About the author

X. L. Woo

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.

Love Tales of Ancient China

Name: Love Tales of Ancient China
Price: 19.95 USD
Availability: InStock
Author: X. L. Woo
ISBN: 9781628942040

Price range: $19.95 through $29.95

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

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Categories: Cultural IssuesAuthor: X. L. Woo SKU: love-tales-of-ancient-china Category: Cultural Issues Tags: An Lushan rebellion, Ancient China love stories, Chinese folktales in English, Chinese historical fiction, Chinese legends and myths, Chinese literature translated, Chinese romance stories, classic Asian love stories, Courtesan stories China, cultural history through storytelling, dynastic China history, Famous Chinese beauties, folktales from China, Han Dynasty to Ming Dynasty, Imperial Concubine Yang, Li Bai Tang Dynasty poet, Liang and Zhu butterfly legend, love stories world cultures, myths and legends retold, romantic stories from Asia, Tang Dynasty romance, The White Snake legend, traditional chinese culture, women in ancient China, X L Woo Author: X. L. Woo

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Digging into Chinese folktales, Mr. Woo tells us stories about falling in love in a world that is distant in time and place, distinct in culture and expectations, each with a touch of the exotic. In these tales dating from the Han Dynasty to the Ming Dynasty, dramas unfold in the Imperial palace, along the back roads, and in gardens perfumed with the scent of peony blossoms in the moonlight.

About the Book

Gathered together for the first time in English, seventeen love stories from China bring to the American reader romantic 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. This collection of Chinese legends reveals dynastic intrigues and romantic strategies unfurling 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).

Table content

Chapter 1. Imperial Concubine YangChapter 2. The Tale of the White SnakeChapter 3. The Karma of Three SmilesChapter 4. The Tale of Liang and ZhuChapter 5. Tale of the West ChamberChapter 6. The Tune of the Phoenix CourtingChapter 7. The Cowherd and the Weaver GirlChapter 8. The Peony ArborChapter 9. Queen Dowager XuanChapter 10. The Tale of Pan Jinlian and the DwarfChapter 11. Qin Xianglian Deserted by Her HusbandChapter 12. How DuWei Cast Her Jewels AwayChapter 13. How the Oil Peddler Wooed a CourtesanChapter 14. The Tale of Jin Yunu and Her HusbandChapter 15. Li Shishi and the EmperorChapter 16. The Courtesan Who Changed the History of the Ming DynastyChapter 17. The Tale of Esquire Yang and Sweet Cabbage

About the Book

This collection brings together seventeen classic love stories from ancient China, many well-known to Chinese readers through centuries of literature, opera, and film but here gathered in English for the first time. Author X. L. Woo, who has also written about Empress Wu the Great and Empress Dowager Cixi, draws on material spanning the Han Dynasty through the Ming Dynasty, giving Western readers access to stories that have shaped Chinese romantic imagination for generations.

The tales range wildly in tone and outcome. Some are tragic, like the story of Imperial Concubine Yang Yuhuan, whose rise through the Tang Dynasty court intertwines with the poet Li Bai and ends in the chaos of An Lushan's rebellion. Others are fantastical, like the beloved White Snake legend, in which a snake spirit falls in love with a mortal man named Xu Xian and is ultimately imprisoned by the monk Fahai beneath Thunder-Peak Pagoda. There are also stories of clever courtship and social maneuvering, like the painter Tang Yin disguising himself as a servant to win the woman he loves, and the tale of Wu SanGui and the courtesan Chen Yuanyuan, whose romance helped bring down the Ming Dynasty and usher in the Qing.

Running through all of them is the tension between duty and desire in a feudal society where marriages were arranged and feelings often had no legitimate outlet. Queens, courtesans, scholars, warlords, and even supernatural beings all find themselves caught between love and the world's expectations. These are romantic stories with real historical and cultural weight behind them.

Additional information

Weight	N/A
Book Type	Ebook, ePub, Hard cover, Soft cover
Pages	180
Release Year	2016

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About the author

X. L. Woo

Love Tales of Ancient China

Available from

Sound Bite

About the Book

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