Wei Zhongxian
In 1626, he narrowly avoided punishment after being implicated as an associate of Zhou Shunchang (), who was framed and purged by the corrupt eunuch Wei Zhongxian. Appalled by the injustice, he resolved to complete his trilogy of vernacular Chinese short story collections: "Stories to Instruct the World", "Stories to Caution the World", and "Stories to Awaken the World" (喻世明言, 警世通言, and 醒世恆言), the first two volumes of which had already appeared.