Overview

This is an age of deception. Con men ply the roadways. Bogus alchemists pretend to turn one piece of silver into three. Devious nuns entice young women into adultery. Sorcerers use charmed talismans for mind control and murder. A pair of dubious monks extorts money from a powerful official and then spends it on whoring. A rich student tries to bribe the chief examiner, only to hand his money to an imposter. A eunuch kidnaps boys and consumes their ""essence"" in an attempt to regrow his penis. These are just a few of the entertaining and surprising tales to be found in this seventeenth-century work, said to be the earliest Chinese collection of swindle stories. The Book of Swindles, compiled by an obscure writer from southern China, presents a fascinating tableau of criminal ingenuity. The flourishing economy of the late Ming period created overnight fortunes for merchants-and gave rise to a host of smooth operators, charlatans, forgers, and imposters seeking to siphon off some of the new wealth. The Book of Swindles, which was ostensibly written as a manual for self-protection in this shifting and unstable world, also offers an expert guide to the art of deception. Each story comes with commentary by the author, Zhang Yingyu, who expounds a moral lesson while also speaking as a connoisseur of the swindle. This volume, which contains annotated translations of just over half of the eighty-odd stories in Zhang's original collection, provides a wealth of detail on social life during the late Ming and offers words of warning for a world in peril.

Full Product Details

Author:   Yingyu Zhang ,  Christopher G. Rea ,  Bruce Rusk
Publisher:   Columbia University Press
Imprint:   Columbia University Press
Edition:   annotated edition
Weight:   0.454kg
ISBN:  

9780231178631

ISBN 10:   0231178638
Pages:   208
Publication Date:   05 September 2017
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Available To Order  
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Language:   Chinese

Table of Contents

Maps Translators’ Introduction Type 1: Misdirection and Theft Stealing Silk with a Decoy Horse Handing Over Silver Before Running Off with It A Clever Trick on a Pig Seller Pilfering Green Cloth by Pretending to Steal a Goose Type 2: The Bag Drop Dropping a Bag by the Roadside to Set Up a Switcheroo Type 3: Money Changing A Daoist in a Boat Exchanges Some Gold Type 4: Misrepresentation Forged Letters from the Education Intendant Report Auspicious Dreams Using Broom Handles to Play a Joke on Sedan Bearers Type 5: False Relations Inciting a Friend to Commit Adultery and Swindling Away His Land Type 6: Brokers A Conniving Broker Takes Paper and Ends Up Paying with His Daughter A Destitute Broker Takes Some Wax to Pay Off Old Debts Type 7: Enticement to Gambling A Stern Warning to a Gambler Provokes Others to Entice Him to Relapse Type 8: Showing Off Wealth Impersonating the Son of an Official to Steal a Merchant’s Silver Flashy Clothing Incites Larceny Type 9: Scheming for Wealth Stealing a Business Partner’s Riches Only to Lose One’s Own Haughtiness Leads to a Lawsuit That Harms Wealth and Health Type 10: Robbery Robbing a Pawnshop by Pretending to Leave Goods There Type 11: Violence Sticking a Plaster in the Eyes to Steal a Silver Ingot Type 12: On Boats Bringing Mirrors Aboard a Boat Invites a Nefarious Plot Porters Run Off with Cargo from a Boat Type 13: Poetry Swindling the Salt Commissioner While Disguised as Daoists Chen Quan Scams His Way Into the Arms of a Famous Courtesan Type 14: Fake Silver Planting a Fake Ingot to Swindle a Farmer Type 15: Government Underlings Swindled on the Way Out of a Court Hearing An Officer Reprimands a Captured Criminal in Order to Halve His Flogging Type 16: Marriage Marrying a Street Cleaner and Provoking His Death Taking a Concubine from Another Province Leads to a Disastrous Lawsuit Type 17: Illicit Passion A Geomancer Uses His Wife to Steal a Good Seed Type 18: Women Coaxing a Sister-in-Law Into Adultery to Scam Oil and Meat Three Women Ride Off on Three Horses A Buddhist Nun Scatters Prayer Beads to Lure a Woman Into Adultery Type 19: Kidnapping A Eunuch Cooks Boys to Make a Tonic of Male Essence Type 20: Corruption in Education Pretending to Present Silver to an Education Commissioner Affixing Seals in a Functionary’s Chambers Silver with Sham Seals Is Switched for Bricks Robbed by a Gang While Sealing Silver in an Unoccupied Room A Fake Freeloader Takes Over a Con Money Stashed with an Innkeeper Is Burgled Type 21: Monks and Priests A Buddhist Monk Identifies a Cow as His Mother Eating Human Fetuses to Fake Fasting Type 22: Alchemy Trusting in Alchemy Harms an Entire Family A Foiled Alchemy Scam Leads to a Poisoning Type 23: Sorcery Using Dream Sorcery to Rob a Family Type 24: Pandering A Father Searching for His Wastrel Son Himself Falls Into Whoring Appendix 1: Preface to A New Book for Foiling Swindlers: Strange Tales from the Rivers and Lakes (1617), by Xiong Zhenji Appendix 2: Story Finding List Bibliography

