Quick Answer: What Are the Two Slaps?
The Two Slaps (二拍, Èrpāi) are two collections of vernacular short fiction by Ling Mengchu (凌濛初, Líng Méngchū), published in 1628 and 1632. The first contains 40 stories. The second adds 38 distinct stories, so there are 78 distinct tales across the pair.[1]
- What you will read: Tales of trade, marriage, justice and the supernatural, often introduced by a narrator who comments on what happens.[6]
- Related books: The two collections are often grouped with the Three Words (三言, Sānyán), three earlier anthologies edited by Feng Menglong (冯梦龙, Féng Mènglóng).[1][2]
- English reading: The 2018 Shuhui Yang and Yunqin Yang translation covers the first collection. Li Ziliang’s bilingual edition covers the second.[2][6][8]
The 40 numbered places in a contents list and the number of distinct surviving stories count different things. Check the collection and the translator when looking up an individual tale.
In the first story, a merchant sells fruit to people who have never eaten it. In a tale from the second collection, onlookers think they have witnessed a straightforward victory at a board game. Both scenes look familiar until you learn something the crowd does not know.
The Two Collections and Their Story Counts
Read the title alongside the year. The first collection also appears as Pai’an Jingqi, without the word for first, in some editions.[6]
| First publication | Collection title | Distinct stories contributed |
|---|---|---|
| 1628 | Slapping the Table in Amazement, First Collection (初刻拍案惊奇, Chūkè Pāi’àn Jīngqí) | 40 |
| 1632 | Slapping the Table in Amazement, Second Collection (二刻拍案惊奇, Èrkè Pāi’àn Jīngqí) | 38 more |
The surviving original printing of the second collection repeats the first collection’s Story 23 in the same numbered position. Its original Story 40 is missing. Some editions place a zaju (杂剧, zájù), a musical play about Song Jiang and the Lantern Festival, in the last position.[2][3]
That distinction matters when choosing an edition. A table of contents with 40 entries for the second collection may include the repeated tale and the play. For an example of how a zaju works on the page, see The Western Wing.
Two Stories Where Appearances Mislead
The Tangerines and the Turtle Shell
In the first collection’s opening story, Wen Ruoxu (文若虚, Wén Ruòxū) takes Dongting tangerines overseas. People at the port watch him peel and eat one before they know what the cargo is for. Their interest grows, and Wen finds a market for the fruit.[4]
Later a Persian merchant recognizes the value of the turtle shell Wen has brought. The two encounters turn on opposite kinds of knowledge. Wen can show the crowd how to eat his fruit, while he needs the merchant’s expertise to learn the shell’s value. The tale puts good fortune next to the skill of recognizing what somebody else knows.[4]
A Public Game of Go
Story 2 of the second collection puts Miaoguan (妙观, Miàoguān), an accomplished player of Go (围棋, wéiqí), at a board with a young Daoist. Spectators watch them play for prizes. During their final game, he yields ground deliberately, and the spectators take the narrow margin as evidence of a real contest.[5]
Read the match and what the players say afterward. The spectators can count the margin. What one player thinks the other promised, and what each can say openly afterward, are harder to settle. The match gives the story a visible way to count victory while leaving the players’ private agreement unsettled.
How Ling’s Narrator Shapes the Surprise
The opening title of a story often gives you two lines that sketch the action in advance. One announces an incident and the other points toward a later development. An apparently revealing title can leave you with a better question than who wins. Why did a particular bargain or gesture end up mattering?[1]
Ling drew on earlier material and used an editorial voice that could address an imagined audience directly.[1]
Read him alongside the Three Words to see how writers in the late Ming dynasty adapted related storytelling forms. Ling’s recurring opening couplets make the way a surprise is prepared especially easy to compare across tales.
Look for a shift in who speaks. The narrator may address you before the main characters appear, and comments may interrupt a scene you thought you understood. A guide to Chinese literature can place those devices alongside other printed forms of storytelling.
How to Find the Right English Edition
For the first collection, search for Slapping the Table in Amazement: A Ming Dynasty Story Collection, translated by Shuhui Yang and Yunqin Yang. The 2018 paperback has ISBN 9780295742137. The complete English translation is also available as an open reading edition with the prologues, poems and comments.[6][7]
For the second collection, look for Li Ziliang’s four-volume 2008 bilingual edition, Amazing Tales: Second Series. The 2005 Panda Books volume with the same main title is a selection translated by Perry W. Ma. Check the translator first, then check that the 2008 record lists four volumes.[2][8][9]
Start with a single tale and keep the story number when you change editions. Readers comparing the short-story collections with longer works can use the Chinese classic books guide to choose a next text.
FAQs About the Two Slaps
Why are there 78 distinct stories across the Two Slaps?
The first contains 40. In the second, Story 23 repeats a first-collection tale, and the original Story 40 is missing. This leaves 38 additional distinct tales in the surviving second collection.[2][3]
Who wrote the Two Slaps?
Ling Mengchu wrote and adapted the two vernacular collections. He used earlier narratives as source material and developed them into stories for his readers.[1]
Does the 2018 English translation cover both collections?
The 2018 translation by Shuhui Yang and Yunqin Yang covers the first collection. For the second, search for the separate bilingual edition translated by Li Ziliang.[6][8]
Sources
[1] Robert E. Hegel, University of Washington Press. Introduction to Slapping the Table in Amazement
[2] Dylan K. Wang. Erpai Stories in English, 1955–2018
[3] Shandong Literature and Art Publishing House. Slapping the Table in Amazement, Second Collection
[4] University of Washington Press. First Collection, Story One
[5] Wikisource. Second Collection, Story Two
[6] University of Washington Press. Slapping the Table in Amazement, English Print Edition
[7] University of Washington Manifold. Slapping the Table in Amazement, Open Edition
[8] CiNii Books. Amazing Tales: Second Series, Li Ziliang Edition
[9] Indiana University Libraries. Amazing Tales, Panda Books Selections