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38-471: Feng was born into a scholar-bureaucrat gentry household, where he and his brothers Feng Menggui ( 馮夢桂 ) and Feng Mengxiong ( 馮夢熊 ) 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" ( 吳下三馮 ). In spite of his literary talent and his zeal for scholarship from

76-542: A compulsive gambler. Through a relative of his mother, Wei was able to enter into service in the Forbidden City . After he became an imperial eunuch, he used the name Li Jinzhong. As a eunuch in the Ming court, Wei slowly gained the favor of various palace officials while working in various unofficial positions. In 1605, he was given the job of serving meals to Lady Wang and her infant son Zhu Youjiao, who would eventually become

114-540: A large public audience. In 2009, a 42-hour primetime television series dramatizing Wei Zhongxian and Madam Ke's power during the reign of the Tianqi Emperor was shown on Chinese television. The series also portrayed Wei Zhongxian and Zhu Youjiao in a negative light. The Book of Swindles 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),

152-435: 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 ( 周順昌 ), who was purged by the eunuch Wei Zhongxian . He resolved to complete his trilogy of vernacular Chinese short story collections: Stories Old and New , Stories to Caution

190-640: Is a clear morality line drawn between “good” and “bad”. Moreover, the meaning behind the stories explores the social issues during Ming Dynasty. For instance, the stories of "The White Maiden Locked for Eternity in Leifeng Pagoda " and "The Young Lady Gives the Young Man a Gift of Money" from Stories to Caution the World express the idea of how women pursued their freedom and happiness under a patriarchal society. During his tenure as magistrate of Shouning, Feng learned of

228-537: Is frequently associated with Ling Mengchu , author of Slapping the Table in Amazement , a two-part collection of entertaining vernacular tales. Feng Menglong was in love with a famous prostitute when he was young. Unfortunately, Feng Menglong was not able to afford to redeem his lover out. At the end, his lover was redeemed by a merchant, and they had to leave each other. Feng Menglong suffered from pain and desperation due to

266-516: Is presumed to have been born in 1568 in Suning County (100 miles southeast of Beijing ), to have married a girl with the surname of Fang (方), and to have castrated himself at age 21 (Ming dynastic records claim that he did so in order to escape his gambling debts). Due to his fame in Chinese culture over the past 400 years, other stories of his early life have appeared, many showing him as a ruffian and

304-521: 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

342-571: The Chongzhen Emperor on 2 October 1627. Although the Chongzhen Emperor was intent on ruling without any decision-making surrogates, he did not immediately dismiss Wei. When Wei offered to resign just six days after the Chongzhen Emperor's reign began, the emperor refused. A month later, Wei decreed that no more temples should be built in his honor. In the months afterwards, multiple complaints about and calls for Wei's impeachment came before

380-544: The Donglin movement , including Zhou Zongjian, Zhou Shunchang, and Yang Lian. When Zhu Youjian rose to power, he received complaints about Wei and Xu's actions. Zhu Youjian then ordered the Embroidered Uniform Guard to arrest Wei Zhongxian. Wei then committed suicide . Zhu then punished 161 officials and executed 24 of Wei's associates. Madam Ke , who was also close to Wei, was beaten to death. Many people denounced

418-598: The Tianqi Emperor . While serving in this position, he grew close to Zhu Youjiao's wet nurse, Madame Ke . As Zhu Youjiao grew older, he became extremely attached to both Madame Ke and Wei Zhongxian, treating them as his de facto parents when his mother died in 1619. When the Wanli Emperor and his heir, the Taichang Emperor , both died in 1620, the palace bureaucracy was thrown into a succession crisis. The death of

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456-597: The Donglin party. As head of the Eastern Depot, Wei's power to arrest and convict dissidents was technically confined to peasants and merchants. Arrests and interrogations of officials had to be done through the Embroidered Uniform Guard , who were under command of prison director Xu Xianchun. However, Wei's true power came through his commission to deliver the emperor's edicts, as well as his close relationship with

494-536: The Qing forces. At the age of seventy-one, he published the Grand Proposals for National Rejuvenation ( 中興偉略 ) to inspire his countrymen to repel the invaders. He died in 1646 as the Ming dynasty continued to collapse. Some works indicate or imply that he was killed by Qing soldiers. Feng's literary output consisted of the compilation of histories and local gazettes, the retelling of folktales and stories from antiquity in

532-637: The Taichang Emperor brought Madame Ke, Wei Zhongxian, and Zhu Youjiao under the supervision of Lady Li, the Taichang Emperor's consort. Zhu hated Lady Li. Donglin activist Yang Lian also did not want Lady Li in power, not wanting China to fall under the temporary rule of a regent (Zhu Youxiao was still 15 and underaged). Thus, Yang Lian invaded the Forbidden City, captured Zhu Youxiao, and had him proclaimed emperor in his own right. With Lady Li deposed, it became much easier for Wei and Madame Ke to influence

