Laughter, Humor, and Comedy in Middle Period China, 600-1300

This book is a critical anthology that showcases the rich tradition of comic literature from medieval China. Spanning jokes, satires, witty poetry, humorous anecdotes, anthropomorphic biographies, and comedy theatre, this collection provides readers with a unique glimpse into the humor and societal dynamics of Middle Period China.

Expertly translated by leading scholars, the anthology features critical prefaces and annotations that contextualize the works for contemporary readers. Two substantial general introductions offer an overview of the development of humor writing in China and establishes a framework for cross-cultural comparison with Western comic traditions. This volume combines scholarly rigor with accessible translations, making it an invaluable resource for understanding medieval Chinese culture.

Laughter, Humor, and Comedy in Middle Period China, 600–1300 is designed for scholars, educators, and students of premodern China, comparative literature, Global History, and Global Medieval Studies.

The Open Access version of this book, available at www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution- NonCommercial-ShareAlike (CC BY-NC-SA) 4.0 International license.

Alexei Kamran Ditter (Ph.D., Princeton) is Professor of Chinese and Humanities at Reed College. He specializes in medieval Chinese literature, with research interests in entombed epitaphs, memory and commemoration, humor literature, and Tang dynasty narratives. In addition to publishing several articles, book chapters, and translations, he co-edited Tales from Tang China: Selections from the Taiping guangji (2017). He is currently completing a monograph titled Collaborative Remembering in 7th–10th century China and co-editing The Study of Medieval Chinese Entombed Epitaphs, an annotated anthology of translations.

Xiao Rao (Ph.D., Stanford) is currently Assistant Professor of East Asian Studies at the University of California, Irvine. His research interests include anecdotal literature, cultural studies of laughter, and the intersection between religion and literati culture in Middle Period China. He is working on a monograph titled Tales of Wit and Enlightenment: Laughter and Buddhism in Middle Period China. His recent publications include “Humor under the Guise of Chan: Stories of Su Shi and Encounter Dialogues” (2022) and “Anomalous Writing as Memories of Trauma: War and Women in Hong Mai’s Yijian zhi” (2024).