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Zhang Yingyu
''The Book of Swindles'' (''Piàn jīng'' 騙經), also known by its longer title, ''A New Book for Foiling Swindlers, Based on Worldly Experience'' (''Jiānghú lìlǎn dùpiàn xīnshū'' 江湖歷覽杜騙新書), is said to be the first published and printed Chinese short story collection about fraud. Written and compiled by Zhang Yingyu (張應俞), a man who lived in the early to mid 16th-century, it was published in Fujian province in or around 1617, and most of its stories are set during the latter part of the Ming dynasty. To each story the author adds a commentary that offers a moral lesson. In some cases, Yingyu even notes the cleverness of the con while pointing out the foolishness of its victim. Modern editions have been entitled both ''The Book Against Swindles'' (''Fan Pian Jing'' 反骗经) and ''The Book of Swindles'' (''Pian jing'' 骗经). A selected English translation, ''The Book of Swindles: Selections from a Late Ming Collection'', translated by Christopher ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fujian
Fujian is a provinces of China, province in East China, southeastern China. Fujian is bordered by Zhejiang to the north, Jiangxi to the west, Guangdong to the south, and the Taiwan Strait to the east. Its capital is Fuzhou and its largest prefecture city by population is Quanzhou, with other notable cities including the port city of Xiamen and Zhangzhou. Fujian is located on the west coast of the Taiwan Strait as the closest province geographically and culturally to Taiwan; as a result of the Chinese Civil War, a small portion of historical Fujian is administered by Taiwan, romanized as Fuchien Province, Republic of China, Fuchien. While the population predominantly identifies as Han Chinese, Han, it is one of China's most culturally and linguistically diverse provinces. The dialects of the language group Min Chinese are most commonly spoken within the province, including the Fuzhou dialect and Eastern Min of Northeastern Fujian province and various Southern Min and Hokkien dial ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jokes
A joke is a display of humour in which words are used within a specific and well-defined narrative structure to make people laughter, laugh and is usually not meant to be interpreted literally. It usually takes the form of a story, often with dialogue, and ends in a punch line, whereby the humorous element of the story is revealed; this can be done using a pun or other type of word play, irony or sarcasm, logical incompatibility, hyperbole, or other means. Linguist Robert Hetzron offers the definition: It is generally held that jokes benefit from brevity, containing no more detail than is needed to set the scene for the punchline at the end. In the case of riddle jokes or one-liners, the setting is implicitly understood, leaving only the dialogue and punchline to be verbalised. However, subverting these and other common guidelines can also be a source of humour—the shaggy dog story is an example of an anti-humor, anti-joke; although presented as a joke, it contains a long d ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chinese Short Story Collections
Chinese may refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people identified with China, through nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **Han Chinese, East Asian ethnic group native to China. **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of various ethnicities in contemporary China ** Ethnic minorities in China, people of non-Han Chinese ethnicities in modern China ** Ethnic groups in Chinese history, people of various ethnicities in historical China ** Nationals of the People's Republic of China ** Nationals of the Republic of China ** Overseas Chinese, Chinese people residing outside the territories of mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan * Sinitic languages, the major branch of the Sino-Tibetan language family ** Chinese language, a group of related languages spoken predominantly in China, sharing a written script (Chinese characters in traditional and simplified forms) *** Standard Chines ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fraud In China
