Elizabeth Smithrosser is an historian of late imperial China, currently based at the Leiden Institute for Area Studies, Leiden University.Su Shi (1037-1101), to whom Miscellaneous Stories of Master Mugwort has traditionally been attributed, was a scholar-official during the Northern Song period and is one of the most prominent figures in the history of Chinese literature.Lu Cai (1497-1537) was a traveling playwright and diarist active across the vibrant cities of the Yangtze River Delta during the mid-Ming period. Tu Benjun (1542-1622) was an encyclopedia compiler and humorist from the modern-day Ningbo region during the late Ming period.

• Dynastic Timeline for Pre-Modern ChinaNames and Dates of the Warring States Introduction I. Miscellaneous Stories of Master MugwortII. The Ming SequelsII.a. Further Sayings of Master MugwortII.b. Outer Sayings of Master Mugwort Appendix 1: Preface to Jest Intrigues of the Five Masters.Appendix 2: Issues of Attribution: Miscellaneous StoriesAppendix 3: Table of Pre-Modern TitlesList of AbbreviationsBibliographyText-Critical Endnotes

[The Hsu-Tang Library] will open up a classical tradition that spans millennia, relatively little of which has ever been translated into English. There is a humanity and irreverence to some of these works that readers expecting stuffy, prim Confucian moralizing will find refreshing.