Description
Book SynopsisBeyond Eroticism translates and analyzes over forty songs and ninety jokes from Child''s Folly, a trilogy of popular songs (Hanging Twigs), folksongs (Hill Songs), and jokes (Treasury of Laughs) compiled by Feng Menglong (1574-1646), a giant in late Ming (1368-1644) popular literature. Focusing on humor as the predominant characteristic of the tactically forgotten collections, the book offers a delightful study of the foibles, eccentricities, and anxieties of a broad cross section of late Ming society. The study also probes the inner world of the compiler as he reveals, unwittingly, the tensions in his own gender and class conceptions. Eroticism was Feng Menglong''s trademark, but Hsu looks beyond that trademark, arguing that Feng used eroticism both to sell his books and to satirize the puritan state''s orthodoxy and the loose love ethics of the masses. He did the former as a canny author of the commercial press, and the latter as a marginal member of the gentry societysocial elite w
Table of ContentsChapter 1 Preface Chapter 2 Notes on Conventions Chapter 3 Prologue Chapter 4 Historicizing the Humor of Child's Folly Chapter 5 Feng Menglong and His World Chapter 6 Hanging Twigs andHill Songs: The Triumph and Trial of Emotions and Desires Chapter 7 Treasury of Laughs: Humorous Satire with a Philosophical Undertone Chapter 8 Epilogue Chapter 9 Bibliography Chapter 10 Glossary of Chinese Characters Chapter 11 Index Chapter 12 About the Author
