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The Five-Coloured Stones
When the sky was broken, the goddess Nüwa mended it with stones of five colours. Xu Shukui set out to mend the injustices of the world the same way, with eight stories in which talent is rewarded, lovers are united, the wronged are vindicated and wrongdoers meet their end. The Five-Coloured Stones is a deft, optimistic early-Qing collection full of reversals of fortune. 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.
