Jin Ping Mei

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Jin Ping Mei

Jin Ping Mei or The Plum in the Golden Vase (also The Golden Lotus) is a Chinese

China

China is a Culture of China, an ancient civilization, and, depending on perspective, a national or multinational entity extending over a large area in East Asia....
naturalistic

Naturalism (literature)

Naturalism is a Literature Literary movement that seeks to replicate a Verisimilitude everyday life, as opposed to such movements as Romanticism or Surrealism, in which subjects may receive highly symbolic, idealistic, or even supernatural treatment....
novel

Novel

File:2009 stapelweise Neuerscheinungen im Buchladen.JPGA novel is today a long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern Romance and in the tradition of the novella....
composed in the vernacular

Vernacular

Vernacular refers to the native language of a country or a locality. In general linguistics, it is used to describe local languages as opposed to Lingua franca, official standards or global languages....
(baihua) during the late Ming Dynasty

Ming Dynasty

The Ming Dynasty , or Empire of the Great Ming , was the ruling Dynasties in Chinese history of China from 1368 to 1644, following the collapse of the Mongol-led Yuan Dynasty....
. The author was Lanling Xiaoxiao Sheng, a clear pseudonym

Pseudonym

A pseudonym, , is a fictitious alternative to a person's legal name. In some cases, pseudonyms are adopted because it is part of a cultural or organizational tradition, as in the case of Religious names used by members of some religious orders and "cadre names" used by Communist party leaders such as Leon Trotsky and Joseph Stalin....
. Earliest versions of the novel exist only in handwritten scripts; the first block-printed book was released only in 1610. The more complete version today comprises one hundred chapters.

Jin Ping Mei is sometimes considered to be the fifth classical novel after the Four Great Classical Novels

Four Great Classical Novels

The Four Great Classical Novels, or the Four Major Classical Novels of Chinese literature, are the four novels commonly counted by scholars to be the greatest and most influential in classical Chinese fiction....
.

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Encyclopedia

Jin Ping Mei or The Plum in the Golden Vase (also The Golden Lotus) is a Chinese

China

China is a Culture of China, an ancient civilization, and, depending on perspective, a national or multinational entity extending over a large area in East Asia....
naturalistic

Naturalism (literature)

Novel

Vernacular

Ming Dynasty

Pseudonym

Four Great Classical Novels

Fiction

Fiction is an imaginative form of narrative, one of the four basic rhetorical modes. Although the word fiction is derived from the Latin fingo, fingere, finxi, fictum, "to form, create", works of fiction need not be entirely imaginary and may include real people, places, and events....
al work to depict sexuality

Human sexuality

Human sexuality is how people experience and express themselves as sexual beings. Human sexuality has many aspects. Biology, sexuality refers to the reproductive mechanism as well as the basic biological drive that exists in all species and can encompass sexual intercourse and sexual contact in all its forms....
in a graphically explicit manner, and as such has a notoriety in China akin to Fanny Hill
Fanny Hill

File:?douard-Henri Avril crop.JPGMemoirs of a Woman of Pleasure, popularly known as Fanny Hill, is a novel by John Cleland.Written in while the author was in debtor's prison in London, it is considered the first modern "erotic literature" in English, and has become a byword for the battle of censorship of erotica....
or Lady Chatterley's Lover
Lady Chatterley's Lover

Lady Chatterley's Lover is a novel by D. H. Lawrence written in 1928.Printed privately in Florence, Italy, in 1928, it was not printed in the United Kingdom until 1960 ....
in English.

Jin Ping Mei takes its name from the three central female characters — Pan Jin-lian (???, whose name means "Golden Lotus"); Li Ping-Er (???, literally, "Little Vase"), a concubine of Ximen Qing; and Pang Chun-mei (???, "Spring plum blossoms"), a young maid who rose to power within the family.

Plot

The novel describes, in great detail, the downfall of the Ximen household during the years 1111-1127 (during the Northern Song Dynasty

Song Dynasty

The Song Dynasty was a ruling Chinese dynasty in China between 960–1279 AD; it succeeded the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period, and was followed by the Yuan Dynasty....
). The story centres around Ximen Qing ???, a corrupt social climber and lustful merchant who is wealthy enough to marry a consort of wives and concubines.

A key episode of the novel, the seduction of the adulterous Pan Jinlian, occurs early in the book and is taken from an episode from Water Margin
Water Margin

Water Margin is one of the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese literature. Attributed to Shi Naian, whom some believe to be Luo Guanzhong, the novel details the trials and tribulations of 108 outlaws during the mid Song Dynasty....
. After secretly murdering the husband of Pan, Ximen Qing marries her as one of his wives. The story follows the domestic sexual struggles of the women within his clan as they clamor for prestige and influence amidst the gradual decline of the Ximen clan.

Evaluation

Known for centuries as pornographic

Pornography

Pornography or porn is the explicit depiction of sexual subject matter with the sole intention of sexually exciting the viewer. It is to a certain extent similar to erotica, which is the use of sexually arousing imagery....
material and banned officially most of the time, the book is nevertheless surreptitiously read by many of the educated class. Only since the Qing Dynasty

Qing Dynasty

The Qing Dynasty , also known as the Manchu Dynasty, followed the Ming Dynasty in History of China, and was the last ruling Chinese Dynasties of China, ruling from 1644 to 1912 ....
has it been re-evaluated as literature

Literature

Literature is the art of written works. Literally translated, the word means "acquaintance with letters" . In Western culture the most basic written literary types include fiction and non-fiction....
. Structurally taut, full of classical Chinese poetry and surprisingly mature even as early fiction, it also deals with larger sociological issues, such as the role of women in ancient Chinese society, sexual politics, while functioning concurrently as a novel of manners

Novel of manners

The novel of manners is a sub-genre of the literary realism which deals with aspects of behavior, language, customs and values characteristic of a particular class of people in a specific historical context....
and an allegory

Allegory

Allegory is generally treated as a figure of rhetoric, but an allegory does not have to be expressed in language: it may be addressed to the eye, and is often found in realistic painting, sculpture or some other form of Mimesis, or representative art....
of human corruption.

