Record of the Listener

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"Scholars who know classical Chinese have been reading and citing Hong Mai's wonderful collection for many years. Now students can access these informative materials through Zhang’s lively English translations. They are both fun to read and deeply informative about daily life, religion, markets, and multiple social groups in the twelfth century. The comprehensive thematic guide allows readers to locate tales by subject matter, making this collection of 100 narratives ideal for classroom use.”
      —Valerie Hansen, Yale University

"With these selections and translations from Hong Mai's Record of the Listener, Zhang discloses, for the very first time to anglophone students and scholars, the variety and complexity of late medieval Chinese society. . . . Here we see representations of all social classes and occupations and all religious vocations—Buddhist monks, Daoist priests, Confucian literati, diviners, and mediums—as they interact to resolve familial tensions, realize their personal aspirations, and gain control over both their lives and their afterlives.
      "Zhang provides an extensive and lucid Introduction to Hong Mai and the Song Dynasty, as well as a unique thematic index that will allow teacher and student to cross-reference all the stories and reconstruct a picture of Chinese society in the twelfth century in far greater detail than is possible for any other medieval society, east or west. Brava!"
      —Edward L. Davis, University of Hawai'i at Mānoa

"This readable and reliable translation of 100 selected narratives from Hong Mai’s Yijian Zhi is ideal for courses in Chinese history or religion. Some of the best medieval Chinese ghost stories are around in these pages."
      —Paul R. Goldin, University of Pennsylvania

 "Hackett has published a considerable number of excellent books in various areas of premodern Chinese Studies. Slim, straightforward, and affordable, especially in paperback form, these books are usually of outstanding scholarly quality and thus perfectly suited for undergraduate teaching. In the last decade, translations from vernacular Chinese literature have formed a particularly interesting part of Hackett’s repertoire
      "Record of the Listener: Selected Stories from Hong Mai’s Yijian zhi will not only make for immensely useful teaching materials, especially for instructors who want to venture beyond the usual anthology pieces, but hopefully also reach appreciative readers beyond the classroom."
      —Antje Richter, University of Colorado, in Journal of the American Oriental Society

"Along with her introduction, Zhang's translations provide extremely useful source material for either surveys or upper-level Chinese history and religion courses. The introduction offers just enough background on the time period, the author, and the text, while the selections are the perfect length to serve as a weekly reading for an undergraduate course. The translations are fluent and accessible with footnotes that inform without overwhelming. The selection includes many stories that will be of particular interest to scholars of Chinese religion and the thematic guide in the appendix makes them easily discoverable for both students and scholars. . . . I highly recommend this book to all who are interested in the society and religious culture of twelfth-century China."
      —Hsiao-wen Cheng, University of Pennsylvania, in Journal of Chinese Religions

About the Author:

Cong Ellen Zhang is Associate Professor of History, University of Virginia.