Foreword

Christopher G.Rea（雷勤风）

Li Yu（1611—1680）was one of the outstanding literary personalities of late imperial China.An aestheticist and bon vivant,he cultivated an iconoclastic persona through a varied writing career in fiction,drama,and essays,flouting the narrative formulas and moral conventions of each.A man of wide—ranging enthusiasms and pursuits,Li took immense pleasure in his own creative capacities,and his writings exude an infectious sense of fun.

One expression of Li Yu's playful ethos that will catch readers'attention is the various types of tricksters we encounter in his stories.Swindlers,confidence men,dubious immortals,and conniving maids were stock comic tropes of Chinese vernacular fiction,but Li was obsessed with them.They are the agents that propel his narratives and shape their myriad twists and turns."The Swindler"features a man who uses his talents not only for profit but to teach a braggart a lesson,help a prostitute become a Buddhist nun,and divert funds from the rich to build a pair of temples.In that story of redemption,as in others,the ends justify the fraudulent means.The title character in "The Crafty Maid"pulls off a double marital victory for herself and her mistress by outwitting the latter's prejudiced parents.On the other side of the moral balance,even "The Elegant Eunuch,"whose venality is punished by having his skull turned into a piss—pot,is a trickster of sorts,as he lures his object of desire into bondage through a cunning deception.We come to expect surprises from Li Yu's heroes and heroines as they strategize and improvise their way through sticky situations.

Li Yu's stories celebrate consummate skill in all its forms,not least his own skill as a storyteller.His stories typically include at least one moment when "the magician reveals his trick,"drawing our attention to his own narrative ingenuity,either in his own voice or through that of a character.Like P.T.Barnum,Li Yu,as self—appointed ringmaster of the human circus,takes pains to remind us along the way what a great show we're enjoying.Several stories conclude with a denouement（some of which are shortened in this edition）that explains what brought events to their tidy conclusion.The explanation may turn out to be a character's wise actions,as with "The Stoic Lover,"or clever insight,as in "The Magic Mirror";in other cases,the fortuitous turn of events,such as the anatomical miracle in "Marital Frustrations,"is attributable to the hand of providence,which in Li Yu's world always sees moral justice done.These various narrative contrivances speak to Li Yu's dedication to the cause of provoking,surprising,and delighting his readers.

The motif that unites the stories of the collection（albeit,loosely）,to which Li Yu alludes at the end of "The Hermit,"is itself an innovation of form.A "tower"（lou,or multi—storied building）plays a role in the plot of each of the dozen stories,and is also the device that links them together into the Twelve Towers.（The collection's other title is Famous Words to Awaken the World.）Among these stories'other similarities,one worth noting here is their temporal setting.Li Yu wrote these stories in 1657or 1658,and set all of them during or before the Ming dynasty（1368—1644）,which had fallen to Manchu invaders only a dozen years earlier.Whether or not we detect in this gesture any sentimental nostalgia on the part of Li Yu（who was then in his late forties）,by setting the stories in the past he neatly protected himself from any charge that his stories of love,sex,and justice make direct comment on the moral authority of the new Qing administration.

Nathan Mao's Twelve Towers,which was originally published thirty—six years ago,remains the only rendering in English of all of the stories in Li Yu's collection,and we have Professor Mao to thank for having first brought them to English—language readers.His approach to adapting them for an English readership,which he outlines in his preface,deserves some comment here.

This book was intended primarily for general readers,and the stories were abridged with them in mind.In "retelling"these stories,rather than translating them in their entirety,Professor Mao has chosen to emphasize the main plot of each while excising much of the "packaging"found in the original.The presumption is that to include all of the chapter—heading couplets,poems,narratorial digressions,and the like might bore or puzzle readers who are unfamiliar with the formal conventions of traditional vernacular fiction,and thus unable to appreciate Li Yu's clever inversions and deviations without explanatory notes.The present rendering is thus most appropriate for readers looking for entertaining stories,rather than for literary historians concerned with textual history and authentication.Like folktales,these retellings alter the story's form while trying to maintain its core spirit of entertainment and [here,disingenuous]moralizing.That said,Professor Mao retains most of the form of the original;this is no wholesale reworking like Charles and Mary Lamb's Tales from Shakespeare（1807）,which converted the Bard's plays into an entirely different genre.

The Li Yu one finds in this book is accordingly more punchy and less digressive than the one we find in the original Chinese,or in the translations of Patrick Hanan（and his collaborators）,who has brought us The Carnal Prayer Mat（preface 1657）,Silent Operas（written in 1655or 1656）,and A Tower for the Summer Heat.The latter includes six（4—7,9,11）of the "twelve towers"and represents a markedly different approach to their rendering:Professor Hanan selects half of the works and translates each in its entirety,including all poems,lyrics,preambles to the "stories proper,"chapter—heading couplets,narratorial "intrusions,"and post—story critiques（by Li Yu's friend,Du Jun）Professor Hanan has done so in part to preserve the narrator's voice,which he has called "the most distinctive part of any Li Yu story."Nathan Mao's rendering represents this voice,but,for reasons mentioned above,does not indulge it as fully as did Li Yu himself.

The two renderings of Li Yu thus pursue different agendas,even as both seek to entertain.Given that Li Yu was a master of self—reinvention,both on and off the page,it seems fitting that we should have multiple Li Yus in English.In addition to providing English readers an entertaining introduction to Li Yu's world,this bilingual edition is also a great asset to students of Chinese,English,and the art of translation and adaptation.To each,enjoy!