author
Menglong Feng
1574–1646
A lively late Ming writer and editor, he helped turn popular tales and everyday speech into lasting literature. He is best remembered for the story collections that preserved and shaped some of China’s most beloved vernacular fiction.
5 Audiobooks
About the author
Born in Suzhou in 1574, Feng Menglong was a Chinese writer, editor, poet, and dramatist of the late Ming dynasty. He came from a scholarly family, but his real legacy grew less from official success than from his work with stories, songs, and plays that spoke to ordinary readers.
He is especially known for collecting and editing vernacular stories, including the famous trilogy often called the Three Words—Stories Old and New, Stories to Caution the World, and Stories to Awaken the World. These books helped preserve popular storytelling traditions and gave them literary shape, making him one of the key figures in the history of Chinese fiction.
Feng Menglong also wrote and compiled works in several other genres, from folk songs to drama and historical writing. Readers still return to him for his sharp eye for human behavior: his stories are full of wit, emotion, moral tension, and a strong interest in the lives of people outside elite circles.