X. L. Woo has published a series of narrative histories of China with Algora Publishing. Mr. Woo graduated from the prestigious Zhongshan University (Sun Yat-Sen University) in Guangzhou, China, and taught English at East China Normal University in Shanghai for more than ten years, then came to the United States on a visiting professorship at Rutgers University. A bilingual writer and poet, he has published four books in Chinese and several books in English. His essays and columns in Chinese are published in US Chinese newspapers, and one of his novels was published in a local Chinese newspaper in serial form. His translations of poems from both English into Chinese and Chinese into English have been published in magazines in China and Hong Kong.

Gathered together for the first time in English, seventeen love stories from China bring to the American reader characters well-known through Chinese literature as well as movies and drama. In the feudal society of ancient China, relationships...

Gathered together for the first time in English, seventeen love stories from China bring to the American reader characters well-known through Chinese literature as well as movies and drama. In the feudal society of ancient China, relationships were often based on duty more than the bidding of one's heart. Yet the imagination is always full of possibility, and here, misty mountains, mysterious pagodas, butterflies and genies set the scene where a beautiful smile can work its magic. Some stories that promise a wonderful life ahead end in sudden betrayal and tragedy; some that seem to be heading for disaster end on a beautiful note. In this collection of Chinese legends, dynastic intrigues and romantic strategies are revealed in Buddhist temples, riverboat adventures, and humble inns. Queens and courtesans, shop girls and songstresses, cowherds and scholars, warlords and poets: Destiny brings them together in tales from the Han Dynasty (206 BC'AD 220) to the Ming Dynasty (1368'1644).

Chapter 1. Imperial Concubine Yang Chapter 2. The Tale of the White Snake Chapter 3. The Karma of Three Smiles Chapter 4. The Tale of Liang and Zhu Chapter 5. Tale of the West Chamber Chapter 6. The T

Chapter 1. Imperial Concubine Yang Chapter 2. The Tale of the White Snake Chapter 3. The Karma of Three Smiles Chapter 4. The Tale of Liang and Zhu Chapter 5. Tale of the West Chamber Chapter 6. The Tune of the Phoenix Courting Chapter 7. The Cowherd and the Weaver Girl Chapter 8. The Peony Arbor Chapter 9. Queen Dowager Xuan Chapter 10. The Tale of Pan Jinlian and the Dwarf Chapter 11. Qin Xianglian Deserted by Her Husband Chapter 12. How DuWei Cast Her Jewels Away Chapter 13. How the Oil Peddler Wooed a Courtesan Chapter 14. The Tale of Jin Yunu and Her Husband Chapter 15. Li Shishi and the Emperor Chapter 16. The Courtesan Who Changed the History of the Ming Dynasty Chapter 17. The Tale of Esquire Yang and Sweet Cabbage