Jie Jin

1. Read the preface or afterword first to understand the author's creative principles, then proceed to the main text, so as to distinguish historical fact from literary invention.
2. Note Jie Jin's choices and psychological changes at different stages of his life, and keep track of character relationships as you read.
3. If unfamiliar with early Ming history, briefly learn the background of the Yongle era before reading the chapters on officialdom.
4. After finishing, revisit key chapters to appreciate the author's narrative approach of "factual in the large, unfettered in the small."

China Culture and History Press has long devoted itself to modern and contemporary literature and culture-and-history reading matter, with publishing directions centered on classic works, social novels, prose and miscellaneous writings, and Eastern philosophy, alongside culture-and-history periodicals such as Zongheng. Among the more than 1,500 titles in the collection, representative books include Zhang Henshui's Ti Xiao Yin Yuan, Lu Xun's Complete Classic Works (10 volumes) and Wild Grass, and Lao She's Four Generations Under One Roof series and the boxed set of Lao She's Classic Works (10 volumes), while its author resources are concentrated on figures such as Zhang Henshui, Lu Xun, Lao She and Sima Qian. Its publishing character lies in solid editorial work on culture-and-history source texts and in issuing famous authors' works in sets, balancing the readability of individual texts with the systematic presentation of complete collections for focused reading and collecting. Beyond these directions, public information on the press's contemporary original publishing is limited, so it is not elaborated here.