1 h 49 minAudiobook13 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 1 h 49 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
A sharp reply, a quiet act of integrity: how much of a person can a few lines reveal?
In Xu Shishuo, Kong Pingzhong gathers brief stories about real people from the centuries before his own time. A Song dynasty scholar and official, he continues the tradition of Liu Yiqing’s Shishuo Xinyu. Each anecdote offers a name, a moment and a remark—enough to bring a choice or habit into focus.
The collection groups these encounters by kinds of conduct, following headings such as virtue, speech and governance. Rebukes, jokes and clever replies sit alongside quiet examples of integrity. For Song readers, such stories offer more than entertainment: they provide models of conduct, enrich writing with allusions and preserve people’s reputations.
What you’ll discover
- Character in a moment Watch a brief encounter reveal a habit, a quality or a way of thinking.
- The force of speech Discover how a rebuke, joke or clever answer gives a short anecdote its force.
- Virtue and public life Explore stories grouped around conduct, from personal integrity to the demands of governance.
- Lives kept in memory Meet people whose reputations these compact stories help preserve beyond their own time.
- An older tradition continued See how Kong Pingzhong follows an earlier collection’s loose frame with stories from later centuries.
Who will love it
Readers who enjoy short true stories, Chinese history, and the character of rulers, officials and scholars. It suits anyone curious about honesty, wit, courage and ambition.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- Small scenes reveal human character
- Honesty matters when it costs something
- Good advice makes consequences felt
- Good government earns the people's affection
- Literary gifts can arrive and vanish
- Firm principles can coexist with calm
- Wit depends on seeing people clearly
- Power makes human weaknesses more dangerous
- Actions leave the judgment to you
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Xu Shishuo 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.
Xu Shishuo
by Kong Pingzhong · 1100
A governor throws his rhinoceros horns into a river, and an old woman weeps for a dead magistrate.
Medium level5–10 hours to read2 languages
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In short
Picture a market where an old woman sells oak leaves. She hears that the magistrate, Le Yu of Yongshi, has died in office.
Xu Shishuo at a glance
- Reading time
- About 8 h 10 min6 h 30 min fast, 9 h 45 min slow
- Length
- 116,700 words
- Library level
- Medium longer sentences, everyday words
- First published
- 1100by Kong Pingzhong
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
Real virtue shows in small, costly choices
The book opens with virtue, and it measures virtue in small, concrete acts. Ming Shanbin of Liang sells the ox he rides because he is short of money. After taking the payment, he tells the buyer that the animal once had a hoof ailment that may return. The buyer comes straight back and demands his money. The recluse Ruan Xiaoxu hears of it and sighs that such words could restore people to simplicity and honesty.
Other entries repeat the pattern with gold. Zhen Bin of Song pawns a bundle of hemp at a temple storehouse. When he redeems it, he finds five taels of gold wrapped in a handkerchief. He returns the gold. The monk offers him half, but Zhen refuses. He says he wears a sheepskin coat in the fifth month and carries firewood on his back, yet he cannot take money that was left behind.
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Which edition is right for me
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas of the whole book in about 13 minutes. A good first look, or a refresher.
Details
- First published
- 1100
- Language
- English
- Reading time
- 1 h 10 min
- Level
- Medium level
Cite this edition
Kong, Pingzhong. Xu Shishuo. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/xu-shishuo.
Kong, P. (2026). Xu shishuo. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/xu-shishuo (Original work published ca. 1100)
Kong, Pingzhong. Xu Shishuo. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/xu-shishuo.
@book{kong2026xu,
author = {Kong, Pingzhong},
title = {Xu Shishuo},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/xu-shishuo},
note = {First published ca. 1100}
}
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What is Xu Shishuo about?
It is a collection of short anecdotes about officials, emperors, generals, scholars, hermits and women from the southern dynasties through the Tang and Five Dynasties. Entries are grouped by theme, such as virtue, speech, government, wit, flattery and regret.
Who wrote Xu Shishuo and when?
Kong Pingzhong, a Song dynasty writer who died in 1111, compiled it. He modeled it on the earlier Shishuo Xinyu, drawing on dynastic histories and older records to collect stories of notable people.
Is Xu Shishuo a true story?
It gathers anecdotes about real historical figures such as Taizong, Wei Zheng and Di Renjie. Some stories, especially those about dreams, omens and divination, follow older traditions, so they show what people of the time believed.
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