The Tale of Five Beauties

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Word count: 285K words
Chapters: 9

Summary

The Tale of Five Beauties, whose full title is The Complete Story of the Five Beauties and which is also known as The Tale of Rebirth and The Chronicle of the Great Ming, is an eighty-chapter vernacular romance of gifted scholars and beautiful ladies from the Qing dynasty. Its author is unidentified; the volume opens with a preface signed Jishengshi, and the work is believed to have been completed around the early Daoguang reign. The story concerns the scholar Feng Xu (courtesy name Ziqing) during the Zhengde era of the Ming. Feng Xu catches a glimpse of Qian Yueying at a nunnery and falls deeply in love with her; she and her maids Cuixiu and Luoxia give him a gold fan as a token of betrothal. The dissolute young gentleman Hua Wenfang, having failed to win Yueying, schemes in resentment to ruin Feng Xu, who is falsely accused of murder and sentenced to exile, while the Qian family is driven to desperation. Yueying flees with Luoxia; Cuixiu takes her mistress's place as a bride and stabs Hua Wenfang to death in the bridal chamber. Feng Xu wanders to Huai'an, where the fortune-teller Yao Xiafeng promises him his daughter Huilan, and he befriends the gallant Chang Wanqing, Tang Biao, Ma Yun and others. After repeated perils he is rescued with the help of his uncle Lin Zhang, passes the metropolitan examination with high honors, campaigns against the Western Liang, and forms a bond with the foreign princess Ha Feiying. After many twists and turns, Feng Xu marries all five beauties—Qian Yueying, Zhao Cuixiu, Qian Luoxia, Yao Huilan and Ha Feiying—and the family receives imperial honors, the story ending in reunion. The plot is intricate and the cast large; the portrayal of the five women's fierce characters is distinctive, while the work also dwells on romantic intrigue and promotes polygamy and karmic retribution, and was therefore placed on the Qing list of banned and destroyed books. This book serves as an accessible introduction to Qing scholar-beauty fiction and the culture of banned books.

Editor's review

《五美缘》是清代才子佳人小说中流传较广、也颇具争议的一部。它一面沿用“才子佳人历尽波折终成眷属”的旧格套，一面把公案、征战、侠义、世情等元素嫁接进来：冯旭蒙冤充军、翠秀代嫁刺仇、义士劫囚救友、边关出征招亲，情节频频转折，读来颇有市井说书的热闹劲。更值得留意的是书中五位女性，尤其是钱月英的贞静、赵翠秀的刚烈、钱落霞的谨严，都不同于一般才子佳人小说里“弱不禁风、赖人生存”的模样，读者可从中看到清代通俗文学对女性形象的另一种想象。当然，书中多妻团的结局与部分艳情笔墨，也使它被清代列为禁书，阅读时宜作文学史料来看，而不必认同其中的价值观。这个简体版阅读门槛低，适合在通勤、睡前分段读，也便于与《玉娇梨》《平山冷燕》等同期作品对照，观察才子佳人小说的流变与清代禁书的历史背景。

Who it's for

A good fit for

对中国古代章回小说与才子佳人题材感兴趣的普通读者
研究清代通俗文学、禁书史与出版史的学生与研究者
喜欢公案、侠义、征战等元素交织的传统说部故事的读者
关注古典小说中女性形象塑造的文学爱好者

Not a good fit for

对一夫多妻设定、因果报应观念较敏感的读者
只能接受现代白话文、不习惯文白相间叙事的读者
希望读到严谨历史考据而非虚构故事的人

Reading tips

先读卷首“寄生氏”序，把握作者对“才子必配佳人”的立意，再进入正文。
把八十回按“姻缘定情—构陷蒙冤—潜逃代嫁—出征团圆”四段拆开读，脉络会更清楚。
遇到诗词、骈语可略过，不影响情节推进；对艳情段落可结合清代禁毁背景做批判性阅读。
读完可与《玉娇梨》《平山冷燕》或《好逑传》对读，比较才子佳人小说的不同写法。

Chapter 1: Qian Yueying Repays a Vow to the Gods; Feng Ziqing Strays into the Peach Garden
Chapter 2: Feng Xu Receives the Gold Fan in Triumph; Cuixiu Pledges Marriage Before Heaven and Earth
Chapter 3: Lin Zhang Meets an Old Friend on West Lake; Ma Yun Encounters Danger Selling a Precious Sword
Chapter 4: Ma Yun Stirs Up Trouble in Five Willows Garden; Tang Biao in Chivalry Gives Gold and Silk
Chapter 5: The True Talent Writes a Composition with a Flourish; The False Pedant Tears Out His Guts
Chapter 6: Yao Xiafeng Reads Faces in Guangling; Chang Wanqing Makes a Pilgrimage to the Southern Sea
Chapter 7: Hanlin Zhu Acts as Matchmaker; Feng Ziqing Becomes Engaged to Yueying
Chapter 8: The Wei Woman Flirts in Public; Hua Wenfang Carries On an Affair by Night
Chapter 9: Wei Linchuan Profits in the Middle; Hua Wenfang Turns the Scheme Against Them

FAQ

《五美缘》的作者是谁？

原书不题撰人，仅卷首有“寄生氏题于塔影楼之西榭”的序。近人孙楷第等推测寄生氏即作者本人，但其生平、真名均无可考，因此通常著录为“清·佚名”。

“五美”分别指哪五位女子？

据通行说法，五美指钱月英、赵翠秀（婢女翠秀）、钱落霞、姚蕙兰与西凉公主哈飞英。五人或贞或烈或谨，各具性格，最终同归冯旭。

这本书为什么被称为禁书？

书中除才子佳人离合外，还有不少渲染男女情爱的描写，加之宣扬多妻、果报等观念，清代曾被列入禁毁书目，后世常以“禁毁小说”名义整理出版。

它和《再生缘》是同一本书吗？

不是。《五美缘》有《再生缘》《五美再生缘》等别名，但与清代女作家陈端生的弹词《再生缘》（孟丽君故事）是两部完全不同的作品，容易混淆。

八十回的篇幅读起来会不会很吃力？

每回篇幅不长，且多悬念转折，可分回阅读。语言为清代白话，夹杂诗词套语，跳过韵文不影响理解主线，整体阅读负担不大。

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About the author

Anonymous Author

Anonymous is not a real personal name but a general Chinese designation for authors whose names are unknown, lost, or unsigned. Neither nationality nor dates of birth and death can be verified, and available public information is limited, so the works attributed to this name are the only basis for description. The collection holds 2,078 works under Anonymous, spanning medicine, classics, historical readings, ancient poetry, classical literature, and philosophy. Representative works include The Yellow Emperor's Inner Canon: Lingshu, Mencius, The Book of Documents, Nineteen Old Poems, Complete Song Ci, and The Peacock Flies Southeast. Most of these works took shape through long transmission and editing, emerging either from collective folk creation or from authors whose names were lost over time. In ancient China, the Book of Songs, the Great Learning, and many popular storybooks and plays were signed Anonymous because their authors could not be traced. Anonymous works cross the classics, histories, philosophical writings, medical texts, and poetry; their subjects are broad, and their styles vary from archaic simplicity to clear naturalness, making them important and influential sources for understanding ancient Chinese thought, medicine, and literature.