One of the most acclaimed 话本 (hua ben - vernacular short stories) in Feng Menglong's 1620 collection Stories Old and New (tr. Yang Shuhui and Yang Yunqin). We discuss the question of irony in a story about both marital and extramarital bliss, and explore the reasons behind the story's famously racy details.
Here we talk about telescopes, gods, and the peculiar anxiety that results when a foreign civilization circumvents established domestic social rules.