August 2021
Night Talk around a Stove
by Wang Yongbin
This book is a popular reading material of Confucianism. It is a famous review work of literature in the Ming and Qing Dynasties that evaluates and comments in sections on the anecdotes, people, events, articles and others of that time and before. The author imagines a situation in winter where one talks freely about literature and art with best friends around a stove, which makes the language of this book sincere, natural and easy to read. This book has an important position in the history of Chinese literature because of its unique views. It is divided into 221 pieces, with “settling down and setting up a career” as the general topic, which includes ten sub-topics including morality, self-cultivation, reading, contentment with poverty, children’s education, loyalty and filial piety, diligence and thrift, revealing the profound connotation that the establishment of virtue, establishment of achievement and establishement of theory are all based on one’s career. This book is regarded as one of the three masterpieces dealing with worldly affairs, the other two being The Roots of Wisdom (Caigentan) and Meditation in Solitude by a Tiny Window (Xiaochuang Youji).
