Chinese Literature Seminar: Plum in the Golden Vase Chapters 21-25
Details
We will begin a Chinese Literature Seminar starting in March 2023 to December 2025 where we will read the Six Classical Chinese Novels along with the 120 Short Stories of the San Yan. The Six Classical Novels of Chinese Literature consisting of Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Water Margin, Journey to the West, Dream of the Red Chamber, the Scholars, and the Plum in the Golden Vase are widely considered among the greatest and longest novels ever written. In this fourth part of this new series, we will now try to read the Plum in the Golden Vase.
Written in the late 16th Century and first published sometime between December 28, 1617 and January 25, 1618 by an anonymous author only known by his pseudonym Lanling Xiaoxiao Sheng or the Scoffing Scholar of Lanling. The Scoffing Scholar of Lanling was a literary genius, but also a dirty minded $&@#£¥. As David Tod Roy says in his introduction: "The work is a landmark in the development of narrative art, not only from a specifically Chinese perspective, but in a world-historical context... Although its importance in the history of Chinese fiction has long been acknowledged, the comprehensiveness and seriousness of its indictment of the Chinese society of its time and the innovative quality of its experimental literary technique have not yet been adequately appreciated."
Review from Goodreads:
"David Tod Roy's translation of the 金瓶梅 into English is the culmination of some two decades of work, with the fruit of his efforts being the first truly complete English edition of the work. This new edition, however, attempts to translate everything. This includes the poetry and puns, of course, with Chinese puns being notoriously difficult to translate. But further on, there are references to ancient Chinese astrology, medicine, religious texts, imperial succession, makeup, foodstuffs, architecture, and folklore. He follows the novel's rapid vacillations in tone, moving from Tang poetry to vulgar cursing in the space of sentences. Even ordinary couplets or seemingly ordinary turns of phrase are annotated, leaving the entire book an exercise in the thickets of intertextuality, the book itself composed of fragments of other works. Is it one of the six great novels? I'm not sure - I can't say. Who can read it? I doubt even a specialized Chinese reader would be able to understand all of these references. Maybe a group effort might be enough. Or an abridged version, but that would ruin the symmetry of the structure. There is precious little like it."
The novel consists of 100 chapters over 2492 pages that focuses on the life of the main character Hsi-men Ch'ing, who is a corrupt merchant with a harem of six wives and concubines. The erotic realism for which the novel is so notorious, turns out on closer inspection to be a powerful metaphor and condemnation of the government corruption of the ruling Ming dynasty and a parable against human sexual excess which continues onto this day. Please read Chapters 21-25.
Volume 1:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/0691016143/ref=dp_olp_new?ie=UTF8&condition=new
Chinese Literature Seminar: Plum in the Golden Vase Chapters 21-25