Acclaimed Qing critic Zhang Zhupo described it as 'the most incredible book existing under the heavens, and in the 20th century, influential author Lu Xun

Lu Xun

Lu Xun or Lu Hs?n , was the pen name of Zhou Shuren is one of the major Chinese writers of the 20th century. Considered by many to be the founder of modern Chinese literature, he wrote in baihua as well as classical Chinese....
also held it to great esteem.

The story contains a surprising number of descriptions of sexual toys and coital techniques that would be considered fetish

Sexual fetishism

Sexual fetishism, or erotic fetishism, is the sexual attraction to objects or body parts not conventionally viewed as being sexual in nature....
today, as well as a large amount of bawdy jokes and oblique but still titillating sexual euphemism

Euphemism

A euphemism is a substitution of an agreeable or less offensive expression in place of one that may offend or suggest something unpleasant to the listener, or in the case of #Doublespeak, to make it less troublesome for the speaker....
s. Many critics have argued that the highly sexual descriptions are essential, while others have noted its liberating influence on other Chinese novels on matters of sexuality, most notably in the Dream of the Red Chamber
Dream of the Red Chamber

Dream of the Red Chamber , originally The Story of the Stone , is a masterpiece of Chinese literature and one of the Chinese Four Great Classical Novels....
.

Little is known about the author except for some conjectures that he may have been a Taoist

Taoism

Taoism refers to a variety of related philosophical and religious traditions and concepts. These traditions have influenced East Asia for over two thousand years and some have spread to the West....
priest, who wrote to disclose the disintegrating morality and corruption of the late Ming Dynasty.

Connection to Water Margin

The beginning chapter is based on an episode from "Tiger Slayer" Wu Song
Wu Song

Wu Song was a hero in the Water Margin, one of the Four Great Classical Novels works of Chinese literature. He also appeared in Jin Ping Mei, a spinoff of Water Margin....
from Water Margin
Water Margin

Water Margin is one of the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese literature. Attributed to Shi Naian, whom some believe to be Luo Guanzhong, the novel details the trials and tribulations of 108 outlaws during the mid Song Dynasty....
. The story is about Wu Song avenging the murder of his older brother Wu Da Lang.

In Water Margin, Ximen Qing was punished at the end by being brutally killed in broad daylight by Wu Song
Wu Song

Wu Song was a hero in the Water Margin, one of the Four Great Classical Novels works of Chinese literature. He also appeared in Jin Ping Mei, a spinoff of Water Margin....
. In Jin Ping Mei, however, Ximen Qing dies a horrible death due to an accidental overdose of aphrodisiac pills.

English translations

The Golden Lotus (1939), translated by Clement Egerton with the assistance of the celebrated Chinese novelist Lao She

Lao She

Lao She was a notable China writer. A novelist and dramatist, he was one of the most significant figures of 20th century Chinese literature, and is perhaps best known for his novel Rickshaw_Boy and the play Teahouse ....
, who because of the nature of the novel, refused to claim any credit for its English version. The translation is a classic of its time and is very readable today. It was an expurgated, though complete, version. Some of the more explicit parts were rendered into Latin

Latin

Latin is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Through the Military history of the Roman Empire, Latin spread throughout the Mediterranean and a large part of Europe....
.

Clement Egerton trans., The Golden Lotus, London, 1938, 4 vols.

David Tod Roy's translation, published by Princeton University Press, is considered the best English version. However to date it remains incomplete: only three of a projected five volumes have been published.

The Plum in the Golden Vase, or Chin P'ing Mei: Volume One: The Gathering (1993)
The Plum in the Golden Vase, or Chin P'ing Mei: Volume Two: The Rivals (2001)
The Plum in the Golden Vase, or Chin P'ing Mei: Volume Three: The Aphrodisiac (2006)

The graphic novelist Magnus

Roberto Raviola

Magnus, pseudonym of Roberto Raviola, was an Italian comics comic book artist, regarded as one of the foremost cartoonists of all time in his country....
created a truncated and wonderfully illustrated graphic novel loosely based on the Jin Ping Mei, entitled the 110 Sexpills which focused on the sexual exploits and eventual downfall of Ximen Qing (albeit with the Ximen surname being taken as the character's given name and vice versa).

Zi-Yun Wei is a noted scholar best known for his study of the Jin Ping Mei.

External links

The Golden Lotus with manhua
Manhua

Manhua are Chinese comics originally produced in China. Possibly due to their greater degree of artistic freedom of expression and closer international ties with Japan, Hong Kong and Taiwan have been the places of publication of most manhua thus far, often including Chinese language translations of Japanese manga....
: http://www.china-on-site.com/pages/comic/comiccatalog7.php
Chinese Online version: http://www.yifan.net/yihe/novels/gold/gold.html
Sample of a chapter from David Tod Roy's translation http://press.princeton.edu/chapters/s7134.html
Research articles(Chinese): http://www.chinavalue.net/AuthorIndex_Boke.aspx?id=159797