The Courtesan's Jewel Box

This is a selection of popular Chinese stories from the 10th to 17th centuries. These stories were written in the spoken language that developed as a literary medium after the emergence of an urban commercial economy in the Song Dynasty (A.D. 960-1279).

Originally the manuscripts of ordinary street storytellers, this genre of fiction -- deriving its material from the life and times of the period, with vivid writing and intricate plots, descriptions that are natural and vivacious -- has now attained a lofty place in literature.

The twenty stories in this book are selected from over two hundred in several collections published at the beginning of the 17th century. The illustrations included in this volume are taken from contemporary editions.