Old Tales Retold is a collection of stories by Lu Hsun, prominent writer, thinker, revolutionary, and forerunner of China's Cultural Revolution. It contains eight stories on historical subjects, a period of thirteen years elapsing between his writing of the first tale in 1922 and the publication of the collection in 1935. These eight tales are based on fables and legends of ancient China. Lu Hsun's attitude in writing historical stories was "to take a subject and write it up freely, adding some coloring of your own, "which means" using ancient things to satirize the present." "Forging the Swords," for example, fully expresses the will of oppressed people to resist and take revenge; "Curbing the Flood," "Opposing Aggression" and 'Leaving the Pass" etc. ridicule the absurdities of the traitorous Kuomintang regime and the reactionary "scholars" it fostered. Lu Hsun's vigorous, militant spirit is revealed throughout the collection, and his combining romanticism with realism adds much to the beauty of the tales.
《故事新编》出版于一九三六年一月，全书收故事八则，如《自选集·自序》所说，都是“神话、传说及史实的演义”。从开手创作到结集成书，前后经过十三年。由于写作时间的不同，作家世界观的改变，在生活概括和思想熔铸上，后写的五篇较之先写的三篇都有显著的发展。鲁迅在回顾小说创作的时候，曾经说明其艺术概括的手段是：“所写的事迹，大抵有一点见过或听到过的缘由，但决不全用这事实，只是采取一端，加以改造，或生发开去，到足以几乎完全发表我的意思为止。”《故事新编》对于历史材料的处理，恰如《序言》所说明的，用的正是同样的方法：“只取一点因由，随意点染。”至于把现代生活细节大胆地引入历史故事，突出其针砭流俗的意义，更是鲁迅式的战士性格的体现。这些都以鲜明的特点构成了八篇作品前后一致和精炼独创的风格。本书为英汉对照读物。
By Lu Xun, Paperback, Simplified Chinese Character & English, 213 pages, 9.4"x6.7"
