Vignettes from the Late Ming
Subtitle: A Hsiao-P'in Anthology
Publisher: University of Washington Press
Published: March 1999
Language: eng
Format: Paperback
Number of pages: 152
ISBN-13: 9780295977331
Subjects: Literary studies: 19th century; Chinese Prose; Literary Collections; Literature - Classics / Criticism; Chinese; Literary Criticism; Asian; Asian - General; Essays; Asian - Chinese; Chinese essays; Ming dynasty, 1368-1644; Translations into English
Description: This anthology presents seventy translated and annotated short essays, or hsiao-pin, by fourteen well-known sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Chinese writers. Hsiao-pin, characterized by spontaneity and brevity, were a relatively informal variation on the established classical prose style in which all scholars were trained.

Written primarily to amuse and entertain the reader, hsiao-pin reflect the rise of individualism in the late Ming period and collectively provide a panorama of the colorful life of the age.