Meng Jiangn Brings Down the Great Wall brings together ten versions of a popular Chinese legend that has intrigued readers and listeners for hundreds of years. Elements of the story date back to the early centuries B.C.E. and are an intrinsic part of Chinese literary history, major themes and subtle nuances of which are illuminated here by Wilt L. Idema's new translations and pairings. The tale concerns a young woman whose husband is killed while working as a laborer on the construction of the Great Wall, and whose tears of grief cause the wall's collapse. Wilt L. Idema is professor of East Asian languages and civilizations at Harvard University.

Acknowledgments
Translator's Note
Meng Jiangnu: The Development of a Legend by Wild L. Idema
Meng Jiangnu and the May Fourth Folklore Movement by Haiyan Lee
Part One | Ballads from Late-Imperial China
1. Trekking to the Wall
2. Guiding the Soul
3. Retrieving a Fan
4. Born from a Gourd
5. Being a Filial Daughter-in-Law
Part Two | Ballads Collected in the Countryside
6. Switching to Dragon Robes
7. Mobilizing the Gods
8. Stepping into the Pond
9. Sleeping with the Bones
10. Forbidden Desires
Notes
Glossary
Bibliography

Wilt L. Idema is professor of Chinese literature at Harvard University. He is the author of Chinese Vernacular Fiction: The Formative Period and The Dramatic Oeuvre of Chu Yu-tun (1379-1439), coauthor of The Red Brush: Writing Women of Imperial China, and cotranslator of The Story of the Western Wing by Wang Shifu. Haiyan Lee is assistant professor of East Asian languages and civilizations at the University of Colorado. She is the author of Revolution of the Heart: A Genealogy of Love in China, 1900-1950.