Compiler of the "Three Words," synthesizer of the vernacular short story
A Ming-dynasty man of letters and great benefactor of popular literature. The "Three Words" he compiled gathered, reworked, and polished the storytellers’ tales handed down since the Song and Yuan into a hundred and twenty vernacular short stories, preserving a treasury of folk narrative for later ages. He prized "feeling" and "the true," and set down with gravity the joys and sorrows of merchants, artisans, courtesans, and townsfolk — the ordinary people.
In an age when the literati valued only poetry and prose, Feng Menglong stooped to carefully collect the tales storytellers told to peddlers and porters. It was this refusal to scorn the "vulgar" that let marketplace legends like "Du Shiniang sinks her jewel box in wrath" survive — proving that the joys and sorrows of ordinary people deserved the finest writing too.
Below are how modern works borrow or reinterpret this name or story — not the original material. The two differ, so keep them apart.