You’re listening to Short and Interesting – the podcast that reads to you short excerpts from old, weird, interesting books. This week we’re dipping back into “The Book of Swindles” by Zhang Yingyu (夔衷). Another grab-bag of sneaky schemes and dirty tricks. Beware of eunuchs! This time we’re reading: “Handing Over Silver Before Running Off With It”; “Using Broom Handles to Play a Joke on Sedan Bearers”; “Three Women Ride Off on Three Horses”; “A Eunuch Cooks Boys to Make a Tonic of Male Essence.”

This (Chinese) work is itself public domain, but we’re reading from the English transaction, which is from Christopher Wray and Bruse Rusk in 2017, and is copyright of the Columbia University Press. We are reciting the text in the spirit of fair use. Check out the Columbia University Press’s website: https://cup.columbia.edu/book/the-book-of-swindles/9780231178631/.

Music by Dan Mason. Check out and buy his music at https://danmason.bandcamp.com. For this podcast we’re using clips of three tracks from his 2019 album Hypnagogia. Available under the Creative Commons License, Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported. Creative Commons License details at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/

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