I saw someone online summarizing some methods for memorizing poetry, but I always felt that they didn’t quite match what I remember.

For example, the poem “East, West, Three Waters, Peach Blossoms Red, Officialdom and Confucian Scholars Love Jin Ping. Three Words and Two Slaps Praise the Past and Present, Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio, History Books, and the Western Chamber Mirror.” In my memory, it goes like this: “East, West, Three Waters, Peach Blossoms Red, Western Chamber, Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio, Peony Pavilion. Past and Present, Eternal Life Mirror, Officialdom and Confucian Scholars, Three Words and Two Slaps Speak of Jin Ping.”

I tried searching for the version I remember, but after a quick Google search, I found no trace of it. Thinking carefully, it seems I read this in some leisure book during elementary school, and it’s hard to delve deeper into it now.

East — (Qing) Cai Yuanfang’s “Chronicles of the Eastern Zhou Kingdoms”;
West — (Ming) Wu Cheng’en’s “Journey to the West”;
Three — (Ming) Luo Guanzhong’s “Romance of the Three Kingdoms”;
Water — (Ming) Shi Nai’an’s “Water Margin”;
Peach Blossoms — (Qing) Kong Shangren’s “The Peach Blossom Fan”;
Red — (Qing) Cao Xueqin’s “Dream of the Red Chamber”;
Western Chamber — (Yuan) Wang Shifu’s “The Romance of the Western Chamber”;
Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio — (Qing) Pu Songling’s “Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio”;
Peony Pavilion — (Ming) Tang Xianzu’s “The Peony Pavilion”;
Past and Present — A collection of Ming Dynasty stories edited by Bao Weng Lao Ren, “Strange Stories from Past and Present”;
Eternal Life — (Qing) Hong Sheng’s “The Palace of Eternal Life”;
Mirror — (Qing) Li Ruzhen’s “Flowers in the Mirror”.
Officialdom — (Qing) Li Boyuan’s “Exposure of the Officialdom”;
Confucian Scholars — (Qing) Wu Jingzi’s “The Scholars”;
Three Words — (Ming) Feng Menglong’s “Stories to Enlighten the World”, “Stories to Warn the World”, and “Stories to Awaken the World”;
Two Slaps — (Ming) Ling Mengchu’s “Amazing Tales: First Series” and “Amazing Tales: Second Series”;
Speak — (Qing) Qian Cai’s “The Story of Yue Fei”;
Jin Ping — (Ming) Lanling Xiaoxiao Sheng’s “The Plum in the Golden Vase”;