"杜騙新書" by Zhang Yingyu is a short story collection published around 1617. Considered the first printed Chinese collection about fraud, it presents twenty-four categories of swindles from Ming dynasty society. Each tale of deception is followed by the author's moral commentary, sometimes praising the con artist's cleverness while condemning the victim's foolishness. The work blends elements from court case fiction, supernatural tales, and joke structures, offering insights into the risky world of traveling merchants and the art of trickery. (This is an automatically generated summary.)
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