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金瓶梅 The Plum in the Golden Vase - Ordinary folks and graphic sex
April 21, 2013, Sunday
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"JIN Ping Mei," or "The Plum in the Golden Vase," was published in the early 17th century and is widely regarded as one of the greatest realist novels in Chinese literature.
However, due to its graphic sexual content and obscene language, the novel was long banned as pornographic.
Its was written by Lanling Xiaoxiao Sheng - "The Laughing Scholar of Lanling." This was obviously a pseudonym and little is known about the writer.
The 100-chapter novel begins with an episode taken from "Shui Hu Zhuan" - "Water Margin" - one of the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese literature, published in the late Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368).
The well-known episode describes how Wu Song, one of the 108 rebel heroes in "Water Margin," kills his sister-in-law, Pan Jinlian, for her infidelity.
Pan, an adulterous woman, first tries to seduce Wu Song, but is rebuffed. Then she starts an affair with Ximen Qing, depicted in the novel as a venal official, vicious rascal and cunning businessman.
Ximen is also notorious for his sexual appetite, having six wives and more than a dozen other partners.
The adulterous pair hatch a plot and fatally poison Pan's husband - Wu Song's elder brother.
However, in "The Plum in the Golden Vase," Pan's fate is changed. Instead of being killed by her brother-in-law, she marries Ximen and becomes one of his wives.
The novel tells the story of the vicissitudes of Ximen and his family.
Ximen was originally the owner of a modest herbal drug store in Yanggu County in Shandong Province. But as an unscrupulous social climber, he bribes government officials to monopolize the litigation business in the county. Then he uses a combination of deceit and force to amass an enormous illegal fortune.
In addition, Ximen shamelessly indulges himself in his sensual pleasures. Despite the fact that he already had six wives and a group of concubines, he is still unsatisfied. He sometimes rapes young girls in the neighborhood and murders the husbands of his mistresses.
The novel also vividly tells of the "power struggle" among Ximen's wives, concubines and maids.
Though coming from very different backgrounds, these women are all preoccupied with material and sexual desires. In a hopeless fight against patriarchal society, they become distorted characters, heading toward moral degeneration.
Of this group, Pan Jinlian, Li Ping'er (a concubine of Ximen) and Pang Chunmei (a young maid) are the chief players. The novel's title, "Jin Ping Mei," is actually the combination of one Chinese character from each of these women's names.
Containing more than 70 episodes of explicit sexual descriptions, including kinky scenes, the novel is the first realistic fictional work in Chinese literature to portray sexuality. Some later editions have even come with accompanying illustrations.
Despite criticism on grounds of obscenity, "Jin Ping Mei" has been hailed by many prominent Chinese scholars and critics as a ground-breaking masterpiece in Chinese literature.
It's the first novel that tells the stories of ordinary people and their family life, instead of the heroes and deities based on histories, legends or mythology depicted in all Chinese novels before then.
Written in the vernacular, "Jin Ping Mei" also contains many Chinese witty sayings, proverbs and lyrics, providing a wealth of knowledge on a wide variety of subjects.
The novel was first translated into English in 1930s under the title "The Golden Lotus," because the given name of its heroine Pan Jinlian literally means "golden lotus."
The novel has also been adapted into a number of stage plays, dramas, oral stories and movies. However, in most of these the more explicit episodes have been removed.
However, due to its graphic sexual content and obscene language, the novel was long banned as pornographic.
Its was written by Lanling Xiaoxiao Sheng - "The Laughing Scholar of Lanling." This was obviously a pseudonym and little is known about the writer.
The 100-chapter novel begins with an episode taken from "Shui Hu Zhuan" - "Water Margin" - one of the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese literature, published in the late Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368).
The well-known episode describes how Wu Song, one of the 108 rebel heroes in "Water Margin," kills his sister-in-law, Pan Jinlian, for her infidelity.
Pan, an adulterous woman, first tries to seduce Wu Song, but is rebuffed. Then she starts an affair with Ximen Qing, depicted in the novel as a venal official, vicious rascal and cunning businessman.
Ximen is also notorious for his sexual appetite, having six wives and more than a dozen other partners.
The adulterous pair hatch a plot and fatally poison Pan's husband - Wu Song's elder brother.
However, in "The Plum in the Golden Vase," Pan's fate is changed. Instead of being killed by her brother-in-law, she marries Ximen and becomes one of his wives.
The novel tells the story of the vicissitudes of Ximen and his family.
Ximen was originally the owner of a modest herbal drug store in Yanggu County in Shandong Province. But as an unscrupulous social climber, he bribes government officials to monopolize the litigation business in the county. Then he uses a combination of deceit and force to amass an enormous illegal fortune.
In addition, Ximen shamelessly indulges himself in his sensual pleasures. Despite the fact that he already had six wives and a group of concubines, he is still unsatisfied. He sometimes rapes young girls in the neighborhood and murders the husbands of his mistresses.
The novel also vividly tells of the "power struggle" among Ximen's wives, concubines and maids.
Though coming from very different backgrounds, these women are all preoccupied with material and sexual desires. In a hopeless fight against patriarchal society, they become distorted characters, heading toward moral degeneration.
Of this group, Pan Jinlian, Li Ping'er (a concubine of Ximen) and Pang Chunmei (a young maid) are the chief players. The novel's title, "Jin Ping Mei," is actually the combination of one Chinese character from each of these women's names.
Containing more than 70 episodes of explicit sexual descriptions, including kinky scenes, the novel is the first realistic fictional work in Chinese literature to portray sexuality. Some later editions have even come with accompanying illustrations.
Despite criticism on grounds of obscenity, "Jin Ping Mei" has been hailed by many prominent Chinese scholars and critics as a ground-breaking masterpiece in Chinese literature.
It's the first novel that tells the stories of ordinary people and their family life, instead of the heroes and deities based on histories, legends or mythology depicted in all Chinese novels before then.
Written in the vernacular, "Jin Ping Mei" also contains many Chinese witty sayings, proverbs and lyrics, providing a wealth of knowledge on a wide variety of subjects.
The novel was first translated into English in 1930s under the title "The Golden Lotus," because the given name of its heroine Pan Jinlian literally means "golden lotus."
The novel has also been adapted into a number of stage plays, dramas, oral stories and movies. However, in most of these the more explicit episodes have been removed.
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