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世说新语
《世说新语》记录了魏晋名士的逸闻轶事和玄言清谈，反映了魏晋时期文人的思想言行和上层社会的生活面貌。全书原八卷，刘峻注本分为十卷，今传本皆作三卷，分为德行、言语、政事、文学、方正、雅量等三十六门，共一千多则。本书记载颇为丰富真实，有助于读者了解当时士人所处的时代状况及政治社会环境，并明确地看到所谓“魏晋清谈”的风貌，可以说是一部记录魏晋风流的故事集。书中文字许多是用口语，在当时颇具特色。
134 pages, Kindle Edition
First published February 1, 1984
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
April 25, 2025
无论历次考试考了多少次世说新语，我仍然深刻热爱这本骚话启蒙书。
August 20, 2025
虽然只看得懂译文，但还是感受且欣赏一些魏晋名士的“任性”。
January 30, 2021
Funny anecdotes, conversations and gossips of ancient Chinese noblemen, written in ancient classical Chinese. This book allowed men who lived thousands of years ago to come to life. And it’s cool because even though the society has changed so much over time, I feel like their sense of humor is not really different from ours today. This aspect entertains me a lot
Unfortunately i think this is a book most suitable for Chinese native speakers and perhaps those somewhat trained in classical Chinese. I’m not sure if anyone will be able to translate the content properly, as there are so many Chinese word tricks and concepts for which I can’t think of any English equivalents.
Unfortunately i think this is a book most suitable for Chinese native speakers and perhaps those somewhat trained in classical Chinese. I’m not sure if anyone will be able to translate the content properly, as there are so many Chinese word tricks and concepts for which I can’t think of any English equivalents.
April 27, 2019
This edition is fine for what it is - the characters are large and easily legible, the pronunciation of each character of the original texts is given in Mandarin Phonetic Symbols, and the annotations and translations into modern Chinese are fine. I'm not really sure where this copy even came from - it's clearly second hand, since there are penciled notes in the first several stories. But the problem is...
...I noticed at the end of book one that there was a story in the online text that wasn't in the print version, so I penciled it into the book. Then I saw that about half the stories of book 2 were missing...so I got a complete, unabridged edition (the San Min 三民書局 edition) the next day and switched immediately to that. I spent about half an hour marking the stories I'd already read so I could read all the ones in between not included in the edition I'd been reading.
I don't see any indication anywhere in or on this book that this is a [fairly greatly] abridged edition. They really should have made this clear in some prominent place.
Some of the omitted stories are indeed a bit complex, in spite of their extreme brevity; in one, the commentators have different opinions about the interpretation of the last sentence. Another made me wonder if the abridgment tried to sanitize the original a bit - it was about a psychoactive (and also toxic) drug compound, 五石散/寒食散, that was reportedly made more popular after publication of this anecdote, to the great detriment of a great many people over many years, and it was certainly responsible for numerous deaths before it was finally condemned and made illegal in the Song dynasty, according to an online source I checked.
I like reading complete editions, and all of the stories omitted from this edition that I've now read in the San Min edition have a kick that makes them well worth reading. So if you're going to bother reading the Shihshuo Xinyu in the first place, get the San Min or similar edition and read the whole thing! And you might want to read this in conjunction with my former teacher Professor Richard Mather's annotated translation. I've ordered it online and am still waiting for it with great anticipation.
...I noticed at the end of book one that there was a story in the online text that wasn't in the print version, so I penciled it into the book. Then I saw that about half the stories of book 2 were missing...so I got a complete, unabridged edition (the San Min 三民書局 edition) the next day and switched immediately to that. I spent about half an hour marking the stories I'd already read so I could read all the ones in between not included in the edition I'd been reading.
I don't see any indication anywhere in or on this book that this is a [fairly greatly] abridged edition. They really should have made this clear in some prominent place.
Some of the omitted stories are indeed a bit complex, in spite of their extreme brevity; in one, the commentators have different opinions about the interpretation of the last sentence. Another made me wonder if the abridgment tried to sanitize the original a bit - it was about a psychoactive (and also toxic) drug compound, 五石散/寒食散, that was reportedly made more popular after publication of this anecdote, to the great detriment of a great many people over many years, and it was certainly responsible for numerous deaths before it was finally condemned and made illegal in the Song dynasty, according to an online source I checked.
I like reading complete editions, and all of the stories omitted from this edition that I've now read in the San Min edition have a kick that makes them well worth reading. So if you're going to bother reading the Shihshuo Xinyu in the first place, get the San Min or similar edition and read the whole thing! And you might want to read this in conjunction with my former teacher Professor Richard Mather's annotated translation. I've ordered it online and am still waiting for it with great anticipation.
September 7, 2017
Every educated Chinese should read this book and emulate the grace of ancient lifestyle. You need at least medium level ancient Chinese proficiency plus complete mastery of traditional Chinese characters.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews