Ling Mengchu
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Ling Mengchu (Chinese: 凌濛初; pinyin: líng méngchū; Wade–Giles: Ling Meng-ch'u), (1580–1644) was a Chinese writer of the Ming Dynasty, known for his vernacular short fiction collections Astonished Slaps Upon the Desktop (拍案驚奇), I and II.[1]
Biography
Ling Mengchu was born into the Ling clan of Wucheng in northern Zhejiang province (modern day Wuxing District). His style name was 'Xuan Fang' (玄房) and his pseudonym was 'Chu Cheng' (初成).[1] Many of the Ling family became government officials.[citation needed] The Ling family prospered on leasing land and farming. In addition family members were actively engaged in the printing business with a local specialty of books in polychrome. The Wucheng area was adjacent to the commercial and cultural areas of Hangzhou and Suzhou where reading materials were in increasing demand. Ling Mengchu was certainly a merchant businessman and also certainly a traditional scholar with civil service ambitions.
The business motive of the Ling family was originally discussed by Ling Mengchu’s contemporary Xie Zhaozhe (谢肇浙 1567-1624) in his Wu zazu (五雜俎 - Five Assorted Offerings). Such were the times. Ling repeatedly failed at the examinations and did not take a government post until he was fifty-four. Ling would finally perish in fighting against the Li Zicheng led rebels in 1644.[1]
Ling’s short stories were a detailed study of his 17th century moral world. A new factor that Ling Mengchu insisted on was empiricism, an objective study of what existed before the eyes of the observer. In the prefatory material to his first short story collection he insisted it was infinitely more difficult to paint a likeness of a dog or horse one had actually seen than to render a ghost or goblin one had never observed (a quotation from Han Feizi). These refreshing new literary directions were still in the age of Wang Yangming philosophical idealism and Zhu Xi metaphysics.
Notes
References
- Ci hai bian ji wei yuan hui (辞海编辑委员会）. Ci hai （辞海）. Shanghai: Shanghai ci shu chu ban she （上海辞书出版社）, 1979.
- James Scott, Rapp and Whiting trans., The Lecherous Academician,(1973), ISBN 0-85391-186-X
- Wen Jingen trans., Amazing Tales (Volume One), Panda Books, 1998. ISBN 7-5071-0398-6
- Perry W. Ma trans., Amazing Tales (Volume Two), Panda Books, 1998. ISBN 750710401x
Further reading
- Carpenter, Bruce E., 'The Ming Short Story Collection "P'ai-an ching-ch'i."' Tezukayama Daigaku Jinbunkagakubu Kiyo (Tezukayama University Journal of Humanities), Nara, Japan, 2000, pp. 41–111.
- Goodrich and Fang ed., Dictionary of Ming Biography 1368-1644 ( bio. by Li Tienyi), New York,1976, vol. 1, pp. 930–931.
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