Victor H. Mair is professor of Chinese languages and literature in the Department of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. Among his many publications are Tun-huang Popular Narratives; Painting and Performance: Chinese Picture Recitation and Its Indian Genesis; T'ang Transformation Texts: A Study of the Buddhist Contribution to the Rise of Vernacular Fiction and Drama in China; Tao Te Ching: The Chinese Book of Integrity and the Way; and (with J. P. Mallory) The Tarim Mummies.

Innovative, talented, lively, and splendidly readable. Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society The list of translators reads like a Who's Who of Western Sinology. This is a book one can open at any page and immediately be drawn in by its great and appealing content. It is at once a reference book, with examples drawn from the huge corpus of Chinese literature, and a book which guarantees superb reading pleasure. New Asia Review A lifetime spent reading Chinese literature has produced this enormous, enthralling, canon-exploding book... Often, the funniest and liveliest entries are translated by the editor himself, who has an uncanny ability to capture puns and rhymes even in English translation... [W]onderful. Revue Bibliographique de Sinologie

• Introduction: The Origins and Impact of Literati Culture Map of China Abbreviations Prolegomenon Preface Acknowledgements Romanization Conversion Chart from Wade-Giles to Pinyin Foundations Poetry Prose Fiction Drama Commentary, Criticism, and Interpretation Popular and Peripheral Manifestations Chart of the Chinese Dynasties Romanization Conversion Chart from Wade-Giles to Pinyin Glossary Contributors Index

Victor H. Mair is professor of Chinese languages and literature in the Department of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. Among his many publications are Tun-huang Popular Narratives; Painting and Performance: Chinese Picture Recitation and Its Indian Genesis; T'ang Transformation Texts: A Study of the Buddhist Contribution to the Rise of Vernacular Fiction and Drama in China; Tao Te Ching: The Chinese Book of Integrity and the Way; and (with J. P. Mallory) The Tarim Mummies.

Innovative, talented, lively, and splendidly readable. Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society The list of translators reads like a Who's Who of Western Sinology. This is a book one can open at any page and immediately be drawn in by its great and appealing content. It is at once a reference book, with examples drawn from the huge corpus of Chinese literature, and a book which guarantees superb reading pleasure. New Asia Review A lifetime spent reading Chinese literature has produced this enormous, enthralling, canon-exploding book... Often, the funniest and liveliest entries are translated by the editor himself, who has an uncanny ability to capture puns and rhymes even in English translation... [W]onderful. Revue Bibliographique de Sinologie

• Introduction: The Origins and Impact of Literati Culture Map of China Abbreviations Prolegomenon Preface Acknowledgements Romanization Conversion Chart from Wade-Giles to Pinyin Foundations Poetry Prose Fiction Drama Commentary, Criticism, and Interpretation Popular and Peripheral Manifestations Chart of the Chinese Dynasties Romanization Conversion Chart from Wade-Giles to Pinyin Glossary Contributors Index

Victor H. Mair is professor of Chinese languages and literature in the Department of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. Among his many publications are Tun-huang Popular Narratives; Painting and Performance: Chinese Picture Recitation and Its Indian Genesis; T'ang Transformation Texts: A Study of the Buddhist Contribution to the Rise of Vernacular Fiction and Drama in China; Tao Te Ching: The Chinese Book of Integrity and the Way; and (with J. P. Mallory) The Tarim Mummies.

Innovative, talented, lively, and splendidly readable. Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society The list of translators reads like a Who's Who of Western Sinology. This is a book one can open at any page and immediately be drawn in by its great and appealing content. It is at once a reference book, with examples drawn from the huge corpus of Chinese literature, and a book which guarantees superb reading pleasure. New Asia Review A lifetime spent reading Chinese literature has produced this enormous, enthralling, canon-exploding book... Often, the funniest and liveliest entries are translated by the editor himself, who has an uncanny ability to capture puns and rhymes even in English translation... [W]onderful. Revue Bibliographique de Sinologie

• Introduction: The Origins and Impact of Literati Culture Map of China Abbreviations Prolegomenon Preface Acknowledgements Romanization Conversion Chart from Wade-Giles to Pinyin Foundations Poetry Prose Fiction Drama Commentary, Criticism, and Interpretation Popular and Peripheral Manifestations Chart of the Chinese Dynasties Romanization Conversion Chart from Wade-Giles to Pinyin Glossary Contributors Index