Jin Ping Mei
Encyclopedia
Jin Ping Mei, or The Plum in the Golden Vase is a Chinese
naturalistic
novel
composed in the vernacular
(baihua
) during the late Ming Dynasty
. The author was Lanling Xiaoxiao Sheng (蘭陵笑笑生), "The Scoffing Scholar of Lanling", a clear pseudonym
, and his identity is otherwise unknown. (The only clue was that he hailed from Lanling, or present-day Shandong
.) 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, amounting to over a thousand pages.
Jin Ping Mei is sometimes considered to be the fifth classical novel after the Four Great Classical Novels
. Its graphically explicit depiction of sexuality
has garnered the novel a level of notoriety in China akin to Fanny Hill
in the English literature.
Jin Ping Mei takes its name from the three central female characters — Pan Jinlian (潘金蓮, whose name means "Golden Lotus"); Li Pinger (李瓶兒, literally, "Little Vase"), a concubine of Ximen Qing; and Pang Chunmei (龐春梅, "Spring plum blossoms"), a young maid who rose to power within the family. According to some Chinese critics, each of the three Chinese character
s in its title symbolizes an aspect about human nature. Jin (金), "gold", symbolizes wealth; ping (瓶), "vase", stands for liquor; and mei (梅), plum blossoms, is metaphor
ic for sexuality.
Within Chinese societies, Jin Ping Mei is sometimes considered to be pornographic material, due to its contents, though critical studies of it have emerged since the Qing Dynasty
. It has been described by Princeton University Press
(regarding the Roy translation) as "a landmark in the development of the narrative art form - not only from a specifically Chinese perspective but in a world-historical context...noted for its surprisingly modern technique" and "with the possible exception of The Tale of Genji
(ca. 1010) and Don Quixote (1605, 1615), there is no earlier work of prose fiction of equal sophistication in world literature."
). The story centres on Ximen Qing (西門慶), a corrupt social climber and lustful merchant who is wealthy enough to marry a consort of six 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
. 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.
In the course of the novel, Ximen has 19 sexual partners, including his 6 wives and mistresses. There are 72 detailed sexual episodes.
and officially banned most of the time, the book has nevertheless been read surreptitiously by many of the educated class. Only since the Qing Dynasty
has it been re-evaluated as literature
. 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, and sexual politics—while functioning concurrently as a novel of manners
and an allegory
of human corruption.
Author Li Yu
called it along with Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Water Margin, and Journey to the West one of the Four Marvelous Masterpieces (四大奇书). Acclaimed Qing critic Zhang Zhupo described it as "the most incredible book existing under the heavens" (第一奇書), and in the 20th century, influential author Lu Xun
also held it in great esteem.
The story contains a surprising number of descriptions of sexual objects and coital techniques that would be considered fetish
today, as well as a large amount of bawdy jokes and oblique but still titillating sexual euphemism
s. Some critics have argued that the highly sexual descriptions are essential, and have exerted what has been termed a "liberating" influence on other Chinese novels that deal with sexuality, most notably the Dream of the Red Chamber
.
Little is known about the author except for some conjectures that he may have been a Taoist
priest who wrote to expose the disintegrating morality and corruption of the late Ming Dynasty.
, 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
.
In 2008, as part of the Library of Chinese Classics, the Clement Egerton version was republished. In this version there are 5 volumes as the book is in a mirror format with the simplified Chinese next to the English translation.
David Tod Roy's translation, published by Princeton University Press, is considered the best English version:
The graphic novelist Magnus
created a truncated 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 was a noted scholar known for his study and published works regarding the Jin Ping Mei.
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
naturalistic
Naturalism (literature)
Naturalism was a literary movement taking place from the 1880s to 1940s that used detailed realism to suggest that social conditions, heredity, and environment had inescapable force in shaping human character...
novel
Novel
A novel is a book of 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. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
composed in the vernacular
Vernacular
A vernacular is the native language or native dialect of a specific population, as opposed to a language of wider communication that is not native to the population, such as a national language or lingua franca.- Etymology :The term is not a recent one...
(baihua
Vernacular Chinese
Written Vernacular Chinese refers to forms of written Chinese based on the vernacular language, in contrast to Classical Chinese, the written standard used from the Spring and Autumn Period to the early twentieth century...
) during the late Ming Dynasty
Ming Dynasty
The Ming Dynasty, also Empire of the Great Ming, was the ruling dynasty of China from 1368 to 1644, following the collapse of the Mongol-led Yuan Dynasty. The Ming, "one of the greatest eras of orderly government and social stability in human history", was the last dynasty in China ruled by ethnic...
. The author was Lanling Xiaoxiao Sheng (蘭陵笑笑生), "The Scoffing Scholar of Lanling", a clear pseudonym
Pseudonym
A pseudonym is a name that a person assumes for a particular purpose and that differs from his or her original orthonym...
