Plain Talk on Common Matters

Shao Binru, a Cantonese storyteller, wrote Plain Talk on Common Matters to teach family virtue through gripping stories. Here are quarrelling brothers, cruel stepmothers, sons who will not care for their parents, gamblers and swindlers, all set in real places across China and told in plain, lively speech. Moral without being dull, the collection was hugely popular in nineteenth-century Guangdong. This is a complete new English translation, with names in modern pinyin and the text rendered as plain, readable English prose. Each story stands alone and can be read in a sitting, and together they give a lively picture of everyday Chinese life: markets, inns, temples, courts and bedrooms. These vernacular stories were the popular reading of Ming and Qing China, sold cheaply and read aloud, and very few have been translated into English before.