570-404: The World , and Stories to Awaken the World ( 喻世明言 , 警世通言 , and 醒世恆言 ), the first two volumes of which had already appeared. Feng Menglong was also known by a variety of pseudonyms or art names ( 號 , hào ), including 龍子猶 , 墨憨齋主人 , 吳下詞奴 , 姑蘇詞奴 , 前周柱史 , 顧曲散人 , and 綠天館主人 . In recognition of his reputation as a writer, Feng was finally awarded the gongsheng degree in 1630 at

608-454: The age of fifty-seven. In the subsequent year he received his first government post as instructor of Dantu County ( 丹徒縣 , today Zhenjiang , Jiangsu). In 1634 he was appointed magistrate of Shouning County ( 壽寧 ) in Fujian . During his tenure, he was regarded as a morally upright and diligent administrator. He retired in 1638. In 1644 the Ming state was thrown into turmoil by the sacking of Beijing by Li Zicheng 's rebel army and invasion by

646-533: The building of temples in his honor, much to the chagrin of Confucian scholars. After the Wanli Emperor's (1563–1620) long and underwhelming reign, the Donglin faction of activist scholars had hoped that the Taichang and Tianqi emperors would prove to be "Confucian gentlemen". When the Tianqi Emperor proved just as indifferent to his imperial responsibilities as his grandfather was and an illiterate eunuch seemed to be

684-442: 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 Rea and Bruce Rusk, was published by Columbia University Press in 2017. The first edition of 1617 has

722-440: The emperor that Wei might work with other demoted officials of the deceased Tianqi Emperor to stage a rebellion. Acting on the warning, the Chongzhen Emperor ordered the Embroidered Uniform Guard to arrest Wei and bring him back to Beijing. On December 13, informants found Wei and told him of the edict. That night, he and his entourage stopped at an inn 150 miles south of Beijing. Wei and his secretary proceeded to hang themselves from

760-458: The emperor. In 1625, Xu then arrested six of the Donglin party's leaders, including Yang Lian (Wei's detractor), whom he had accused of squandering public money through their bureaucracy positions. Xu then subjected Yang and the other five Donglin leaders to lengthy interrogations and torture. Eventually all six died, apparently without imperial edict. Xu then arrested seven other Donglin scholars, including Zhou Zongjian, and killed them in 1626. Over

798-427: The emperor. After ignoring the first few, the Chongzhen Emperor finally called for evidence of Wei's faults from officials. In response to this, "more than one hundred" officials sent memorials denouncing Wei. On December 8, the Chongzhen Emperor issued an edict listing Wei's crimes and exiled him south to Fengyang (in present-day Anhui ). As Wei traveled to Fengyang, one of the Chongzhen Emperor's commissioners warned

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836-727: The end of his life, in his sixties. During his appointment, he sought to correct injustices and hoped to build up a reputation as a humble and upright official. Unfortunately, his efforts were frustrated by the widespread corruption of the late Ming dynasty (a theme also treated extensively in other contemporaneous works, such as Zhang Yingyu's The Book of Swindles ( c. 1617)); bribery and extortion were common bureaucratic behaviors, and themes of official malfeasance figure in many of Feng's stories. Realizing that atmosphere of corruption could not be easily changed, Feng Menglong conveyed his discontent and patriotism through words. Each character of his stories has strong and direct characteristics: there

874-579: The form of short stories and plays, and the authorship of vernacular Chinese novels. Two of his noteworthy works are the Qing Shi ( History of Love , 情史 ), an anthology of classical love stories, and the shenmo novel The Three Sui Quash the Demons' Revolt . In 1620 he published the Illustrious Words to Instruct the World ( 喻世明言 ), or Stories Old and New , the first part of his well-known trilogy. He

912-400: The full title A New Book for Foiling Swindlers, Based on Worldly Experience ( Jianghu lilan dupian xinshu ), suggesting that it is a guide to avoiding swindles and to how to negotiate in the risky world of the traveling merchant. The Book of Swindles is divided into twenty-four categories of swindle: Zhang Yingyu, style name Kui Zhong (夔衷), is an obscure figure. The Book of Swindles is

950-638: The imperial court's decisions. Soon after Zhu Youxiao was enthroned as the Tianqi Emperor , it became clear that he was much more interested in carpentry and building projects than in court matters; he often left such matters to Wei, who was then promoted to be the Brush-Holding Eunuch of the Directorate of Ceremonial (Sili Jian Bingbi Taijian), and the Grand Secretaries. Wei's loyalty to the Tianqi Emperor paid quick dividends – by 1625, he had become

988-501: The incident, with the Chinese public writing stories dramatizing the event. Eventually, the Ming dynasty was destroyed and overturned by the Qing dynasty , and the Qing armies purged and persecuted the Zhu emperors and their families. Little is known of Wei's pre-court life. Wei was illiterate throughout his life, which may be an indication that he was born into a peasant or merchant class family. He

1026-695: The local practice of drowning female infants in the river. He authored the Public Notice on the Prohibition of the Drowning of Daughters ( 禁溺女告示 ) to appeal to parents not to carry out what he viewed as an abhorrent custom and provide for punishments for infanticidal parents and rewards for those taking in abandoned children. Singer Yan Weiwen stars as Feng Menglong in the 2017 biographical film Feng Menglong's Legend ( 馮夢龍傳奇 ). Wei Zhongxian Wei Zhongxian (1568 – December 12, 1627), born Wei Si (魏四),

