The Plum in the Golden Vase, Or, Chin P_ing Mei: The aphrodisiac

Voorkant
Princeton University Press, 1993 - 800 pagina's

The third volume of a celebrated translation of the classic Chinese novel

This is the third volume in David Roy's celebrated translation of one of the most famous and important novels in Chinese literature. The Plum in the Golden Vase or, Chin P’ing Mei is an anonymous sixteenth-century work 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. The novel, 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.

Written during the second half of the sixteenth century and first published in 1618, The Plum in the Golden Vase is noted for its surprisingly modern technique. 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. Although its importance in the history of Chinese narrative has long been recognized, the technical virtuosity of the author, which is more reminiscent of the Dickens of Bleak House, the Joyce of Ulysses, or the Nabokov of Lolita than anything in earlier Chinese fiction, has not yet received adequate recognition. This is partly because all of the existing European translations are either abridged or based on an inferior recension of the text. This translation and its annotation aim to faithfully represent and elucidate all the rhetorical features of the original in its most authentic form and thereby enable the Western reader to appreciate this Chinese masterpiece at its true worth.

Replete with convincing portrayals of the darker side of human nature, it should appeal to anyone interested in a compelling story, compellingly told.

 

Inhoudsopgave

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
ix
CHAPTER 41
1
CHAPTER 42
19
CHAPTER
40
CHAPTER
51
CHAPTER 44
65
CHAPTER 45
81
CHAPTER 46
97
Wu Yüehniang Engages in Coition in Quest of Male Progeny
289
CHAPTER 54
320
CHAPTER 55
346
CHAPTER 56
374
CHAPTER 57
394
CHAPTER 58
420
CHAPTER 59
453
CHAPTER 60
469

CHAPTER 47
129
CHAPTER 48
147
CHAPTER 49
171
CHAPTER 50
203
Yüehniang Listens to the Exposition Of The Diamond Sutra
221
CHAPTER 52
255
Pingerh Becomes Ill Because of Suppressed Anger
489
NOTES
507
BIBLIOGRAPHY
639
INDEX
673
Copyright

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Over de auteur (1993)

David Tod Roy (1933–2016) was professor emeritus of Chinese literature at the University of Chicago. His monumental five-volume translation of the Chin P'ing Mei was completed in 2013.

Bibliografische gegevens