Feng Menglong was awas a Chinese historian, novelist, and poet of the late Ming Dynasty. Born into a scholarly family in present-day Suzhou, his outstanding literary talent was recognized in his youth. As a middle-aged man, he began to collect and edit popular fiction, poetry, and jokes. He was also a respected playwright and editor of plays. His publications include collections of jokes, collections of classical-language stories and anecdotes, some revised versions of novels, and the San yan 三言 collections of stories: Yushi mingyan 喻世明言 [Stories to enlighten the world], Jingshi tongyan 警世通言 [Stories to caution the world], and Xingshi hengyan 醒世恆言 [Stories to awaken the world].