Note on the Chongzhen Edition Table of Contents and Illustrations

The table of contents for the original Chongzhen edition lists only fifteen titles, skipping chapter 11. For scholarly speculation on the significance of this omission, see the introduction to this volume. All chapter titles are seven-syllable couplets, a conventional practice in later novels, although not all have the same rhythm: some place the pause after the fourth syllable, which is conventional for seven-syllable poetic lines; some break after the third. A short title for each chapter is given on the central seam (banxin) between the two pages produced when a block-printed sheet is folded in half before binding; these are identified before the notes that follow each chapter.

The illustrations for the original edition of Further Adventures present as many interpretive puzzles as does the text itself. Sixteen illustrations were grouped just before the author’s question-and-answer section. A few have captions; others do not (where none were provided, the translators have added brief descriptions). This makes matching an image with a particular chapter difficult, which contrasts sharply with the clear correspondence between image and text in earlier novels and vernacular story collections.

Six of the sixteen illustrations portray Pilgrim, the Monkey King, sometimes in transformed appearance, in architectural or landscape settings. These correspond easily with specific chapters. The other ten are more of the type of “flower-and-bird” (hua niao) and “object” (qiwu) images found in albums. Several resemble the illustrations on fancy letter paper or reproduce images from a 1640 edition of the romantic play The Western Chamber (Xixiang ji), and some appear within circular frames.¹ But each suggests something of the Buddhist teachings that underlie this novel.² Their subtle meanings, and the curious fact that several images may refer to the same chapter, leaving other chapters unillustrated, seem intended to engage the reader in hermeneutic endeavors far beyond mere entertainment. In this regard, too, Further Adventures represents a new level of complexity for novels of the Ming period.