A Complete Reader's Edition of Yulizi

The Master of Yu Li is a collection of allegorical prose by Liu Bowen, the renowned politician and writer of the late Yuan and early Ming dynasties, and is considered his representative work. Liu Bowen, whose given name was Ji and whose courtesy name was Bowen, was from Qingtian, Zhejiang. Bright from an early age and widely learned, he studied astronomy, geography, military strategy, and many other fields in depth. He was ambitious and longed to put his talents to use in politics and realize his ideals for governing the country. However, while serving as an official under the Yuan dynasty, he was repeatedly marginalized and suppressed, and his career was fraught with setbacks. In the twelfth year of the Zhizheng era (1352), he disagreed with the court over the matter of Fang Guozhen. Disgusted by the corruption and darkness of officialdom, he resigned in anger and returned to the mountains of his hometown in Qingtian. During his seclusion, Liu Bowen devoted himself to writing and composed The Master of Yu Li. The title carries a profound meaning: Yu suggests literary brilliance, while Li is one of the eight trigrams and represents fire, symbolizing civilization. Liu Bowen hoped that if future generations followed the teachings in the book, they could establish a civilized order. The Master of Yu Li consists of eighteen chapters and 195 stories. Its wide-ranging subject matter encompasses the ways of Heaven and the affairs of humanity. With incisive writing and ingenious construction, it uses numerous vivid fables to satirize the social realities of the late Yuan dynasty. It sharply criticizes political corruption, social injustice, and moral decline, while expressing Liu Bowen's thoughts and proposals on governing the country and maintaining peace. The work shines with his political wisdom and philosophical ideas, including the principle that all things follow a Way, the unity of opposites, and the superiority of wisdom over force. Many of the fables in the book, such as "The Monkey Keeper Divides the Acorns," use the story of a troop of monkeys rising up against their keeper's exploitation to reveal the people's resistance to oppression and the rulers'...