Kuaishu 快書

Kuaishu 快書 "Quickly written books" is a series of collectanea (congshu 叢書) compiled by the Ming-period 明 (1368-1644) scholars Min Jingxian 閔景賢 and He Weiran 何偉然. The term kuaishu actually refers to a local style of artistic performance in Shandong and Shaanxi including ballad singing, story-telling, comic dialogues, "clapper-talk", etc. (Luo 1991).

Min Jingxian, courtesy name Shixing 士行, hailed from Wucheng 烏程 (modern Huzhou 湖州, Zhejiang), and He Weiran, courtesy name Xianqu 仙臞, from Renhe 仁和 (near modern Hangzhou 杭州, Zhejiang). There is not much more known about their lives. The Kuaishu includes 50 texts from the Ming period with a total length of 50 juan.

The texts are mostly abbreviated, and for some the publishers even changed the title, like Huixinbian 會心編 to Qiutao 秋濤, Xingyan 醒言 to Guangmingcang 光明藏, or Zhou Shouzhong's 周守忠 (fl. 1208) Jishi 姬侍 to Zhulian 姝聯. Most texts are said to be "shallow and frivolous". The most important writings in the Kuaishu are Xu Yiqing's 徐以清 Jianyou suotan 鑒右瑣談, Wang Tingxiang's 王廷相 (1474-1544) Yashu 雅述, Zhu Shilu's 祝世祿 (1540-1611) Huanbizhai xiaoyan 環碧齋小言, Ye Ziqi's 葉子奇 Caomuzi 草木子, Sun Boguan's 孫伯觀 Dushutong 讀書通, Wu Qingye's 吳寧野 Jiaoyouguan 交友觀 and Ao Ying's 敖英 (1479-c. 1552) Lüxue geza 綠雪革雜.

The series was first printed in 1626, in an edition including two sets of 16 and 24 volumes, respectively. Another edition was 12 volumes long.

Together with Wu Congxian 吳從先, He Weiran compiled a continuation of this series, the Guang kuaishu 廣快書 that has the same length. Wu Congxian published an excellent collection of poems called Buyiquan 布衣權 a copy of which was once owned by Zhang Wenzhi 張文峙, but was unfortunately lost during the disturbances in the late Ming.

Most texts of the Guang kuaishu date from the Ming period, but there are also a few produced during the early Qing period 清 (1644-1911), like the texts Shanyizhe yan 善易者言 and Shishu 世書, written by Wu Ying 吳穎 (1600-1678), or Zhou Bin's 周賓 Shixiaobian 識小編. The latter is substantially abbreviated, and, like in the Kuaishu, the authors of the Guang kuaishu did not shy away from altering titles, like Yishengying 一聲鶯, Youqingchi 有情癡, Zhaoxinxi 照心犀 or Ousi 嘔絲, which are all actually selections from the Shixiaobian. The most important Ming texts in the Guang kuaishu are Lai Sixing's 來斯行 (1567-1633) Cha'an yanyu 槎庵燕語, Zhou Hong's 周宏 Hezhizi 何之子, Tian Yiheng's 田藝蘅 (1524-1591) Yuxiao lingyin 玉笑零音, Qian Xiyan's 錢希言 Xixia 戲瑕 and Tu Benjun's 屠本畯 (1542-1622) Haiwei suoyin 海味索隱.

The Guang kuaishu was first printed during the Chongzhen reign-period 崇禎 (1628-1644), in two different editions, one with 16 volumes, and one with 20. Two originals are now owned by the Library of Congress.

During the Wanli reign-period 萬曆 (1574-1619), Hua Shu 華淑 compiled a series of his own books. This is the short Kuaishu liu zhong 快書六種, with a total length of 12 juan.