- Ling Mengchu
Ling Mengchu (zh-cpw|c=凌濛初|p=líng méngchū |w=Ling Meng-ch'u), (1580-1644) was a Chinese writer of the
Ming Dynasty , best known for his vernacular short fiction collections "Astonished Slaps Upon the Desktop ", I and II.Biography
Ling Mengchu was born into the Ling clan of
Wucheng in northernZhejiang . The Ling family had supplied numerous officials to the empire. No doubt the Ling family prospered on land rents and agriculture. In addition family members were actively engaged in the printing business with a local specialty of books in polychrome. The Wucheng area was adjacent to the commercial and cultural areas ofHangzhou andSuzhou where reading materials were in increasing demand. Ling Mengchu was certainly a merchant businessman and also certainly a traditional scholar withcivil service ambitions.The business motive of the Ling family was originally discussed by Ling Mengchu’s contemporary
Xie Zhaozhe (1567-1624) in his "Wu zazu" (Five Assorted Offerings). Such were the times. Ling repeatedly failed at the examinations and did not take a government post until he was fifty-four. Ling would finally perish in fighting against rebels in 1644.Ling’s short stories were a detailed study of his 17th century moral world. A new factor that Ling Mengchu insisted on was empiricism, an objective study of what existed before the eyes of the observer. In the prefatory material to his first short story collection he insisted it was infinitely more difficult to paint a likeness of a
dog orhorse one had actually seen than to render aghost orgoblin one had never observed. These refreshing new literary directions were still in the age ofWang Yangming philosophical idealism andZhu Xi metaphysics.References
* James Scott, Rapp and Whiting trans., "The Lecherous Academician",(1973), ISBN 0-85391-186-X
* Wen Jingen trans., "Amazing Tales" (Volume One), Panda Books, 1998. ISBN 7507103986
* Perry W. Ma trans., "Amazing Tales" (Volume Two), Panda Books, 1998. ISBN 750710401xARTICLES
*Carpenter, Bruce E., 'The Ming Short Story Collection "P'ai-an ching-ch'i."' "Tezukayama Daigaku Jinbunkagakubu Kiyo" (Tezukayama University Journal of Humanities), Nara, Japan, 2000, pp.41-111.
*Goodrich and Fang ed., "Dictionary of Ming Biography 1368-1644" ( bio. by Li Tienyi), New York,1976, vol. 1, pp. 930-931.
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