In law, fraud is intent (law), intentional deception to deprive a victim of a legal right or to gain from a victim unlawfully or unfairly. Fraud can violate Civil law (common law), civil law (e.g., a fraud victim may sue the fraud perpetrator to avoid the fraud or recover monetary compensation) or criminal law (e.g., a fraud perpetrator may be prosecuted and imprisoned by governmental authorities), or it may cause no loss of money, property, or legal right but still be an element of another civil or criminal wrong. The purpose of fraud may be monetary gain or other benefits, such as obtaining a passport, travel document, or driver's licence. In cases of mortgage fraud, the perpetrator may attempt to qualify for a mortgage by way of false statements. Terminology Fraud can be defined as either a civil wrong or a criminal act. For civil fraud, a government agency or person or entity harmed by fraud may bring litigation to stop the fraud, seek monetary damages, or both. For cr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chinese Classic Texts
The Chinese classics or canonical texts are the works of Chinese literature authored prior to the establishment of the imperial Qin dynasty in 221 BC. Prominent examples include the Four Books and Five Classics in the Neo-Confucian tradition, themselves an abridgment of the Thirteen Classics. The Chinese classics used a form of written Chinese consciously imitated by later authors, now known as Classical Chinese. A common Chinese word for "classic" () literally means ' warp thread', in reference to the techniques by which works of this period were bound into volumes. Texts may include ''shi'' (, ' histories') ''zi'' ( 'master texts'), philosophical treatises usually associated with an individual and later systematized into schools of thought but also including works on agriculture, medicine, mathematics, astronomy, divination, art criticism, and other miscellaneous writings) and ''ji'' ( 'literary works') as well as the cultivation of '' jing'', 'essence' in Chinese m ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jin Ping Mei
''Jin Ping Mei'' ()—translated into English as ''The Plum in the Golden Vase'' or ''The Golden Lotus''—is a Chinese novel of manners composed in vernacular Chinese during the latter half of the 16th century during the late Ming dynasty (1368–1644). Consisting of 100 chapters, it was published under the pseudonym Lanling Xiaoxiao Sheng (), "The Scoffing Scholar of Lanling," but the only clue to the actual identity is that the author hailed from Lanling County in present-day Shandong.Lu (1923) p.408 The novel circulated in manuscript as early as 1596, and may have undergone revision up to its first printed edition in 1610. The most widely read recension, edited and published with commentaries by Zhang Zhupo in 1695, deleted or rewrote passages to help understand the author's intentions. The explicit depiction of sexuality garnered the novel a notoriety akin to ''Lady Chatterley's Lover'' and ''Lolita'' in the West, but critics such as the translator David Tod Roy see a firm m ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Water Margin
''Water Margin'' (), also called ''Outlaws of the Marsh'' or ''All Men Are Brothers'', is a Chinese novel from the Ming dynasty that is one of the preeminent Classic Chinese Novels. Attributed to Shi Nai'an, ''Water Margin'' was one of the earliest Chinese novels written in vernacular Mandarin Chinese. The story, which is set in the Northern Song dynasty (around 1120), tells of how a group of 108 outlaws gathers at Mount Liang (or ''Liangshan'' Marsh) to rebel against the government. Later they are granted amnesty and enlisted by the government to resist the nomadic conquest of the Liao dynasty and other rebels. While the book's authorship is traditionally attributed to Shi Nai'an (1296–1372), the first external reference to the novel only appeared in 1524 during the Jiajing reign of the Ming dynasty, sparking a long-lasting academic debate on when it was actually written and which historical events the author had witnessed that inspired him to write the book. The nove ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Li Yu (author)
Li Yu may refer to: * Emperor Suzong of Tang (711–762), personal name Li Yu, emperor of the Tang dynasty * Emperor Daizong of Tang (727–779), personal name Li Yu, emperor of the Tang dynasty, Emperor Suzong's son * Li Yu, Prince of Dan (died 820), Emperor Daizong of Tang's son * Li Yu, Prince of De (died 905), Emperor Zhaozong of Tang's son, briefly a puppet emperor * Li Yu (Later Tang) (died 935), chief councilor of the Later Tang dynasty * Li Yu (Southern Tang) (937–978), ruler of the Southern Tang dynasty, also a famous poet * Li Yu (author) (1610–1680, zh, 李漁, links=no), Chinese author during the Ming and Qing dynasties * Li Yu (speed skater) (born 1961, zh, 李雨, links=no), Chinese short track speed skater * Li Yu (director) Li Yu (, born December 2, 1973) is a Chinese female film director and screenwriter. Li began her career in entertainment at a young age, serving as a presenter at a local TV station. After college, she worked for CCTV, where she dir ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ling Mengchu
