The Book of Swindles

In 1617, an anonymous scholar writing under the name Zhang Yingyu compiled the first printed Chinese collection devoted entirely to fraud. The result was a compendium of eighty-four tales organized into twenty-four categories of swindles, ranging from horse-trading cons to elaborate schemes involving fake officials, counterfeit goods, and supernatural impostures.

Each tale unfolds with the precision of a court case and the timing of a joke, as con artists exploit the greed, vanity, and carelessness of their marks. Zhang Yingyu follows every story with moral commentary, sometimes praising the cleverness of the swindler while condemning the victim's foolishness—a delicate balance that reveals much about Ming dynasty attitudes toward wealth, trust, and social mobility.

This first complete English translation opens a window into the risky world of traveling merchants, the bustling markets of Nanjing and Suzhou, and the ingenious arts of deception that flourished in late imperial China.

Rediscover the great epics, mysteries and chronicles of dynastic China: gods and generals, swindlers and scholars, courtesans, ghosts and emperors, in complete English translations.