14 minSummaryRead it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook editionPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
A clever answer can save you from trouble—or show just how foolish you are.
In Xie Duo, Shen Qifeng brings together short Chinese tales of wit, morality and human folly. Qing dynasty China provides the setting: markets, teahouses, busy courts and villages shaped by the farming year. Scholars, officials, merchants and families face the small scrapes of daily life, where a quick mind can help—or hurt.
The collection draws on a storytelling tradition that makes people laugh, then makes them think. Clever remarks, foolish choices and sly bargains bring questions of right and wrong close to home. Honesty, kindness and fair dealing sit beside greed, vanity and cruelty. The pleasure lies in seeing how comedy gives a moral question its edge.
What you’ll discover
- Wit with a sting Discover how a clever answer can offer escape, while too much cleverness invites trouble.
- The comedy of ordinary lives Meet students, clerks, servants and neighbors in stories rooted in everyday scrapes.
- Morals beneath the laughter Consider honesty and kindness through tales that place human faults beside familiar virtues.
- A world of small encounters Enter markets, teahouses and villages where daily life provides the ground for humor.
- Short tales, pointed pleasures Enjoy brief stories whose clever remarks and foolish choices leave you something to consider.
Who will love it
This is for you if you like short, sharp stories, ghosts and foxes with something to say, and satire that mocks the powerful yet cares for honest people.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- Pride leaves a door open
- Titles cannot stand in for learning
- Talented women deserve to be heard
- Money keeps changing its disguise
- Hell reflects injustice on earth
- Strange marriages put promises to work
- Granted wishes leave desire unsettled
- Dignity does not depend on rank
- Laughter makes room for moral judgment
Who’s who
- NingA stern scholar who believes his love of books makes him safe from foxes and who is tempted by a clever woman.
- Huo XiaoyingA girl from Qinchuan who promises to serve whoever avenges her father and keeps her word even when a tiger answers.
- XiangguanA poor girl from Jiangyin who reads faces so well that she can see her future husband's fate and chooses him anyway.
- Zheng LanfenA gifted young woman from Zhongzhou who writes comic parodies of the classics and begins a book of her own.
- Yin LanA twelve-year-old opera student who earns money for his sick mother and holds to his duty as a son.
- ShuerA maid who cannot sew but is a master of weapons, and who serves a household out of loyalty to her father.
- Dai LiA bold young man who falls asleep drunk and wakes in the Cicada Province, where a day lasts a year.
- Wen DengA young scholar who travels in search of a bride and finds himself caught in a dangerous household.
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Xie Duo 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.
Xie Duo
by Shen Qifeng · 1791
A fox quotes the Book of Changes to a proud scholar, and a tiger asks for a wife in this Qing book of tales.
Medium level5–10 hours to read20 languages
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In short
Picture a scholar who boasts that no fox can fool him. He loves only his books, so he feels safe from lust and greed.
Xie Duo at a glance
- Reading time
- About 7 h 15 min5 h 45 min fast, 8 h 35 min slow
- Length
- 103,000 words
- Library level
- Medium longer sentences, everyday words
- First published
- 1791by Shen Qifeng
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
Pride in your own safety invites trouble
The book opens with Ning, a stern man who lives among his books. A friend warns him not to rest in the abandoned Fan garden in Pingyang, where many foxes live. Ning laughs. He says foxes win people by beauty or money, and he cares for neither.
His confidence is the trap. A woman steps out from behind a screen and mocks his lonely study. When he shouts at her to run, she answers with history, naming Great Yu and the nine-tailed fox in the Classic of Mountains and Seas. Ning respects learning, so he stops shouting and offers to study beside her. They read the Book of Changes together, and he enjoys explaining it. The one thing he thought could not tempt him has become the door.
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Which edition is right for me
- eBook
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- 15-minute summary
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Details
- First published
- 1791
- Language
- English
- Reading time
- 1 h 10 min
- Level
- Medium level
Cite this edition
Shen, Qifeng. Xie Duo. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/xie-duo.
Shen, Q. (2026). Xie duo. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/xie-duo (Original work published 1791)
Shen, Qifeng. Xie Duo. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/xie-duo.
@book{shen2026xie,
author = {Shen, Qifeng},
title = {Xie Duo},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/xie-duo},
note = {First published 1791}
}
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What is Xie Duo about?
It is a collection of short Qing dynasty tales about foxes, tigers, ghosts, scholars, officials, wives and courtesans. Each tale ends with a brief comment by Duo, the author's voice, which points to the moral or adds a joke.
What does the title Xie Duo mean?
The title is the book's name for its tales, and it echoes the commentator signed Duo, whose short remarks follow almost every story. The sense is of a voice that joins humor with warning.
Are the stories in Xie Duo true?
Most are fables, ghost tales and anecdotes, so they are not meant as true history. The author sometimes says a friend told him a story or wonders if it is invented, which adds to the fun.
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