Many stories of Chinese opera are drawn from the Three Words and Two Slaps.
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history
冯梦龙 published the three 言 'words' collections, 喻世明言, 警世通言 and 醒世恒言, between about 1620 and 1627, 120 stories in all. 凌濛初 followed with the two 拍 'slap' collections, 初刻拍案惊奇 (1628) and 二刻拍案惊奇 (1632), whose titles mean 'slapping the table in amazement'.
culture
Most readers came to these stories through 今古奇观, a late-Ming selection of forty of them. Tales such as the courtesan 杜十娘 throwing her jewel box into the river, and the White Snake imprisoned under 雷峰塔, reached the stage and the screen from here.
