Feng Menglong

(the first commercially successful writer)

Life

I was born in Changzhou in 1574. I came from a prestigious family. My elder brother, younger brother, and I are called Wuxia sanfeng, which means "the three Feng's in Wuxia." My elder brother Feng Menggui was an artist, my younger brother Feng Mengxiong was a university student and also a published poet, and I was a vernacular writer and poet.

Views in Writings

To me, ethical earnestness and suspicion of traditional elite forms and accepted wisdom can coexist. In my works, I cited the writings that supported this point because I believe that the "division that makes the most sense lies not between professionals and amateurs, but between ivory-tower pedantry and moral teachings that everyone, no matter how humble, can practice" (122-123).

My own works would almost always contain some kind of morality. In my stories, the greatest sins in the world is "prudishness and hypocritical self-righteousness, while no shame attaches to earning honest money even, for example, as a beggar" (123). It is because of this belief that led to my being the first commercially successful writer. Before, literature is shared by being passed among people and writer are not supposed to take money in exchange for their work. Sometimes, if a writer wanted another writer to promote or write a preface for his work, he would pay money in the form of a bribe because giving payment is considered improper. I, however, was sure that writing can be just as good a profession as any other, so I took money for my writings and made sure it was legal and out in the open.

Major Works

My most important work is the "Three Words" (三言 = Sanyan). "Three Words" is a collection of three different books: Clear Words to Instruct the World (喻世明言 = Yushi mingyan) = Stories Old and New (Gujin xiaoshuo = 古今小说), Comprehensive Words to Warn the World (Jingshi tongyan = 警世通言), and Constant Words to Awaken the World(Xingshi hengyan = 醒世恒言).

Some of my other works include:

• Xinlie guozhi (新列国志)
• Gujin lienü yanyi (古今烈女演义)
• Gujin Tangai (古今谈概)
• Zhinang (智囊)
• Qingshi(情史)

Three Words (三言)

Three Words contains 40 stories per volume thus 120 total. One third of the stories were set in the Song and Yuan dynasties, and the other two thirds were set in the Ming dynasty. Some of the topics include common people's economic activities and friendships, feudal morals, ways of the immortals, and love and marriage.

The stories condemned the corrupt feudal officials and praised the others. they also praised friendship and love and criticized ungratefulness and betrayal. Most importantly, the stories described the lives of the common people.

Three Words presented the new ideas during the beginning of capitalism that was, at the same time, combined with the negative, corrupt, and vulgar past consciousness. The phenomena of intertwined progress and regress are the basis for the emerging style of literature.

"Unlike contemporary works of erotica or entertainment, in which the didactic content was secondary (or even ironic), these stories treat the reward of the good and the punishment of the bad as a matter of great seriousness. The protagonists are usually people of humble background, but the moral questions they confront are not in the least trivialized" ().

There were three main themes in Three Words: the oppression of women, fights and struggles of the feudal ruling classes, and friendship vs treachery.

Fights and Struggles of the Feudal Ruling Classes

After middle Ming, there were even more corruption among the feudal ruling classes than before and the power struggles among the rulers are were more intense, and these became the foundation for the literary works during the time.

Sometime during Song Dynasty, there was this old guy (秋先); he used to be a farmer and has acres of land and a cottage (草房). His wife passed away some time ago and he had no children. Ever since he was young, he was obsessed with growing plants (flowers and fruits) that he abandoned farming and focused on growing flowers. To him, rare flowers were worth even more than priceless treasures. If he saw a flower that he liked on the market he would always buy it, and if he did not have money he would pound his clothes just to afford the flower. After days and months and years, his garden had accumulated a magnificent assortment of plants. He was thoroughly addicted and usually did not even let anyone into his garden because he was afraid that they might break it/the flowers.

There was this person (张委) who was the son (?) of a court official. He was cunning, cruel, and wanted power, so he regularly terrorized his neighbors. One time when he was wandering around and came upon the garden. Despite being told that the old man did not allow people into his garden he still went in because he was quite narcissistic. 张委 really liked the garden; he started drinking and decided that he wanted the garden for himself. First he asked to buy it but the old man refused to sell. He got angry and plus he was drunk so he started to pluck and trample the flowers.

The old man was very sad and as he cried he saw this very pretty woman; she magically fixed the garden. Zhang heard this and was quite surprised. Because the old man would not sell the garden he decided to demand it by accusing the old man to be a demon. The old man denied this and thus got arrested by 张霸 (works for 张委) . In the prison he prayed for someone to come and save him and the lady from before appeared and got him out of the prison… then he woke up (still in prison).

Meanwhile, 张委 was about to show off “his” garden. But everything appeared dead again and the lady came and created a wind storm that scared everyone away. 张霸 tripped over the plant roots and broke his head. 张委 was buried head down in the manure. The next day the old man was freed.

Friendship vs Treachery

The stories praised friendship and rebuked treachery. They also included:

• Darkness of politics
• Bad social atmosphere
• Industrial prosperity
• Growth of public sectors