Ling Mengchu

Also known as Zi Xuanfang · Hao Chucheng

Ling Mengchu, courtesy name Xuanfang, sobriquet Chucheng, and also styled the Master Who Sees Emptiness, came from a family of printers in Wucheng, Huzhou. He failed the provincial examination repeatedly and spent years writing and publishing, often in two-colour red and black printing. Following the lead of Feng Menglong's three story collections, he issued Slapping the Table in Amazement (Chuke pai'an jingqi) in 1628 and a second collection in 1632, forty chapters each, drawing on earlier notebooks and current hearsay. In 1634 he became assistant magistrate of Shanghai as a tribute student, and later assistant prefect of Xuzhou in charge of the Fangcun post. When rebel troops besieged Fangcun in the first month of 1644 he refused to surrender and died vomiting blood. A late Ming editor known as the Old Man Who Hugs the Jar chose forty stories from Feng's and Ling's books for Wonders Old and New (Jingu qiguan), which carried them to a much wider readership.