Reviews

It has been said that the study of China is the study of humanity. In these elegantly translated stories of folly and foibles, we are offered a unique guide to early modern China, as well as insights into the human condition itself.--Geremie R. Barme, editor of An Educated Man is Not a Pot: On the University What's the oldest scam in the book? Nobody knows, but at least we have the oldest book about scams in China. It's calledThe Book of Swindles, and finally, after four hundred years, Rea and Rusk have presented us with a vivid and entertaining new translation of this classic. Even the chapter titles--'Eating Human Fetuses to Fake Fasting'; 'Swindling the Salt Commissioner While Disguised as Daoists'--are as priceless as anything else produced during the Ming dynasty.--Peter Hessler, author of Strange Stones: Dispatches from East and West In The Book of Swindles, Rea and Rusk give us hilarious and sobering proof that swindling isn't just a contemporary concern but has been around for centuries. We are treated to stories of porters cheating officials who cheat porters, of conniving Taoists and gullible officials, of lusty widows who provoke their husbands' death, and of debauched gentry who prey on poor locals. Yet many of these tales sound eerily familiar to today's world, and especially today's China. We are confronted with a widespread, ambient feeling of social mistrust in which people across the land feel that they are constantly being cheated. Besides giving insight into deep societal concerns, The Book of Swindles is a great read.--Ian Johnson, author of The Souls of China: The Return of Religion After Mao

In The Book of Swindles, Rea and Rusk give us hilarious and sobering proof that swindling isn't just a contemporary concern but has been around for centuries. We are treated to stories of porters cheating officials who cheat porters, of conniving Taoists and gullible officials, of lusty widows who provoke their husbands' death, and of debauched gentry who prey on poor locals. Yet many of these tales sound eerily familiar to today's world, and especially today's China. We are confronted with a widespread, ambient feeling of social mistrust in which people across the land feel that they are constantly being cheated. Besides giving insight into deep societal concerns, The Book of Swindles is a great read. -- Ian Johnson, author of <i>The Souls of China: The Return of Religion After Mao</i> It has been said that the study of China is the study of humanity. In these elegantly translated stories of folly and foibles, we are offered a unique guide to early modern China, as well as insights into the human condition itself. -- Geremie R. Barme, Australian National University What's the oldest scam in the book? Nobody knows, but at least we have the oldest book about scams in China. It's calledThe Book of Swindles, and finally, after four hundred years, Rea and Rusk have presented us with a vivid and entertaining new translation of this classic. Even the chapter titles-`Eating Human Fetuses to Fake Fasting'; `Swindling the Salt Commissioner While Disguised as Daoists'-are as priceless as anything else produced during the Ming dynasty. -- Peter Hessler, author of <i>Strange Stones: Dispatches from East and West</i>

Author Information

Zhang Yingyu (fl. 1612-1617) lived during the Wanli period (1573-1620) of the Ming dynasty. Christopher Rea is associate professor of Asian studies at the University of British Columbia. He is the author of The Age of Irreverence: A New History of Laughter in China (2015), and the editor of several books, including Humans, Beasts, and Ghosts: Stories and Essays by Qian Zhongshu (Columbia, 2011). Bruce Rusk is associate professor of Asian studies at the University of British Columbia. He is the author of Critics and Commentators: The Book of Poems as Classic and Literature (2012).

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