Written around 1660, the unique Chinese short story collection Idle Talk under the Bean Arbor (Doupeng xianhua), by the author known only as Aina the Layman, uses the seemingly innocuous setting of neighbors swapping yarns on hot summer days under a shady arbor to create a series of stories that embody deep disillusionment with traditional values. The tales, ostensibly told by different narrators, parody heroic legends and explore issues that contributed to the fall of the Ming dynasty a couple of decades before this collection was written, including self-centeredness and social violence. These stories speak to all troubled times, demanding that readers confront the pretense that may lurk behind moralistic stances.
Idle Talk under the Bean Arbor presents all twelve stories in English translation along with notes from the original commentator, as well as a helpful introduction and analysis of individual stories.
Table of Contents:
Acknowledgments
Introduction | Gossip and Exaggeration in Aina’s Short Stories / Robert E. Hegel
Terms of Measurement and Titles
Chronology of China’s Historical Periods (Dynasties and States)
Preface: Dashed off by Whistling Crane of the Empty Heavens / Translated by Li Qiancheng
Foreword written by Aina the Layman from Shengshui, with Commentary by Ziran the Eccentric Wanderer from Yuanhu / Translated by Li Qiancheng
Session 1: Jie Zhitui Sets Fire to His Jealous Wife / Translated by Mei Chun and Lane J. Harris
Session 2: Fan Li Drowns Xishi in West Lake / Translated by Li Fang-yu
Session 3: A Court-Appointed Gentleman Squanders His Wealth but Takes Power / Translated by Alexander C. Wille
Session 4: The Commissioner’s Son Wastes His Patrimony to Revive the Family / Translated by Li Fang-yu
Session 5: The Little Beggar Who Was Truly Filial / Translated by Zhang Jing
Session 6: The Exalted Monks Who Faked Transcendence / Translated by Zhang Jing
Session 7: On Shouyang Mountain, Shuqi Becomes a Turncoat / Translated by Mei Chun and Lane J. Harris
Session 8: With a Transparent Stone, Master Wei Opens Blind Eyes / Translated by Alexander C. Wille
Session 9: Liu the Brave Tests a Horse on the Yuyang Road / Translated by Annelise Finegan Wasmoen
Session 10: Freeloader Jia Forms a League on Tiger Hill / Translated by Robert E. Hegel and Xu Yunjing
Session 11: In Death, Commander Dang Beheads His Enemy / Translated by Lindsey Waldrop
Session 12: In Detail, Rector Chen Discourses on the Cosmos / Translated by Robert E. Hegel
Afterthoughts on Stories
Historical and Cultural References
Notes
Glossary of Chinese Characters
Bibliography
Contributors
About the Author :
Robert E. Hegel is Liselotte Dieckmann Professor of Comparative Literature and professor of Chinese at Washington University. The translators are Lane J. Harris, Robert Hegel, Li Fang-yu, Li Qiancheng, Mei Chun, Lindsey Waldrop, Annelise Finegan Wasmoen, Alexander C. Wille, Xu Yunjing, and Zhang Jing.
Review :
"Editor Robert Hegel has assembled an erudite team of luminaries in late imperial translation and scholarship. . . . It is, in short, a valuable and comprehensive research tool for the original Doupeng xianhua in particular and for late imperial fiction in general. Being so many different things, the volume is accessible and useful to a number of audiences: casual readers looking to escape the heat of a summer afternoon reading; undergraduates familiarizing themselves with the breadth and depth of Chinese letters; and specialists in the field."
"With ample paratextual material, a creative and skilled array of translators, and expert framing by the collection’s key editor and translator, Robert Hegel, Idle Talk in its English translation conveys both the complex contents and the multilayered pleasures of its early Qing original.Modern Chinese Literature and Culture"
"Robert Hegel's rich and complex edition of Idle Talk under the Bean Arbor will be important not only for scholars of Chinese and comparative literature, but also for learning and teaching about Chinese culture at all levels."
"Thisfirst complete English-language translation, edited by Hegel, gives Idle Talk the treatment it deserves...a vital addition to English-language translations of late imperial literature."
"After publishing in three handsome volumes a complete translation of Feng Menglong’s celebrated Sanyan trilogy, the University of Washington Press has now performed a further service for students of Chinese literature by releasing a translation of another seventeenth-century story collection, Doupeng xianhua, or Idle Talk under the Bean Arbor... The twelve stories are linked with a nar-rative frame that imagines a series of storytelling sessions under the shade of a bean arbor that take place over a period of weeks from early summer to late autumn. There is much to commend in this English edition."
"This first complete English translation of this collection will not only be warmly welcomed by teachers of Chinese literature, but should also be of interest to schol-ars of Chinese and comparative intellectual history...an extremely welcome addition to the corpus of available translations from premodern Chinese literature. It introduces the Anglophone world to a fascinating collection by a highly original mind. It is to be hoped that it will not only be widely used in undergraduate and graduate class-es, but also will find its way to a more general audience."
