Tale of Two Melons

Sarah Schneewind is Associate Professor of History, University of California at San Diego.

• On a Lacquer Tray; With the Emperor Said; Up from the Garden; The Zhang Family; The Smile of the God; Retelling the Melon Story; Movements and Exchange in the Ming Empire; Major Dynastic Periods of Chinese History; Reign Periods of the Ming Dynasty; Chronology of Main Events; The Zhang Family; The Zhang Family Tree; Types of Documents; Notes.

Undergraduates will join specialists in enjoying this feast of melons. Schneewind's marvelous little book is at once a primer in some key aspects of China's traditional civilization and history, as well as a case study of an obscurely understood event that took place in 1372, in the reign of Taizu, founder of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). When two melons share a single stalk, and a local grower presents the anomaly to the emperor, the symbolism, the intentions of the giver, the reaction of the recipient, and the meaning of the whole act to observers and later commentators turn out to be anything but straightforward. Divergent interpretations began immediately, and continue to the present day. --John Dardess, University of Kansas