In late June, Asian Studies professors Christopher Rea and Bruce Rusk published their edited and annotated version of the Ming-dynasty “Book of Swindles” (杜騙新書 Du pian xin shu), a 400-year-old work thought to be the earliest Chinese collection of stories about fraud. The book, published by Taiwan’s Rye Field Publishers, includes 84 true-crime stories about crooks and scammers throughout the empire.
Rea and Rusk’s book represents the collection in its entirety, along with explanations of key historical contexts and cultural allusions. UBC PhD student Chien-Cho Chan and PhD graduate Yinzong Wei both contributed to the book.
The Taipei edition follows Rea and Rusk’s English translation of the entire work, published in two volumes by Columbia University Press as:
- “The Book of Swindles” (2017): https://cup.columbia.edu/book/the-book-of-swindles/9780231178631/
- “More Swindles from the Late Ming” (2024): https://cup.columbia.edu/book/more-swindles-from-the-late-ming/9780231212458/
