Vernacular Writing in Three Words and Two Beats

"Sanyan Erpai" is the collective name of two famous vernacular short story collections from the Ming Dynasty. It is also one of the pinnacles of Chinese classical vernacular novels. Reading it is like watching an ancient version of "Folk Story Fair", popular and flavorful. Let's talk about "Three Words" first. It is three books compiled and compiled by Feng Menglong, a writer in the late Ming Dynasty - "Essays to Tell the World", "Words to Warn the World" and "Words to Awaken the World". Each book contains 40 short stories, totaling 120 stories. Most of these stories come from folk tales and legends, and some of them were adapted by Feng Menglong based on historical facts and notes. The core of these stories is to "metaphorize the world", "warn the world" and "awaken the world": they can either tell people the truth, remind people to distinguish right from wrong, or persuade people to do good. They are both down-to-earth and educational. Let's look at "Er Pai" again. They are two books written by the late Ming writer Ling Shuchu - "The Surprise at the First Moment" and "The Surprise at the Second Moment". Each book has 40 articles (of which "The Surprise at the Second Moment" is supplementary). Different from "Three Words" which focuses on compiling folk stories, "Second Pai" is more of Ling Shuchu's own original work, and its subject matter is more unimaginable. It often has the color of "strange cases" and "adventures", making the reading full of suspense. Taken together, the content of these five books is simply the "encyclopedia of life" in Ming Dynasty society. There are no lofty emperors or generals in it. The protagonists are all ordinary people: scholars on the road, hawkers doing business, soldiers guarding the city, entertainers on the street, girls pursuing love, and men who stick to their faith.