Biography of Black and White

毛祥麟Nanhai Publication Company · ChinaJun 2024

3.5

Word count: 1.1K words
Chapters: 2

Summary

Our prefectural worthy Lord Dong Wenmin was peerless in his day for prose and calligraphy, and the whole realm looked up to him as to the North Star. Yet by the freer ways of a famous scholar he was often lax in keeping the bonds of propriety, and by making his own conduct the family rule he saw to it that few of his sons or younger kin observed the rites. His second son, Zuchang, was by nature especially violent. His steward Chen Ming, long trusted, grew all the more overbearing on borrowed authority. The prefectural student Lu Shaofen was dark of face and tall of frame, rather proud of spirit, slightly stammering in speech, and fond of argument. A servant of his household had a daughter, Lüying, not yet of marriage age but of uncommon beauty. The second son coveted her, tempted her with gold, was refused, and so took her by force…

Editor's review

Black and White takes the Dong Qichang family as the core of its narrative, moving from the loosening of a famous scholar's household discipline to the arrogance of his sons and the bullying of servants, then to the forcible abduction of Lüying in the matter of Lu Shaofen, advancing layer by layer to present the disorder of power and the collapse of ritual propriety in late-Ming gentry society through concrete persons and events. Mao Xianglin's prose is spare and crisp, the narration free of elaboration, yet the relations among characters and the conflicts are set out cleanly and sharply, giving the reader the immediacy of a note-form story. The book is short, suited to reading in segments on a commute or before sleep, and may also serve as supplementary reading for understanding social manners and family ethics in Ming-Qing Jiangnan. Readers concerned with the situation of women, master-servant relations, and local order in premodern narrative will find passages here for close reading; those expecting a full-length plot or modern novelistic psychological description should adjust their expectations.

Who it's for

A good fit for

General readers interested in Ming-Qing note-form fiction and narratives of social manners
Readers of history and literature who want to understand late-Ming gentry family ethics through concrete cases
Readers concerned with the situation of women and master-servant relations in premodern times
Teachers and students needing short texts for classroom discussion or reading groups

Not a good fit for

Readers of fiction who prefer full-length plots and tightly structured novels
Readers seeking modern psychological description and a lyrical atmosphere
Readers sensitive to premodern family ethics and scenes of violent conflict

Reading tips

Read through once to grasp the sequence of events, then go back over the relations and forms of address to sort out the master-servant and family hierarchies.
Mark key terms such as ritual propriety, proper name and status, and power as you read, to make it easier to organize the thematic threads afterward.
Read alongside family stories from other Ming-Qing note-form collections to compare differences in narrative perspective and moral judgment.
After finishing, retell the cause and consequence of the conflict in a paragraph to test whether you have truly understood the characters' motives.

About the publisher

Nanhai Publication Company China · Founded in 1988

Nanhai Publication Company is a comprehensive publisher known for its literature and arts titles, covering fields such as classical poetry, martial arts fiction, and folk literature. Judging from the more than 1,600 books in the database, the company has released classical poetic works including the Nineteen Old Poems and the Nine Songs, as well as multiple volumes of Huanzhulouzhu's series The Swordsmen of Mount Shu, along with related writings by authors such as Guan Hanqing, Qu Yuan, Zuo Si, and Wang Zhihuan. Its publishing character lies in balancing the organization of classic texts with the dissemination of popular literature, placing poetry anthologies alongside long martial arts novels and presenting a relatively diverse literary profile. Public information is limited, and further details about its editorial practices and series planning remain to be supplemented.

版权信息
黑白传

FAQ

Is this book a complete full-length novel?

No. From the materials it is closer to a short narrative centered on persons and events of the Dong Qichang family, focusing on the arrogance of the sons, the bullying of servants, and the forcible abduction, limited in length with concentrated conflict; it suits close reading in segments rather than being approached with the structural expectations of a full-length novel.

Do I need to know about Dong Qichang before reading?

No prior specialized study is necessary. It is enough to know that Dong Qichang was a late-Ming worthy famed for calligraphy, painting, and prose; the narrative focuses on his family's younger members and local persons and events, and readers can grasp the relations among characters simply by following the events, filling in background knowledge as they read.

Does the book involve violent scenes? Is it suitable for young readers?

The materials explicitly mention forcible abduction, which belongs to the conflict content in premodern family-ethics narrative; the prose is spare but the events themselves are fairly direct. For young readers, guidance from a teacher or elder is advised, or discussion may focus on the character relations and questions of ritual propriety rather than reading the whole text alone.

Comments

Find this book

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

About the author

毛祥麟 Author

Mao Xianglin's biographical details remain unknown, and publicly available information is limited. Judging from the nineteen works held in the collection, his writing draws largely on folk legends and local lore, including titles such as The Embroidered Shoe in the Stone Cave, The Black-and-White Tale, The Huang Daopo Shrine, Wutong Shen, and The Tale of Tian Yu, as well as note-style miscellanies like Duishan Yumo and Pingyuan Wenshi Ji. His subjects move between the supernatural, anecdotes, and historical and geographical observations. The narratives are concise and carry the plain flavor of traditional notebook literature, valuing complete and engaging stories while occasionally reflecting on human affairs. His works are classified under classics, folk literature, and Eastern philosophy, showing their value in preserving folk narrative and traditional culture. Owing to the lack of biographical material, his life and associations await further study, and the existing works are the main basis for understanding his writing.