4 h 57 minAudiobook7 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What if a lake could tell you how a city remembers its heroes, dreams, and disappointments?
In West Lake: A Second Collection, Zhou Qingyuan gathers short stories around Hangzhou’s famous lake. Poets, officials, soldiers, scholars, and ordinary people pass through a landscape thick with memory. Each tale connects a person or place to the water, showing how a city turns its past into legend.
The collection moves through city life, history and wonder, and tales of loyal service. Historical figures share the page with marvels, omens, dreams, and turns of fate. Behind these stories stands Hangzhou’s tradition of remembering courage, including Yue Fei and Yu Qian, whose tombs lie beside the lake. Loyalty, talent, and fortune give the tales their human weight.
What you’ll discover
- A lake full of memory Discover a landscape where people and places carry the stories of Hangzhou’s past.
- History touched by wonder Follow tales that bring historical figures together with dreams, omens, and unexpected turns of fate.
- Loyalty and courage remembered Explore the tradition of honouring loyal service that shapes the lake’s memorial landscape.
- The storyteller’s lively language Enjoy plain, talkative prose rooted in the storytelling tradition of teahouses and markets.
- Room to linger Settle into leisurely tales with asides, verse, and moral comments along the way.
Who will love it
Readers who love lively storytelling, local legend, ghost tales, romance and the moral turns of fate will feel at home here, as will anyone curious about Hangzhou, its lake and its past.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A salt smuggler rises to become king
- Song emperors turn West Lake into a playground
- Fortune follows fate, not cleverness
- A jealous empress and a devoted son
- A monk reborn and a patriarch of mercy
- Love, loyalty and ghosts in four tales
- Debts, disguises and a lakeside fairy
- Statesmen, scholars and a loyal maid
- Spirits, rebels and the city's guardians
Who’s who
- Qian LiuA strong, reckless salt seller from Lin'an who gambles freely and is marked by omens for a throne.
- Zhen LongyouA brilliant, sharp-tongued scholar from Yongjia who is so poor that he opens a village school.
- Zhao XiongA scholar so slow that neighbors mock him, yet honest and respectful of written paper.
- Li FengniangA fierce, jealous woman who marries a prince and wants rank and the crown prince's seat for her son.
- Yao BohuaA devoted son from Tonglu who will not marry until he finds a wife as kind as his parents deserve.
- Shi MiyuanA proud, ambitious official, once the monk Jue, who reaches for power at the Southern Song court.
- Xu JunbaoA merchant's son who marries the prefect's gifted daughter Jin Shuzhen and swears to share her fate.
- Hu ZongxianA clever censor who takes on the coastal raiders and their chief with spies and schemes.
Formats and delivery
- eBook
- On your phone, tablet or computer, once the book texts are online.
- Large-print eBook
- The same book in bigger, clearer type, once the book texts are online.
- Audiobook
- Read by Lucas Linden, complete. It opens once the recording is online.
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas in about 7 minutes, to read today.
- Paperback
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Hardcover
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print paperback
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print hardcover
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
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Lago del Oeste: Segunda colección
A salt smuggler with a lizard's omen at his birth rises to rule Wu and Yue, and West Lake keeps his story.
Challenging2–5 hours to readEspañol
Excellent
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In short
What happens when one city fills thirty-four volumes with its own tales? Zhou Qingyuan, a storyteller of the Ming age, builds West Lake: A Second Collection around Hangzhou and its lake.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A salt smuggler rises to become king
The book opens with Qian Liu, born in Lin'an and later known as the King of Wu and Yue. His birth comes with omens. A huge lizard darts into the house, and the room blazes with light.
A fortune-teller from Yuzhang arrives, hunting for a hidden hero, and spots Qian at the gate of the county clerk Zhong Qi. Soon the raiders of Huang Chao threaten the region. Qian leads twenty volunteers into an ambush, then tells an old woman by the road to say the Lin'an army holds Eight Hundred Li, and the pursuers turn back in fear.
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Which edition is right for me
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas of the whole book in about 7 minutes. A good first look, or a refresher.
Details
- Language
- Español
- Reading time
- 3 h 10 min
- Level
- Challenging
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What is West Lake: A Second Collection about?
It is a set of thirty-four storyteller tales about Hangzhou and West Lake, mixing history and legend. Kings, scholars, monks, courtesans, loyal ministers and ghosts appear, each tale carrying a moral about fate, loyalty or retribution.
Who was Qian Liu, the king in the first tale?
Qian Liu was a salt seller from Lin'an who rose to rule Wu and Yue and made Hangzhou his capital. The tale surrounds him with omens, shows him fighting rebels, and has him shoot arrows at the tide.
Is West Lake: A Second Collection true history?
It is a storyteller's book. Real emperors, ministers and events such as the Song move south and the coastal pirate raids stand beside dreams, omens and ghosts, so it works best as legend that grows from true history.
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