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This study presents a lively world of vernacular writing from Zichuan, Shandong, the home region of Pu Songling (1640–1715). Based on Keio University’s Liaozhai Collection, it examines a world of local reading and writing through the manuscripts of village scholars, including those of a topolectal primer and various song-narratives attributed to the author famed for his classical tales Liaozhai zhiyi.
The study sheds light on intertwined realms of local textual transmission, the place of manuscript culture in ordinary literary life, and the role of language and locality in shaping the plural literatures of late imperial China.
The study sheds light on intertwined realms of local textual transmission, the place of manuscript culture in ordinary literary life, and the role of language and locality in shaping the plural literatures of late imperial China.
Price: $119.00
Pages: 314
Publisher: Brill
Imprint: Brill
Series: Sinica Leidensia
Publication Date:
28 August 2025
ISBN: 9789004696815
Format: Hardcover
"The act of writing, whether as student or teacher, scribe or plagiarist, scholar or commoner, was central to the everyday, vernacular world of late-imperial Shandong or, for that matter, most of late imperial China. Thanks to its immaculate research (and more than fifty reproductions of
manuscript pages), Zhenzhen Lu’s book is an important first step in uncovering this world of handwritten vernacular text." - Paize Keulemans, Journal of Chinese History (2026).
Zhenzhen Lu received her PhD from the University of Pennsylvania and is Assistant Professor of Chinese at Bates College.