1064-700: The minister of the Eastern Depot , a force of over one thousand uniformed policemen headquartered in the Forbidden City. As the Tianqi Emperor's de facto father and protector, Wei eventually became responsible for delivering imperial edicts, and any order from the palace was issued in the name of the emperor as well as Wei, the "Depot Minister". Fourteen of Wei's relatives were either ennobled or received hereditary military positions; some were even appointed to high official positions. As fear of Wei's power became more and more prevalent in China, many local officials commissioned

1102-467: The most powerful figure in the Forbidden City, the Donglin scholars decided that their intervention was sorely needed. Donglin sympathizer and Ming censor Zhou Zongjian impeached Wei Zhongxian in July 1622, imploring the emperor to remove him from the palace. In 1624, Yang Lian wrote a memorial to Tianqi condemning Wei of "24 crimes", some of them fabricated. Both attempts were unsuccessful and turned Wei against

1140-761: The only known work to appear under his name, and no other records of him are known. A note on the title page of one Ming dynasty copy claims that he was from Zhejiang province, while a 1617 preface says that he was from Fujian. The Book of Swindles incorporates elements from a variety of other Chinese genres, especially court case ( gong'an ) fiction , in which a capable magistrate solves a crime. Stories involving sorcerers , Buddhist monks , and Daoist priests, who engage in alchemy or dream spirit possession, include motifs from supernatural tales. Other stories, featuring suspense, surprise and revelation, resemble jokes in structure. A minority include apocryphal anecdotes about historical figures. Other works of fiction from

1178-473: The rafters with their own belts. After discovering Wei's death, the rest of his entourage managed to escape the area before the guards came. The Chongzhen Emperor's retribution to Wei and his political allies was swift and severe. In early 1628, Wei's corpse was dismembered and displayed in his native village as a warning to the public. By 1629, 161 of Wei's associates had been punished by the Chongzhen Emperor; of those, 24 were sentenced to execution. Madam Ke

Feng Menglong - Misplaced Pages Continue

1216-696: The separation, and he expressed his sorrow through poems. This experience influenced the way he portrayed women in his stories. In fact, Feng Menglong was one of the few authors who portrayed women as being strong and intelligent; this was noticeably different from contemporary authors, who tended to ignore the importance of women's positions. The female characters in Feng Menglong's stories were portrayed as brave and bright when dealing with different situations. For instance, in his story "Wan Xiuniang Takes Revenge Through Toy Pavilions" from Jing Shi Tong Yan , Wan Xiuniang showed her braveness during her tough times, and she

1254-415: The throne, no such coup happened. According to Li Sunzhi (a Donglin sympathizer), Wei had previously attempted to convince Empress Zhang to adopt his nephew, Wei Liangqing, in order to continue his manipulation of the throne. However, the empress refused. Because none of the Tianqi Emperor's three sons lived to adulthood, the emperor conferred the right to rule to his younger brother, Zhu Youjian, who became

1292-436: The two-year period of 1625–26, hundreds of other presumed Donglin sympathizers were demoted or purged from the government by Xu and the Embroidered Uniform Guard. Although Wei's exact involvement in these arrests and killings is not known, his overall control of the palace and the emperor's powers of edict ensured his involvement in some degree. The Tianqi Emperor died in 1627, and although many expected Wei to attempt to seize

1330-453: Was uninterested in court affairs, leaving room for Wei to abuse his power to issue edicts to promote and demote hundreds of officers. Mao Wenlong was one of the generals promoted by Wei Zhongxian. During Zhu Youjiao's reign, Wei would send the emperor's edicts to the Embroidered Uniform Guard led by prison director Xu Xianchun to purge corrupt officials and political enemies. Xu then arrested and demoted hundreds of officials and scholars from

1368-467: Was a Chinese court eunuch who lived in the late Ming dynasty . As a eunuch he used the name Li Jinzhong (李进忠). He is considered by most historians as the most notorious eunuch in Chinese history. He is best known for his service in the court of the Tianqi Emperor Zhu Youjiao (r. 1620–1627), when his power eventually appeared to rival that of the emperor. During his tenure, Zhu Youjiao

1406-425: Was able to escape using her intelligence. Other female characters, such as Du Shi-niang and Qu Xiuxiu, are examples to show Feng Menglong's respectful and sympathetic portrayal of female characters. Feng Menglong also expressed his attitudes towards society through his works, which were heavily influenced by his interactions with officialdom and the Chinese literati. Feng Menglong became the magistrate of Shouning near

1444-511: Was beaten to death by an interrogator just 11 days after Wei's death. Since his death, Wei has been seen by Chinese people and scholars as an instigator of Zhu Youjiao's abuse of power and collective atrocities. According to historical Chinese scholars, Wei's faults lay not necessarily in his persecution of the Donglin party, but in wielding power that was only supposed to be used by emperors themselves. Stories and dramatizations of this persecution were written just months after his death and gained

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