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A woman seduces her landlord to extort the family farm. Gamblers recruit a wily prostitute to get a rich young man back in the game. Silver counterfeiters wreak havoc for traveling merchants. A wealthy widow is drugged and robbed by a lodger posing as a well-to-do student. Vengeful judges and corrupt clerks pervert the course of justice. Cunning soothsayers spur on a plot to overthrow the emperor. Yet good sometimes triumphs, as when amateur sleuths track down a crew of homicidal boatmen or a cold-case murder is exposed by a frog. These are just a few of the tales of crime and depravity appearing in More Swindles from the Late Ming, a book that offers a panorama of vice—and words of warning—from one seventeenth-century writer.
This companion volume to The Book of Swindles: Selections from a Late Ming Collection presents sensational stories of scams that range from the ingenious to the absurd to the lurid, many featuring sorcery, sex, and extreme violence. Together, the two volumes represent the first complete translation into any language of a landmark Chinese anthology, making an essential contribution to the global literature of trickery and fraud. An introduction explores the geography of grift, the role of sex and family relations, and the portrayal of Buddhist clergy and others claiming supernatural powers. Opening a window onto the colorful world of crime and deception in late imperial China, this book testifies to the enduring popularity of stories about scoundrels and their schemes.
Zhang Yingyu (fl. 1612–1617) lived during the Wanli period (1573–1620) of the Ming dynasty.
Bruce Rusk is an associate professor of Asian studies at the University of British Columbia. He is coeditor of Literary Information in China: A History (Columbia, 2021), among other books.
Christopher Rea is a professor of Asian studies at the University of British Columbia. His books include Chinese Film Classics, 1922–1949 (Columbia, 2021).
Rusk and Rea are the translators of The Book of Swindles: Selections from a Late Ming Collection (Columbia, 2017).
Translators’ Introduction
Explanation of Images at the Heads of Chapters in The Book of Swindles
Type 1: Misdirection and Theft
Encountering the Village Head and Then Stealing a Teapot
Taking Advantage of the Bustle in a Shop to Brazenly Steal a Bolt of Cloth
Borrowing a Storefront to Steal Cloth
A Fake Carpenter Fixes a Moneychanger’s Desk Drawer
Type 3: Money Changing
Swapping Fake Silver for a Pure Ingot
Type 4: Misrepresentation
Gulling People by Impersonating an Envoy from the Netherworld and Burning a Register
Stealing Cloth by Pretending to Purchase It at an Alley Entrance
Type 5: False Relations
Incitement to Drinking and Whoring Ruins Health and Reputation
Debts Accumulated Against a Friend’s Property Bankrupt a Family
Spurring a Friend to Launch a Fornication Suit to Ruin a Family
Type 7: Enticement to Gambling
Posing as a Wealthy Scion and Enlisting a Prostitute in a Gambling Scam
A Gambling Addict Falls Prey to an Ingenious Trick
Type 9: Scheming for Wealth
Sedan Bearers Take a Confucian Apprentice off the Beaten Path
Jacking Up the Price of Goods Only to End Up Ruined
Type 10: Robbery
A Fake Scion Rents Rooms and Robs a Widow
Highway Robbery at a Shop in the Capital
Type 11: Violence
Acquiring a Bedroll by Marking It in Secret
Stealing Silver by Throwing Lime in the Eyes
Robbed by Crooks in Broad Daylight While Taking a Dump
Type 12: On Boats
Luggage Aboard a Boat Disappears, Along with a Servant
A New Concubine Is Kidnapped from a Boat at Night
A Purchase of Copperware Incites Boatmen to Murder
Loading Cargo Onto the Wrong Boat
Type 14: Fake Silver
Passing Whitewashed Ingots in Maozhou
Type 15: Government Underlings
A Trumped-Up Death Sentence Is Commuted to Exile
Type 16: Marriage
Matchmakers Defraud a Provincial Graduate Seeking to Marry a Lady of Rank
A Marriage Scam of Passion Comes to Light Because of a Frog
Type 17: Illicit Passion
Money and Guile Buy a Paper Maker’s Wife
A Monk Seduces a Tenant Farmer’s Wife with a Length of Silk
Robbed of Silver After Fornicating with a Maidservant
Fleeced After an Affair with a Broker’s Daughter
Type 18: Women
A Man Rapes His Daughter-in-Law and Then Tricks Her Mother Into Sex
A Tenant Farmer’s Wife Is Prostituted to Steal the Master’s Land
Type 19: Kidnapping
A Gang Blinds and Amputates Children, Leaving Them Maimed
Type 21: Monks and Priests
Believing a Deceitful Monk Leads to a Chain of Calamities
A Buddhist Monk Impersonates a Guardian Deity to Scam a Donation
Scamming a Silk Robe with Feigned Foresight
Type 22: Alchemy
An Alchemist in a Pit Uses Talismans to Escape
Type 23: Sorcery
Magic Reflections in Water Incite a Rebellion
A Villain Kidnaps Boys by Touching Their Face
Appendix: Story Finding List
Bibliography