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 Folklores  |
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Fair
Lady Su Xiaoxiao Recognizes Elegant Men
蘇小小慧眼風流 |
Poem: Sweet chrysanthemums sewn to be a pillow,Thin plum trees painted
to be a screen,Revising a poem, unable to sleep tight,
Revising a poem, unable to sleep tight,Hearing snow falling, awakening
from hangover.
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Note: Folklores taking West Lake as their settings are enormous in number.
The difference in narrative can be detected in extant printed versions.
Following are only four folklores selected from a 1791 edition, reprinted
in 1811. This edition, entitled "Picking Up What Is Left Behind in
West Lake" 西湖拾遺, consists of forty-four folklores, an overview painting
of West Lake, one painting for each of its famous Ten Scenes, and forty-four
portraits for the main figures of the folklores included. The final chapter
of this edition is a short essay with a title "Keeping oneself always
in the state of Ultimate Good" 止於至善, which makes the whole compilation
an effort of urging moral cultivation. What follow are not comprehensive
translations of the four folklores, but their fragments, extractions, and
summaries. The idea is to provide some touches of how West Lake has been
experienced in the form of folklores that people love to tell, generation
after generation.
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