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Audiobook editionPaperback · 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 drawn to lively Chinese storytelling will love these tales of emperors, scholars, courtesans, judges, ghosts and Daoist magic. It also suits anyone curious about Hangzhou and West Lake.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- Kindness sees beyond a poor beginning
- A ruler must protect what matters
- A kingdom returns as a warning
- Pleasure can hide an unfinished duty
- Talent alone does not decide fortune
- Keeping faith gives women their honor
- The unseen world answers human conduct
- Justice requires care before judgment
- Every deed carries an echo
Who’s who
- Qian LiuA salt smuggler and gambler from Lin'an with great strength, who longs to rise and becomes King of Wu and Yue.
- Emperor GaozongA Song prince who flees the Jin invasion and settles in Hangzhou, where he enjoys the lake and avoids the war.
- Zhen LongyouA gifted scholar in rags who seeks a patron in Lin'an and hopes his poetry will bring him a post.
- Zhao XiongA man nicknamed the Zhao Fool who can hardly write, yet goes to the capital to sit the examinations.
- Shi MiyuanA schemer who gathers great power in the Song court and will do anything to keep it from a crown prince.
- Jin ShuzhenA prefect's daughter and a poet who marries into a merchant family and clings to loyalty when war scatters everyone.
- Pan YongzhongA young man from Fujian who plays the flute near Six Ministries Bridge and wins the heart of a girl across the street.
- Lord ZhouA Hangzhou judge who solves crimes by observing small details and tests false accusations with clever tricks.
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West Lake: A Second Collection in 25 languages, side by side, paragraph by paragraph, once the book texts are online: the way to learn a language with a book you love.
West Lake: A Second Collection
A salt smuggler becomes a king as ghosts, fox wives and dragon kings crowd the shores of West Lake.
Challenging10–20 hours to read20 languages
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In short
What if a dead king came back to demand his kingdom? In the first tale, Qian Liu, a salt smuggler who rises to be King of Wu and Yue, strides into an emperor's dream and says the land must be returned.
West Lake: A Second Collection at a glance
- Reading time
- About 19 h 40 min15 h 35 min fast, 23 h 25 min slow
- Length
- 280,700 words
- Library level
- Challenging long sentences, a rich vocabulary
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A smuggler marked for a crown
The narrator says he writes to urge people to be good and to pour out his frustration. He promises that causes and results will fit together like beads on an abacus. Then he turns to Qian Liu, the hero whom everyone in Hangzhou praises.
Qian is born in Shijian Village as a huge lizard darts under the bed and the room blazes with light. His father wants to drown him as a demon, but an elderly neighbor talks him out of it.
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Which edition is right for me
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Details
- Language
- English
- Reading time
- 3 h 10 min
- Level
- Challenging
Cite this edition
Zhou, Qingyuan. West Lake: A Second Collection. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/west-lake-a-second-collection.
Zhou, Q. (2026). West Lake: A second collection. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/west-lake-a-second-collection
Zhou, Qingyuan. West Lake: A Second Collection. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/west-lake-a-second-collection.
@book{zhou2026west,
author = {Zhou, Qingyuan},
title = {West Lake: A Second Collection},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/west-lake-a-second-collection}
}
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What is West Lake: A Second Collection about?
It gathers tales set in Hangzhou and around West Lake. They move from the rise of King Qian Liu through Song emperors, poor scholars, courtesans, judges, pirates, ghosts and immortals, each told by a lively narrator with poems and lessons.
Who was Qian Liu in this book?
Qian Liu is a salt smuggler from Lin'an who becomes King of Wu and Yue. The first tale follows his rise, then shows him appearing in Huizong's dream to demand his kingdom back from the Song.
Is West Lake: A Second Collection a true story or fiction?
It is a Ming-dynasty collection of vernacular tales. Many people and events come from history, such as Qian Liu, Gaozong and the pirate wars, while others blend legend, ghosts and miracles. The narrator moves freely between record and storytelling.
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