Feng Menglong
Ling’s "Two Slaps" collections of short stories ("Slapping the Table in Amazement" and "Slapping the Table in Amazement, vol. 2") comprise a detailed composite portrait of his 17th century moral world, offering tales of virtue, vice, and adventure. Sometimes racy, often outrageous, and wildly imaginative, they have remained popular reading for centuries. While focusing on extraordinary events, the narratorial attitude alternates openness toward the unorthodox with reflexive Confucian conservatism, a mix also found in contemporaneous works such as Feng Menglong's "Three Words" trio of story collections and Zhang Yingyu's "The Book of Swindles". Ling was most strongly influenced by Feng Menglong, whose success he acknowledged as having emboldened him to publish commercially.