Feng Menglong's Treasury of Laughs : : a seventeenth-century anthology of traditional Chinese humour / / by Hsu Pi-ching.

• Superior document: Emotions and states of mind in East Asia ; 5
• Author: Hsu, Pi-Ching.
• Place / Publishing House: Leiden ;, Boston : : Brill.; c2015.
• Year of Publication: 2015
• Language: English
• Series: Emotions and States of Mind in East Asia 5.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (370 p.)
• Notes: Includes index.
• Other title: Preliminary Material /; Introduction /; Feng Menglong’s Preface 笑府序 /; 1 Age-Old Envy 古艷 /; 2 Rotten Scholars 腐流 /; 3 The Untouchables 世諱 /; 4 Occultism and Medicine 方術 /; 5 Various Vocations 廣萃 /; 6 Extraordinary Faculties 殊稟 /; 7 Petty Sport 細娛 /; 8 Mocking Vulgarity 刺俗 /; 9 Air of Sexually Sophisticated Women 閨風 /; 10 Body Parts 形體 /; 11 Funny Mistakes 謬誤 /; 12 Daily Necessities 日用 /; 13 Intercalary Words 閏語 /; Index /; Xiao fu.
• Hierarchical level: Monograph
• Statement of Responsibility: by Hsu Pi-ching.

The Treasury of Laughs is a treasure house for students of literature, psycholinguistics, history, sociology, and cultural anthropology. Feng Menglong systematically collected and edited 700-odd humourous skits that presented the entire spectrum of traditional Chinese jokes, and wrote commentaries of great philosophical insight. The anthology offers satirical caricatures of human follies from the cradle to the grave and reveals tension in all sectors of human societies and institutions. Hsu Pi-ching reconstructs the complete Ming Chinese original with meticulous editorial work, in modern punctuated typesetting, and provides the only complete English translation available, with useful footnotes on word plays, literary allusions, and historical background. Readers should find the introductory essays on the connections between humour and emotions/states of mind particularly illuminating.