Jin Ping Mei

Jin Ping Mei, known in English as *The Plum in the Golden Vase* or *The Golden Lotus*, is a Chinese novel of manners written in vernacular Chinese during the late Ming dynasty, in the second half of the 16th century. Its 100 chapters were published under the pen name Lanling Xiaoxiao Sheng, meaning "The Scoffing Scholar of Lanling," with the only clue to the author's identity being that they came from Lanling County in what is now Shandong. The novel circulated in manuscript form as early as 1596 and may have been revised until its first printed edition in 1610. The most widely read version, edited and published with commentaries by Zhang Zhupo in 1695, altered or rewrote passages to clarify the author's intentions.

The book's explicit sexual content gave it a reputation similar to that of *Lady Chatterley's Lover* and *Lolita* in the West. However, critics like translator David Tod Roy argue it has a "firm moral structure" that "exacts retribution for the sexual libertinism of the central characters." The title comes from the three main female characters: Pan Jinlian (whose given name means "Golden Lotus"), Li Ping'er (meaning "Little Vase"), a concubine of the protagonist Ximen Qing, and Pang Chunmei (meaning "Spring plum blossoms"), a maid who rises to power. Chinese critics see each character in the title as symbolizing an aspect of human nature, with *mei* (plum blossoms) serving as a metaphor for sexuality.

Roy calls the novel "a landmark in the development of the narrative art form—not only from a specifically Chinese perspective but in a world-historical context," noting its "surprisingly modern technique." He adds that, aside from *The Tale of Genji* (c. 1010) and *Don Quixote* (1605, 1615), no earlier work of prose fiction in world literature matches its sophistication. Jin Ping Mei is considered one of the six classics of Chinese novels.

The story, set during the years 1111–1127 of the Northern Song dynasty, centers on Ximen Qing, a corrupt social climber and lustful merchant wealthy enough to marry six wives and concubines. It is framed as a spin-off from *Water Margin*. The opening chapter adapts an episode where "Tiger Slayer" Wu Song avenges his older brother's murder by brutally killing his brother's former wife and murderer, Pan Jinlian. In *Water Margin*, Ximen Qing is killed by Wu Song; here, he dies from an overdose of aphrodisiacs given by Jinlian to keep him aroused. The intervening sections differ almost entirely from *Water Margin*.

After Pan Jinlian secretly murders her husband, Ximen Qing takes her as his fifth wife. The story follows the domestic and sexual struggles of the women in his household as they vie for prestige and influence amid the family's changing fortunes. Ximen has a daughter but no son. He takes a sixth wife, Li Ping'er, who bears him a son, but both Li and the child die. Ximen's career advances, marked by a visit to the imperial court. Immediately after his death from the aphrodisiac, his first wife Wu Yueniang gives birth to a posthumous son. The last fifth of the novel, set after his death, shows the household's fate. His daughter's husband Chen Jingji has an affair with Pan Jinlian before she is murdered. One of Ximen's wives remarries well, as does Jinlian's maid Chunmei. Another returns to sex work, and another kills herself. In the chaos of the Jin invasion, Yueniang gives up her son, Ximen's heir, to become a monk, and the household is taken over by a longtime servant.

In the story, Ximen has 19 sexual partners, including his six wives and mistresses, and a male servant. There are 72 detailed sexual episodes. However, since the novel contains over one million words (over 3,600 pages in complete English translation), these graphic scenes account for less than 3 percent of its total content.

For centuries, the book was identified as pornographic and officially banned most of the time, yet it was read surreptitiously by many educated people. Early Qing critic Zhang Zhupo remarked that those who see it as pornographic "read only the pornographic passages." Influential author Lu Xun, writing in the 1920s, called it "the most famous of the novels of manners" of the Ming dynasty and reported Ming critic Yuan Hongdao's opinion that it was "a classic second only to *Shui Hu Zhuan*." Lu Xun added that the novel is "in effect a condemnation of the whole ruling class."

American scholar Andrew H. Plaks ranks Jin Ping Mei as one of the "Four Masterworks of the Ming Novel," alongside *Romance of the Three Kingdoms*, *Water Margin*, and *Journey to the West*, which together represent a technical breakthrough and reflect new cultural values and intellectual concerns. It has been called a "milestone" in Chinese fiction for its character development, especially its complex treatment of female figures. James Robert Hightower wrote in 1953 that, along with *The Dream of the Red Chamber*, it ranks with "the greatest novels" for "scope, subtle delineation of character, and elaborate plot." Phillip S. Y. Sun argued that while it is a lesser work in craftsmanship than *The Dream of the Red Chamber*, it surpasses that novel in "depth and vigour."

The novel contains a surprising number of descriptions of sexual objects and coital techniques that would be considered fetish today, along with many bawdy jokes and oblique but titillating sexual euphemisms. Some critics argue that the highly sexual descriptions are essential and have exerted a "liberating" influence on other Chinese novels.