Discovered in 1940 in a private library in Japan, this long-lost The Drunken Man's Talk (Xinbian zuiweng tanlu 新編醉翁談錄) attracts readers’ attention primarily for two reasons: (1) its initial chapter offers a valuable introduction to professional storytelling, and (2) it is a rich collection in Classical Chinese that covers short stories from the Six Dynasties (420–581) to the Southern Song (1127–1279). Through Alister D. Inglis's exquisite translation, English readers can enjoy these amazing stories today. The most valuable contribution of Inglis's translation is the complete rendition of this collection, which maintains all the textual information, such as the original volume arrangement and in-text commentary. Thus, it provides readers with a full picture of a collection of anecdotal fiction (biji xiaoshuo 筆記小說) in middle-period China.
This collection is a repository of classical stories and anecdotes. As Inglis summarizes, “The Drunken Man's Talk is an eclectic collection of short works of various genres: poetry, jokes, legal rulings, factual accounts, and anecdotes, in addition to polished prose narratives” (p. xvii). Not only can readers enjoy a variety of genres, but, more significantly, they are able to see the way these different genres are used and mixed to contribute to a single narrative. The book includes a well-known preface that illustrates a vivid scene of storytelling in the Song (chapter 1, “An Account of the Plowmen of the Tongue”) and nineteen chapters of anecdotal works organized by themes, plus an appendix of the tale “Su Xiaoqing” that is not found in the Japanese imprint, but is included in the Great Canon of the Yongle Period (Yongle dadian 永樂大典). Most of the stories collected in this book are love stories (largely illicit or quasi-erotic), and thus “it is a one-stop shop for romantic narratives of the Tang and Song as well as from earlier periods” (p. xix). Accordingly, in the “Translator's Introduction,” Inglis emphasizes the subversive power of these romances as a discourse that opposes that of the conservative Neo-Confucian society. Yet, this argument may need further examination, given that these stories are primarily for entertainment and appeal to the audience by means of the aberrant; further, Neo-Confucianism's influence was limited in the Tang and Song dynasties.
As many stories in The Drunken Man's Talk are copied or derived from earlier collections or exert their influence on later fiction writings, Inglis excels at tracing the lineage of each story in a brief but accurate way. However, it would have been easier for readers had the information about the textual history been included as a reading guide at the opening of each chapter, rather than relegated to the endnotes. Another issue related to textual information is the use of xinbian 新編 (new compilation) in the Chinese title of this collection. Why is this book considered a new collection? And what is its association with another Song dynasty The Drunken Man's Talk by Jin Yingzhi 金盈之? These questions may be worth further explanation.
The translation of The Drunken Man's Talk is highly refined. To match the sense of Classical Chinese language, Inglis chooses “a somewhat old-fashioned style” (p. xxi) of English. It is also admirable that Inglis translates all of the poems in the collection and even makes these translated poetic lines rhyme. Further, the attached notes provide very rich information about definitions of terms, allusions, and background knowledge.
Occasionally, there are some inaccuracies in the translation. For instance, the term yanfen 煙粉 or yanhua 煙花 that appears throughout the book refers to courtesans metaphorically, rather than the general meanings of romance or ladies. Accordingly, the titles of chapter 9, “The Characteristics of Ladies” (煙花品藻), and chapter 10, “Poems about Ladies” (煙花詩集), for example, may be translated better as “Assessment of Courtesans” and “Collected Poems about Courtesans.” Thus, readers can distinguish this group of courtesans easily from the “Virtuous Women of the Inner Quarters” (閨房賢淑, chapter 13). Another inaccuracy can be found in the story of “Lin Shumao Elopes with Miss Chu” (chapter 3, pp. 18–20). In commenting on Mistress Li's changing attitudes toward the concubine, the drunken man in fact alludes to the poem “The River Has Branches” (“Jiang you si” 江有汜) from the Classic of Poetry (Shijing 詩經), rather than the goddesses of the River Jiang from the Liexian zhuan 列仙傳. The drunken man's remark, “The primary wife herself also regretted” (嫡亦自悔), is derived from the preface of “The River Has Branches” and therefore implies Mistress Li's regret about her intolerance of Miss Chu.
My last quibble is with the selection of images for the book cover. Indeed, Chen Hongshou's 陳洪綬 (1599–1652) painting on the cover portrays a drunken man vividly. Nevertheless, the man's frustrated face is inconsistent with the characters in a love story collection. Moreover, Chen Hongshou's distinctive painting style takes readers immediately to late imperial China, which is approximately three hundred years later than the compilation of The Drunken Man's Talk.
In brief, The Drunken Man's Talk is a smooth and elegant translation of anecdotal stories from middle-period China. It not only serves as a valuable source of materials for scholars in classical literature, comparative literature, and social history, but also attracts general readers’ interest through those fantastic stories. The thematic organization of this book makes it convenient for classroom use as well.
