The Hu Family Generals, Retold

The Generals of the Hu Family, also known as The Complete Tale of Hu Quan, The Complete Story of the Hu Family's Descendants, and The Romance of the Purple-Gold Whip, consists of forty chapters. Its author is unknown. The earliest known edition was published by Jinchang Shuyetang during the Qianlong reign of the Qing dynasty. Stories about the Generals of the Hu Family had circulated among the people since the Song dynasty. Xiong Damu's Romance of the Generals of the Yang Family, written during the Ming dynasty, also describes Hu Yanzan and Hu Bixian. By the Qing dynasty, people had begun collecting and compiling these legends, producing the full-length novel The Generals of the Hu Family.