More Swindles from the Late Ming

Like every society characterized by long-distance trade, early modern China presented ample opportunities for deceit, and so had to confront endemic challenges to interpersonal trust. This book provides an extraordinary array of morality tales from the early seventeenth century, probing the variety of duplicitous schemes bedeviling Ming China and illuminating key frictions in a patriarchal, commercial society. The collection further illustrates the enduring dilemmas associated with efforts to instruct readers in how to look sharp in a world of sharpers, since its stories also serve as how-to guides for the unscrupulous. -- Edward J. Balleisen, author of Fraud: An American History from Barnum to Madoff
In the canon of the con, More Swindles from the Late Ming is an honest-to-goodness treasure—without a trace of honesty or goodness. Rusk and Rea have succeeded brilliantly with this translation, unearthing and explaining the roots of deep moral anxieties in China. Like the greatest crime stories, these harrowing tales read like sociology in disguise, reminding us how much of our daily life rests on a thin foundation of trust—if we can keep it. -- Evan Osnos, author of Age of Ambition: Chasing Fortune, Truth, and Faith in the New China
Think scams are something modern? More Swindles from the Late Ming proves otherwise. If, upon reading the book, you find yourself worried that there’s something disturbingly timeless about human behavior like this, never fear! Each swindle is followed by stern advice for the nervous reader; e.g. “It’s simply safer to marry local.” -- Tori Telfer, author of Confident Women: Swindlers, Grifters, and Shapeshifters of the Feminine Persuasion
It is wonderful to now have the lively and complete translation of this curious text. -- Andrew Schonebaum, author of Novel Medicine: Healing, Literature, and Popular Knowledge in Early Modern China