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Different versions of a traditional tale still popular in China reveal the different uses to which the story has been put

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

Translator's Note

Meng Jiangnu: The Development of a Legend by Wild L. Idema

Meng Jiangnu and the May Fourth Folklore Movement by Haiyan Lee

Part One | Ballads from Late-Imperial China

1. Trekking to the Wall

2. Guiding the Soul

3. Retrieving a Fan

4. Born from a Gourd

5. Being a Filial Daughter-in-Law

Part Two | Ballads Collected in the Countryside

6. Switching to Dragon Robes

7. Mobilizing the Gods

8. Stepping into the Pond

9. Sleeping with the Bones

10. Forbidden Desires

Notes

Glossary

Bibliography

About the Author

Wilt L. Idema is professor of Chinese literature at Harvard University. He is the author of Chinese Vernacular Fiction: The Formative Period and The Dramatic Oeuvre of Chu Yu-tun (1379-1439), coauthor of The Red Brush: Writing Women of Imperial China, and cotranslator of The Story of the Western Wing by Wang Shifu. Haiyan Lee is assistant professor of East Asian languages and civilizations at the University of Colorado. She is the author of Revolution of the Heart: A Genealogy of Love in China, 1900-1950.

Reviews

"A very important work and a true contribution to the study of traditional Chinese literature." Mark Bender, Ohio State University