Tao'an mengyi 陶庵夢憶

Zhang Dai 張岱 (b. 1597), styled Zongzi 宗子 or Shigong 石公, with the style Tao’an 陶庵 or Die’an 蝶庵, was a native of Shanyin 山陰 (present-day Shaoxing 紹興, Zhejiang). In his youth, he lived as a wealthy dilettante, indulging in luxury while cultivating deep literary and artistic refinement. After the fall of the Ming dynasty, he retreated to the mountains with unkempt hair, and his ultimate fate remains unknown. This work was composed after the Qing armies entered China. It records stories of past times without following chronological order or categorisation, mixing reflections on the lost country with feelings of impermanence. The collection contains 122 brief chapters. It thoroughly documents the customs of the Wu and Yue regions, covering activities such as hunting and tide-watching, lantern festivals to welcome deities, landscapes, historical relics, arts and crafts, calligraphy and painting, local dialects and neighbourhood poetry, as well as entertainment like theatre, music, teahouses, and taverns. It also provides detailed accounts of military exercises (ch. Yanzhou yuewu 兗州閱武 and Dinghai shuicao 定海水操), which are valuable for studying Ming-dynasty institutions. Descriptions of seasonal events, such as boat races at Jinshan 金山, tomb-sweeping in Yangzhou 揚州 during the Qingming Festival, and lantern displays in Shaoxing, as well as local products like the peonies of Tiantai 天臺, and the rise and fall of the West Lake 西湖 incense market, offer vivid insight into late Ming society and popular customs. Many chapters are especially lively and evocative. The prose throughout the book is fresh, lively, and poetic, forming a distinctive style. It stands as a masterpiece among late-Ming literary records. The book catalogue Baqianjuanlou shumu 八千卷樓書目 categorises the book as fiction (xiaoshuojia lei 小說家類). The text is included in the series Yueyatang congshu 粵雅堂叢書, Shuoku 說庫, Shenbaoguan congshu 申報館叢書 and Congshu jicheng chubian 叢書集成初編. Modern, annotated editions were published in 1982 by the 杭州西湖書社 and the 上海古籍出版社.