Ling Mengchu (; 1580–1644) was a Chinese writer of the Ming Dynasty. He is best known for his vernacular short fiction collections '' Slapping the Table in Amazement'' (拍案驚奇), I and II.Yenna Wu, "Ling Meng-ch'u and the 'Two Slappings," in Victor Mair, (ed.), '' The Columbia History of Chinese Literature'' (NY: Columbia University Press, 2001). pp. 605- 610.Cihai: Page 369. Biography Ling Mengchu was born into the Ling clan of Wucheng in northern Zhejiang province (modern day Wuxing District). His courtesy name was 'Xuanfang' (玄房) and his pseudonym was 'Chucheng' (初成). His ancestors were government officials. His grandfather was named Ling Yueyan (凌约言). He was a successful candidate in the highest imperial examinations of Ming Dynasty and in Nanjing served as an adjutant, managing legal affairs and prisons. Ling Mengchu's father was Ling Dizhi (凌迪知), styled Zhizhe (稚哲). He was a successful candidate in the highest imperial examinations in 1 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Feng Menglong
Feng Menglong (1574–1646), courtesy names Youlong (), Gongyu (), Ziyou (), or Eryou (), was a Chinese historian, novelist, and poet of the late Ming Dynasty. He was born in Changzhou County, now part of Suzhou, in Jiangsu Province. Life Feng was born into a scholar-bureaucrat gentry household, where he and his brothers Feng Menggui () and Feng Mengxiong () were educated in the classics and the traditional gentlemanly arts. He and his brothers, all well-known as accomplished writers, artists, and poets, became known collectively as the "Three Fengs of the Wu Area" (). In spite of his literary talent and his zeal for scholarship from a young age, Feng sat the imperial civil service examinations many times without success, eventually giving up and making a living as a tutor and teacher. In 1626, he narrowly avoided punishment after being implicated as an associate of Zhou Shunchang (), who was purged by the eunuch Wei Zhongxian. He resolved to complete his trilogy of vernacular Ch ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Anecdotes
An anecdote is "a story with a point", such as to communicate an abstract idea about a person, place, or thing through the concrete details of a short narrative or to characterize by delineating a specific quirk or trait. Anecdotes may be real or fictional; the anecdotal digression is a common feature of literary works and even oral anecdotes typically involve subtle exaggeration and dramatic shape designed to entertain the listener. An anecdote is always presented as the recounting of a real incident involving actual people and usually in an identifiable place. In the words of Jürgen Hein, they exhibit "a special realism" and "a claimed historical dimension". Etymology and usage The word ''anecdote'' (in Greek: ἀνέκδοτον "unpublished", literally "not given out") comes from Procopius of Caesarea, the biographer of Emperor Justinian I (). Procopius produced a work entitled (''Anekdota'', variously translated as ''Unpublished Memoirs'' or as ''Secret History''), ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alchemy
Alchemy (from the Arabic word , ) is an ancient branch of natural philosophy, a philosophical and protoscientific tradition that was historically practised in China, India, the Muslim world, and Europe. In its Western form, alchemy is first attested in a number of pseudepigraphical texts written in Greco-Roman Egypt during the first few centuries AD.. Greek-speaking alchemists often referred to their craft as "the Art" (τέχνη) or "Knowledge" (ἐπιστήμη), and it was often characterised as mystic (μυστική), sacred (ἱɛρά), or divine (θɛíα). Alchemists attempted to purify, mature, and perfect certain materials. Common aims were chrysopoeia, the transmutation of " base metals" (e.g., lead) into "noble metals" (particularly gold); the creation of an elixir of immortality; and the creation of panaceas able to cure any disease. The perfection of the human body and soul was thought to result from the alchemical ''magnum opus'' ("Great Work"). The ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
