13 Facts About Feng Menglong

Feng Menglong, courtesy names Youlong, Gongyu, Ziyou, or Eryou, was a Chinese historian, novelist, and poet of the late Ming Dynasty.

Feng Menglong was born in Changzhou County, now part of Suzhou, in Jiangsu Province.

In spite of his literary talent and his zeal for scholarship from a young age, Feng Menglong sat the imperial civil service examinations many times without success, eventually giving up and making a living as a tutor and teacher.

Feng Menglong resolved to complete his trilogy of vernacular Chinese short story collections: Stories to Instruct the World, Stories to Caution the World, and Stories to Awaken the World, the first two volumes of which had already appeared.

In recognition of his reputation as a writer, Feng Menglong was finally awarded the gongsheng degree in 1630 at the age of fifty-seven.

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Feng Menglong died in 1646 as the Ming dynasty continued to collapse.

Feng Menglong is frequently associated with Ling Mengchu, author of Slapping the Table in Amazement, a two-part collection of entertaining vernacular tales.

Feng Menglong was in love with a famous prostitute when he was young.

Feng Menglong was one of the few authors who portrayed women as being strong and intelligent; this was noticeably different from contemporary authors, who tended to ignore the importance of women's positions.

The female characters in Feng Menglong's stories were portrayed as brave and bright when dealing with different situations.

Feng Menglong expressed his attitudes towards society through his works, which were heavily influenced by his interactions with officialdom and the Chinese literati.

Feng Menglong became the magistrate of Shouning near the end of his life, in his sixties.

Feng Menglong authored the Public Notice on the Prohibition of the Drowning of Daughters to appeal to parents not to carry out what he viewed as an abhorrent custom and provide for punishments for infanticidal parents and rewards for those taking in abandoned children.