 Cover of an 1864 edition ofGeneral Yue Fei, volume one | |
| Author | Qian Cai |
|---|---|
| Translator | T.L. Yang |
| Language | Written Chinese |
| Genre | Historical fiction |
| Set in | 12th century |
Publication date | 1684, 1744 |
| Publication place | Qing dynasty |
| Media type | |
General Yue Fei (Chinese:說岳全傳) is a Chinese historical novel written by Qian Cai in theQing dynasty. Consist of 80 chapters, the first 61 chapters detail the life and adventures ofYue Fei, while the last 19 concern the exploits of Yue Fei's sonYue Lei after Yue Fei's unjust death.
The authorQian Cai (錢彩) lived sometime during the reigns of theKangxi andYongzheng (1661–1735) emperors of theQing dynasty.[1] A dating symbol in its preface points either to the year 1684 or to 1744.[2] It was banned during the reign of theQianlong Emperor. There are two main versions of this novel. The original one had 80 chapters. There was an illustrated edition of this version published in 1912.[3] The other version also had 80 chapters and was published during the reign of theTongzhi Emperor (1861–1875).
Some people mistakenly take this novel to be historical fact when it is purely fiction.[4] According to Sir Yang Ti-liang's introduction to his translation:
The work is a historical novel in form, but it is in fact based almost mainly on legends which were current amongst the common people for centuries. Indeed some of the events described there are nothing more than Qian Cai's own imagination.[5]
Starting in 1964 and finishing in 1995,Sir Yang Ti-liang, formerChief Justice of Hong Kong, current Chairman of theHong Kong Red Cross, combined the first chapters of these works (in an attempt to weed out the overabundance of supernatural elements) to create a 79-chapter version with 961 pages, which he translated into English. It was published byJoint Publishing in 1995.[5]
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