Feng Meng-Lung

Feng Meng-Lung

 

(nickname, Yu-lung; pen names include Ku-su-tzu-nu and Mo-han-tzu). Born 1574 near Süchow; died 1646. Chinese writer.

In the 1620’s, Feng published collections of folk novellas (hua-pen) that dealt with the lives of city dwellers; these collections were gathered together under the title Trilogy, a work that comprises Clear Word, Exhorting World (or Stories Old and New); Accessible Word, Cautioning World; and Eternal Word, Awakening World. Feng edited and partially reworked novels of the 14th to 16th centuries, including The Tale of P’an-ku, The Tale of the Hsia Dynasty, The Tale of the Shang Dynasty, A Description of Some of the Kingdoms of the Eastern Chou Dynasty, and How the Three Sui Subdued the Evil Spirit. He published several dramas of the ch’uan-ch’i genre (musical dramas) in Ch’uan-ch’i From the Studio of a Simple Scribbler. Feng compiled collections of folk songs, an anthology of ancient legends, and collections of jokes (The Chamber of Laughter) and parables (The Bag of Wisdom).

WORKS

Ku chin hsiaoshuo, vols. 1–2. Peking, 1958.
Mohan-chai ting-pen ch’uan-ch’i, vols. 1–3. Peking, 1960.
Hsingshih hengyen, vols. 1–2. Peking, 1962.
Ching shih t’unyen. Peking, 1962.
In Russian translation:
Prodelki prazdnogo drakona: Shestnadtsat’ povestei iz sbornikov XVII v. Moscow, 1966.

REFERENCES

Zhelokhovtsev, A. N. “Stepen’ sokhrannosti rannikh povestei v svode Fen Men-luna.” In Kratkie soobshcheniia Instituía narodov Azii AN SSSR, issue 84. Moscow, 1965.
Zhelokhovtsev, A. N. Khuaben’—gorodskaia povest’ srednevekovogo Kitaia. Moscow, 1969.
Malinovskaia, T. A. “Dramaturgicheskaia deiatel’nost’ Fen Menluna.” In the collection Istoriko-filologicheskie issledovaniia, fasc. 2. Moscow, 1974.

B. L. RIFTIN