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Audiobook edition · 3 h 20 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What if a lesson could move even stones—and ordinary lives could show you how to live?
In Nodding Stones, families, friends, officials, and ordinary townsfolk face hardship and temptation. These fourteen tales by Tianranchisou turn questions of right conduct into lively plots. Loyalty to a ruler, devotion to parents, friendship, and marriage all bring duties that become harder to honour under pressure.
This late Ming collection speaks in the plain, direct manner of the city storyteller, a tradition rooted in markets and teahouses. Its title recalls a Buddhist legend: the monk Daosheng is said to preach so well that stones nod in agreement. Here, storytelling seeks to move people toward better conduct.
What you’ll discover
- Virtue under pressure Meet people whose duties to family and friends face the strain of hardship and temptation.
- The storyteller speaks Follow a narrator who addresses the audience directly, bringing moral questions into lively tales.
- A mirror of Ming society Explore how stories express a society’s expectations of loyalty, devotion, friendship, and marriage.
- Stones that nod Discover the Buddhist legend behind a title that suggests the power of a well-told lesson.
- Lessons through ordinary lives See families, officials, and townsfolk make questions of right conduct concrete through their struggles.
Who will love it
Readers who enjoy lively storytelling, courtroom puzzles, lovers parted and found again, and moral tales told by a witty narrator will feel at home. It suits anyone curious about Ming China.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- Kindness begins an unexpected bond
- Silence puts loyalty at risk
- Devotion becomes a search
- Poverty is a false measure
- Kindness and greed take different paths
- Ambition can postpone a promise
- Loyalty finds ways to survive
- A clever wife recognizes the trap
- Actions return by unexpected roads
Who’s who
- Guo QiaoA scholar of Hefei who keeps failing the examinations, he helps a stranger in Guangdong and marries a farmer's daughter.
- Mi QingjieA farmer's daughter who offers to sell herself to save her father and then holds firm to her own sense of honor.
- Lu MengxianA gifted but proud scholar of Yangzhou who disappears after a failed examination and leaves his wife to face the consequences.
- Li MiaohuiMengxian's learned wife, who refuses to give up her loyalty even when her husband is reported dead.
- Wang YuanA farmer's son who leaves his new bride to search the country for the father who fled a tax duty.
- Zong ErniangA devoted wife from Hongzhou who follows her husband to Yangzhou at her mother-in-law's demand and faces famine.
- Shentu XiguangA scholar's clever daughter who marries young Dong Chang and later meets a plot against him with a plan of her own.
- Wei GaoA proud young man who leaves his father-in-law's house vowing to take over his post, and who gives a servant girl a jade ring.
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Nodding Stones 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.
Nodding Stones
A failed scholar pays a stranger's tax debt in Guangdong and names an unborn child, with no idea what follows.
Challenging10–20 hours to read2 languages
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In short
What would you do if a stranger's tears moved you to give away your travel money? In the first tale of Nodding Stones, a scholar named Guo Qiao does exactly that in Guangdong.
Nodding Stones at a glance
- Reading time
- About 12 h 20 min9 h 45 min fast, 14 h 40 min slow
- Length
- 176,200 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 small kindness in Guangdong changes Guo Qiao's life
Guo Qiao is a scholar from Hefei who keeps failing the provincial examination. Bitter, he accepts an invitation from his uncle Wang Gun, a magistrate in Lechang, and sets off to clear his head.
Soon after he arrives, he sees two constables leading an old man in chains, with a weeping daughter walking behind. The old man, Mi Tianlu, owes sixteen taels of tax and cannot pay. Guo gives the family twenty taels of silver. When the grateful father offers the girl as a servant, Guo refuses sternly and walks out, afraid of acting improperly.
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Which edition is right for me
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas of the whole book in about 14 minutes. A good first look, or a refresher.
Details
- Language
- English
- Reading time
- 2 h 10 min
- Level
- Challenging
Cite this edition
Tianranchisou. Nodding Stones. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/nodding-stones.
Tianranchisou. (2026). Nodding stones. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/nodding-stones
Tianranchisou. Nodding Stones. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/nodding-stones.
@book{tianranchisou2026nodding,
author = {Tianranchisou},
title = {Nodding Stones},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/nodding-stones}
}
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What is Nodding Stones about?
It is a collection of fourteen vernacular Chinese tales about separated families, faithful wives, dutiful sons, corrupt officials and lovers. Each story shows how fate and moral choices shape lives, with a narrator who comments throughout.
Who wrote Nodding Stones and when?
It is credited to Tianranchisou, a pen name. The stories date from the late Ming period and belong to the tradition of vernacular tales written for readers who enjoyed lively storytelling and moral lessons.
What does the title Nodding Stones mean?
The title points to an old image of stones that bow their heads in agreement, as if even the unfeeling world accepts a plain moral truth. The tales aim to bring readers around to such truths.
The author
Tianranchisou
Chinese writer
Tianranchisou is a pen name, and little is known about the writer behind it. The tales come from the late Ming period and belong to the tradition of vernacular storytelling that shaped the short stories of that age. The author knows examination halls, yamen courts, temples and merchant boats well, and mixes verse, sermon and plot.
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