, and his identity is otherwise unknown. (The only clue was that he hailed from Lanling, or present-day Shandong
Shandong
' is a Province located on the eastern coast of the People's Republic of China. Shandong has played a major role in Chinese history from the beginning of Chinese civilization along the lower reaches of the Yellow River and served as a pivotal cultural and religious site for Taoism, Chinese...
.) 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, amounting to over a thousand pages.
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 regarded by scholars to be the greatest and most influential of pre-modern Chinese fiction. Dating from the Ming and Qing dynasties, they are well known to most Chinese readers...
. Its graphically explicit depiction of sexuality
Human sexuality
Human sexuality is the awareness of gender differences, and the capacity to have erotic experiences and responses. Human sexuality can also be described as the way someone is sexually attracted to another person whether it is to opposite sexes , to the same sex , to either sexes , or not being...
has garnered the novel a level of notoriety in China akin to Fanny Hill
Fanny Hill
Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure is an erotic novel by John Cleland first published in England in 1748...
in the English literature.
Jin Ping Mei takes its name from the three central female characters — Pan Jinlian (潘金蓮, whose name means "Golden Lotus"); Li Pinger (李瓶兒, literally, "Little Vase"), a concubine of Ximen Qing; and Pang Chunmei (龐春梅, "Spring plum blossoms"), a young maid who rose to power within the family. According to some Chinese critics, each of the three Chinese character
Chinese character
Chinese characters are logograms used in the writing of Chinese and Japanese , less frequently Korean , formerly Vietnamese , or other languages...
s in its title symbolizes an aspect about human nature. Jin (金), "gold", symbolizes wealth; ping (瓶), "vase", stands for liquor; and mei (梅), plum blossoms, is metaphor
Metaphor
A metaphor is a literary figure of speech that uses an image, story or tangible thing to represent a less tangible thing or some intangible quality or idea; e.g., "Her eyes were glistening jewels." Metaphor may also be used for any rhetorical figures of speech that achieve their effects via...
ic for sexuality.
Within Chinese societies, Jin Ping Mei is sometimes considered to be pornographic material, due to its contents, though critical studies of it have emerged since the Qing Dynasty
Qing Dynasty
The Qing Dynasty was the last dynasty of China, ruling from 1644 to 1912 with a brief, abortive restoration in 1917. It was preceded by the Ming Dynasty and followed by the Republic of China....
. It has been described by Princeton University Press
Princeton University Press
-Further reading:* "". Artforum International, 2005.-External links:* * * * *...
(regarding the Roy translation) as "a landmark in the development of the narrative art form - not only from a specifically Chinese perspective but in a world-historical context...noted for its surprisingly modern technique" and "with the possible exception of The Tale of Genji
The Tale of Genji
is a classic work of Japanese literature attributed to the Japanese noblewoman Murasaki Shikibu in the early 11th century, around the peak of the Heian period. It is sometimes called the world's first novel, the first modern novel, the first psychological novel or the first novel still to be...
(ca. 1010) and Don Quixote (1605, 1615), there is no earlier work of prose fiction of equal sophistication in world literature."
Plot
The novel describes, in great detail, the downfall of the Ximen household during the years 1111–27 (during the Northern Song DynastySong Dynasty
The Song Dynasty was a ruling dynasty in China between 960 and 1279; it succeeded the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period, and was followed by the Yuan Dynasty. It was the first government in world history to issue banknotes or paper money, and the first Chinese government to establish a...
). The story centres on Ximen Qing (西門慶), a corrupt social climber and lustful merchant who is wealthy enough to marry a consort of six 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 , also known as Outlaws of the Marsh, All Men Are Brothers, Men of the Marshes, or The Marshes of Mount Liang, is one of the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese literature.Attributed to Shi Nai'an and written in vernacular Chinese, the story, set in the 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.
In the course of the novel, Ximen has 19 sexual partners, including his 6 wives and mistresses. There are 72 detailed sexual episodes.
Evaluation
For centuries identified as pornographicPornography
Pornography or porn is the explicit portrayal of sexual subject matter for the purposes of sexual arousal and erotic satisfaction.Pornography may use any of a variety of media, ranging from books, magazines, postcards, photos, sculpture, drawing, painting, animation, sound recording, film, video,...
and officially banned most of the time, the book has nevertheless been read surreptitiously by many of the educated class. Only since the Qing Dynasty
Qing Dynasty
The Qing Dynasty was the last dynasty of China, ruling from 1644 to 1912 with a brief, abortive restoration in 1917. It was preceded by the Ming Dynasty and followed by the Republic of China....
has it been re-evaluated as literature
Literature
Literature is the art of written works, and is not bound to published sources...
