三言/名家导读·语文新课标必读丛书

by 冯梦龙 Feng Menglong

《三言》是冯梦龙编辑、加工的三部通俗白话短篇小说集《喻世明言》、《警世通言》、《醒世恒言》的合称，收录了宋元话本与明代拟话本，每部40篇，共120篇，分别刊行于天启元年（1621）、天启四年（1624）和天启七年（1627）。因为书名中都有一个“言”字，统称“三言”。“三言”主要是对宋元话本、明代拟话本进行编辑，但实际上，冯梦龙在对其进行编辑的同时，进行了一定的加工和修订。后来凌漾初（1580～1644）在三言的直接影响下也编撰了《初刻拍案惊奇》、《二刻拍案惊奇》，并分别刊行于天启七年（1627）和崇祯五年（1632），每部也是40篇，共80篇，简称“二拍”。由于“三言”和“二拍”编著年代相近，内容形式也类似，后人将其合称为《三言二拍》，成为我国古代通俗白话短篇小说集的杰出代表，在中国古代文学史上具有重要地位，其中又以“三言”的文学成就和影响更大。

Paperback

First published January 1, 1976

About the author

Feng Menglong (1574–1646) was a Chinese vernacular writer and poet of the late Ming Dynasty.

Most of his literary work was in editing and compiling histories, almanacs and novels. Two of his noteworthy novels are Qing Shi and the shenmo work Pingyao Zhuan. In 1620 he published the Illustrious Words to Instruct the World (喻世明言 Yushi Mingyan), or Stories Old and New.

Feng was a proponent of the school of Li Zhi, which supported the importance of human feelings and behavior in literature. He is frequently associated with Ling Mengchu, author of Slapping the Table in Amazement.

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 the separation, and he expressed his sorrow through poems. This experience influenced the way he portrayed female characters in his stories. In fact, Feng Menglong was one of the few authors who portrayed female as being strong and intelligent; and this is different from other authors, where they tended to ignore the importance of female’s position. 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 was able to escape using her intelligence. Other female characters, such as Miss Du Shi Niang and Qu Xiuxiu, are example to show Feng Menglong’s respect to female.

Feng Menglong expressed his attitudes towards the society through his works, and the reason was tightly related to his experience during his career. Feng Menglong became a local officer in Shouning in his sixties. He pursued justice and wished to build up his reputation by acting as an honest and upright official. Unfortunately, he was born in a time of corruption; bribery and extortion were common bureaucratic behaviors, and they opposed the principle of Feng Menglong. 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 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 story The White Maiden Locked for Eternity in Leifeng Pagoda and The Young Lady Gives the Young Man a Gift of Money from Jing Shi Tong Yan express the idea of how women pursue their freedom and happiness under a feudal society.

Reviews

[Mel · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the first French book I read this year. It is a lovely French translation comic book of two of Feng Menglong's San Yan stories. The comic is technically dual language with simplified Chinese and the french text at the back. I read both but it was a bit annoying to have the Chinese without the photos and to have to swap back and forth between them.

That said the stories they chose were really great. The first one was one I'd not read yet. It was about a couple engaged to be married but the groom-to-be got very sick so the other family sent their son disguised as a woman to marry him instead. As he was too sick to perform the wedding they had his sister fill in, so it was two women getting married though one was actually in drag. After the ceremony the two "women" went to bed and the predictable happened. It was lots of fun!

The next story was one of my favorites. It's about a poor oil seller who saves for a year so he can spend the night with a famous prostitute he has fallen in love with. She ends up coming back late from another party very drunk and he looks after her. It is very sweet. There are many complications but they end up living happily ever after.