studies

From the Publisher

This slim—and handsome—volume constitutes a very fine contribution to the recent flurry of translations of traditional Chinese literature, one that can serve as both textbook and reference for a variety of readers.

Journal of Asian and African Studies

This book is well-produced and well-designed. It is also itself like a hsiao-p'in, short and elegant.

Sino-Platonic Papers 98