. Structurally taut, full of classical Chinese poetry
Classical Chinese poetry
thumb|right|300px|Attributed to [[Han Gan]], Huiyebai , about 750CE .Classical Chinese poetry is that type of poetry that is the traditional Chinese poetry written in Classical Chinese. It is typified by certain traditional forms, or modes, and certain traditional genres...
and surprisingly mature even as early fiction, it also deals with larger sociological issues—such as the role of women in ancient Chinese society, and sexual politics—while functioning concurrently as a novel of manners
Novel of manners
The novel of manners is a literary genre that deals with aspects of behavior, language, customs and values characteristic of a particular class of people in a specific historical context. The genre emerged during the final decades of the 18th century. The novel of manners often shows a conflict...
and an allegory
Allegory
Allegory is a demonstrative form of representation explaining meaning other than the words that are spoken. Allegory communicates its message by means of symbolic figures, actions or symbolic representation...
of human corruption.
Author Li Yu
Li Yu (author)
Li Yu , also known as Li Liweng was a Chinese playwright, novelist and publisher. Born in Rugao, he lived in late-Ming and early-Qing dynasties....
called it along with Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Water Margin, and Journey to the West one of the Four Marvelous Masterpieces (四大奇书). Acclaimed Qing critic Zhang Zhupo described it as "the most incredible book existing under the heavens" (第一奇書), and in the 20th century, influential author Lu Xun
Lu Xun
Lu Xun or Lu Hsün , was the pen name of Zhou Shuren , one of the major Chinese writers of the 20th century. Considered by many to be the leading figure of modern Chinese literature, he wrote in baihua as well as classical Chinese...
also held it in great esteem.
The story contains a surprising number of descriptions of sexual objects and coital techniques that would be considered fetish
Sexual fetishism
Sexual fetishism, or erotic fetishism, is the sexual arousal a person receives from a physical object, or from a specific situation. The object or situation of interest is called the fetish, the person a fetishist who has a fetish for that object/situation. Sexual fetishism may be regarded, e.g...
today, as well as a large amount of bawdy jokes and oblique but still titillating sexual euphemism
Euphemism
A euphemism is the substitution of a mild, inoffensive, relatively uncontroversial phrase for another more frank expression that might offend or otherwise suggest something unpleasant to the audience...
s. Some critics have argued that the highly sexual descriptions are essential, and have exerted what has been termed a "liberating" influence on other Chinese novels that deal with sexuality, most notably the Dream of the Red Chamber
Dream of the Red Chamber
Dream of the Red Chamber , composed by Cao Xueqin, is one of China's Four Great Classical Novels. It was composed in the middle of the 18th century during the Qing Dynasty. It is considered to be a masterpiece of Chinese vernacular literature and is generally acknowledged to be a pinnacle of...
.
Little is known about the author except for some conjectures that he may have been a Taoist
Taoism
Taoism refers to a philosophical or religious tradition in which the basic concept is to establish harmony with the Tao , which is the mechanism of everything that exists...
priest who wrote to expose 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 SongWu SongWu Song, nicknamed "Pilgrim", is a fictional character in the Water Margin, one of the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese literature. He ranks 14th of the 36 Heavenly Spirits of the 108 Liangshan heroes. Wu Song also appears in the novel Jin Ping Mei, a spin-off of Water Margin...
from Water MarginWater MarginWater Margin , also known as Outlaws of the Marsh, All Men Are Brothers, Men of the Marshes, or The Marshes of Mount Liang, is one of the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese literature.Attributed to Shi Nai'an and written in vernacular Chinese, the story, set in the 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 SongWu SongWu Song, nicknamed "Pilgrim", is a fictional character in the Water Margin, one of the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese literature. He ranks 14th of the 36 Heavenly Spirits of the 108 Liangshan heroes. Wu Song also appears in the novel Jin Ping Mei, a spin-off 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 SheLao She
Shu Qingchun , better known by his pen name Lao She was a notable Chinese 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 . He was of Manchu ethnicity...
, 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 originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
.
- Clement Egerton trans., The Golden Lotus, London, 1938, 4 vols.
In 2008, as part of the Library of Chinese Classics, the Clement Egerton version was republished. In this version there are 5 volumes as the book is in a mirror format with the simplified Chinese next to the English translation.
David Tod Roy's translation, published by Princeton University Press, is considered the best English version:
- 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 Plum in the Golden Vase, or Chin P'ing Mei: Volume Four: The Climax (2011)
The graphic novelist Magnus
Roberto Raviola
Magnus, pseudonym of Roberto Raviola, was an Italian comic book artist, regarded as one of the foremost cartoonists of all time in his country.-Biography:Born in Bologna in 1939, Raviola lived there for his whole life....
created a truncated 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 was a noted scholar known for his study and published works regarding the Jin Ping Mei.