The Plum in the Golden Vase or, Chin P'ing Mei, Volume 1: The Gathering
David Tod Roy
Language: English
Pages: 715
ISBN: 2:00162362
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
In this first of a planned five-volume set, David Roy provides a complete and annotated translation of the famous Chin P'ing Mei, an anonymous sixteenth-century Chinese novel that focuses on the domestic life of Hsi-men Ch'ing, a corrupt, upwardly mobile merchant in a provincial town, who maintains a harem of six wives and concubines. This work, known primarily for its erotic realism, is also a landmark in the development of the narrative art form--not only from a specifically Chinese perspective but in a world-historical context.
Dream of Fair to Middling Women
h’ing-ho; friend of Dr. Jen Houch ， i. Han Ming-ch ， uan， s wife，née Meng ，Mrs. Han, elder sister of Meng Yii-lou. Han, Mohammedan, husband of Auntie Han, father of Han Hsiao-yü, renter of a room on the street front of Hsi-men C h ， in g ， s property next door to that of Pen Ti-ch'uan and his wife, employed on the staff of the eunuch director in charge of the local Imperial Stables. Han, Mrs. See Han Ming-ch ， uan， s wife，née Meng. Han Pang-ch'i, prefect of Hsii-chou. Han Pi，professional boy
ceased first wife, née C h ， en，who enters his household as part of her dowry; Hsi-men C h’ing’s Fourth Lady but a second-class citizen among his womenfolk whose responsibility is the kitchen; enemy of P’an Chinun-mei; carries on a clandestine affair with Lai-wang lien and P’ang C h ， with whom she absconds when he returns to C h’ing-ho after Hsi-men C h’ing’s death; apprehended by the authorities and sold into Chou Hsiu’s household at the behest of P’ang C h ， un-mei who abuses her, beats her,
novel but also with the rhetorical techniques of the author. As I point out in my annotation to this preface, he shows himself to be conversant with an enormous range of both classical and popular literature，and he interweaves quotations from both types of sources in a manner indistinguishable from that of the author. The degree of intertextuality between the preface and the novel as well as its sources is striking. Since the author of this preface is the only person who has INTRODUCTION x x
dispensing with the restrictive power of punishments, and then watch and see how the people of the world treat each other. He will find that the powerful impose upon the weak， and rob them, the many terrorize the few and extort from them, and in no time the whole world will be given up to chaos and mutual destruction.42 Hsün-tzu not only asserts that human nature is basically evil, but also reiterates the traditional Confucian view that the force of moral example moves downward from the apex of
been depilated of its pubic hair. It was: Pale and fragrant, Plump to bursting ， Soft and yielding, Red and wrinkly ， Tight and squeezy; Beloved of thousands, Craved by tens of thousands; W ho could tell what it might be? There is a poem that testifies to this: W arm and tig h t, fragrant and dry, it tastes better than lotus root; It knows how to be soft and yielding and to make itself agreeable. W h e n happy, it sticks out its tongue, opens its m ou th , and smiles; W h e n tired, it collapses
