^{page 346 note 1} Seven of these stories are reprinted, and discussed in articles by Hu Shih and Xagasawa Kikuya, in Sung jen hua pen ch'i chung Commercial Press, Shanghai, 1935. For definitions of the term hua-pen, see Ch'en Ju-heng , Shuo shu hsiao shih , Shanghai, 1936; see also R. G., Irwin's references to studies of hua-pen in The Evolution of a Chinese Novel, Harvard, 1953, pp. 24–5.Google Scholar

^{page 347 note 1} Published in Soochow in or about the year 1621; a complete copy of the first edition is preserved in the Naikaku Bunko in Tokyo, and a reprint based on this edition was published by the Commercial Press in 1947. The editor of the collection was Feng Meng-lung (1574-?1645). The collection was re-issued under the title of Yü shih ming yen , and succeeded by two sister collections, the Ching shih t'ung yen in 1624 and the Using shih heng yen in 1627. The three are linked as the San yen; from these and from the collections of Ling Meng-ch'u (P'ai an ching ch'i , first and second series) were selected the stories of the widely popular Chin ku ch'i kuan .Of the stories referred to in the present paper, the following are to be found in the Chin, ku ch'i kuan:Ku chin hsiao shuo,chü 1:Chin Ku chüchü 23 " " " 2: " " " 24 " " " 8: " " " 11 " " " 10: " " " 3 " " " 27: " " " 32 " " " 40: " " " 13 The 40 stories of the Ku cfa n hsiao shuo include examples both of genuine hua-pen and of imitations. In a monograph now in preparation for publication, I have distinguished among the contents between hua-pen originating in Sung and Yüan times; stories which originated in the time of the Ming dynasty; and purely written pieces which are wholly outside the story-teller tradition and should not be described as hua-pen. For translations of Ku chin hsiao shuo stories also contained in the Chin ku ch'i kuan, see Martha Davidson, A List of Published Translations jrom the Chinese, Part I, Michigan, 1952, pp. 36 et seq.

^{page 348 note 1} Hu Shih (op. cit.) explains this term as a corruption of part of a phrase, , the name of a tune played or sung by the story-tellers to attract their audience. This explanation is borne out by the use of the term to describe the prologue-anecdote to chiian 15 of the Ching pen tung su hsiao shuo (the story ). By folk-etymology the second part of the phrase () was, no doubt, identified with ‘first chapter’.

^{page 349 note 1} Included by Feng Meng-lung in his anthology of anecdotes, the Chih ruing pu , chüan 1.

^{page 349 note 2} Attention is drawn to the identity of theme in an interrogation of the story-teller at the end of the prologue:‘Story-teller, surely there must have been a second case (of this kind) ?’ ‘Members of the audience (), I am just about to tell you of a second case…’.

^{page 349 note 3} Chung kuo hsiao shuo shih lüeh , revised edition, Shanghai, 1932, pp. 118, 120.

^{page 349 note 4} That this consideration was present to the author of The Gold Hairpins (2) is clear from his comment ‘bridging the gap’ between the prologue-anecdote and the story proper:‘Though the circumstances differ (i.e. as between prologue and main story), the principle is the same’.

^{page 352 note 1} The Golden Ass, translated by Robert Graves, Penguin edition, Harmondsworth, 1950, p. 225.

^{page 354 note 1} As used by the hua-pen writers, the phrases and are quite distinct, the latter having an adversative sense which I indicate by ‘but let us (now) tell how…’. This is not recognized by the Gwoyeu Tsyrdean which equates with and paraphrases the latter as ‘let us for the moment tell how…‘ (see Gwoyeu Tsyrdean, Commercial Press, 2nd edition, 1948, vol. in, pp. 2194 and 2073).

^{page 355 note 1} Scholars have suggested that the name pien-wen (literally, ‘changing text’) was descriptive of the texture of these pieces, where prose and verse alternate. (See Chen-to, Cheng, , Chung kuo su wen hsüeh shih , 2 vols., Shanghai, 1938; vol. i, p. 180)Google Scholar

^{page 355 note 2} Preface to Four Cautionary Tales, translated by Harold, Acton and Lee, Yi-hsieh, London, 1947.Google Scholar

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^{page 358 note 1} may be a misprint for

^{page 358 note 2} For an outstanding example of the use of comparable jingles by a present-day writer, see Chao Shu-li's novel, Li Yu-ts'ai pan Jiua written in 1943;Chung kuojen min wen i ts'ung shu edition, Tientsin 1949.

^{page 358 note 3} The golden lotus repeatedly refined by fire is used as a symbol for Fan Tao, destined after repeated incarnations to attain the Western Paradise.

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^{page 358 note 6} ‘Rook’ and ‘hare’ stand, respectively, for the zodiacal constellations , corresponding to Hyades, and , corresponding to Scorpio.

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^{page 359 note 1}

^{page 359 note 2} ‘New Excursions in Chinese Grammar’, Bulletin of the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities No. 24, 1952, pp. 51–80.

^{page 360 note 1} is,in fact,found in certain plays of the Yüan ch'ü hsüan ; but we may have to reckon with a revision of the Yuan colloquial of these texts prior to publication in 1595.

^{page 364 note 1} 1 Vol. i (London, 1939), p. viii.