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Jin Shengtan Quotes
d. 1661 China
Jin Shengtan (simplified Chinese: 金圣叹; traditional Chinese: 金聖歎; Wade–Giles: Chin Shêng-t'an) (1610?－7 August 1661), former name Jin Renrui (金人瑞), also known as Jin Kui (金喟), was a Chinese editor, writer and critic, who has been called the champion of Vernacular Chinese literature.
Also known as: Chin Shengtan
Random Jin Shengtan quote
10 quotes
To cut with a sharp knife a bright green watermelon on a big scarlet plate of a summer afternoon. Ah, is this not happiness?
Eat pickled turnips with yellow beans. It gives the taste of walnut.
Before reading Romance, one should read the Book of Poetry.
To find accidently a handwritten letter of some old friend in a trunk. Ah, is this not happiness?
To open the window and let a wasp out of the room. Ah, is this not happiness?
To have just finished repaying all one's debts. Ah, is this not happiness?
The Western Wing is not a work written by an individual named Wang Shifu alone; if I read it carefully, it will also be a work of my own creation, because all the words in The Western Wing happen to be the words that I want to say and that I want to write down.
A traveller returns home after a long journey, and he sees the old city gate and hears the women and children on both banks of the river talking his own dialect. Ah, is this not happiness?
In making these comments, my motive is really not to go to all the trouble for the sake of the ancient author, but because I feel I have an obligation to the future readers and wish to do something about it.
I am drinking on a winter's night, and suddenly note that the night has turned extremely cold. I push open the window and see that snowflakes come down the size of a palm and there are already three or four inches of snow on the ground. Ah, is this not happiness?
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