author
Mengchu Ling
1580–1644
Best known for the lively Ming-dynasty story collections Slapping the Table in Amazement I and II, this writer helped shape Chinese vernacular fiction with tales full of surprise, wit, and social observation. He was also a government official, bringing a sharp eye for everyday life into his work.
3 Audiobooks
About the author
Born in 1580 in Wucheng, in present-day Zhejiang, Ling Mengchu was a writer and official of the late Ming dynasty. He is remembered above all for Slapping the Table in Amazement (Pai'an Jingqi), in two collections, which became classics of Chinese vernacular short fiction.
His stories draw on earlier tales but retell them in an energetic, accessible style, mixing drama, irony, and moral tension. That combination helped make his work influential in the development of popular fiction and keeps it readable centuries later.
Ling Mengchu died in 1644, at the moment of the Ming dynasty's collapse. His writing remains one of the best entry points into the rich world of late Ming storytelling.