The Plum in the Golden Vase Or, Chin P'Ing Mei, Volume Three: The Aphrodisiac - Paperback

by David Tod Roy (Editor), David Tod Roy (Translator)

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.

Back Jacket

"Generations of readers will be grateful for Roy's monumental translation of the Chin P'ing Mei. The capstone in a distinguished career, this translation is a heroic and magnanimous act of scholarship. The encyclopedic annotation, which sets standards seldom matched by translation from any language, will be indispensable not only to the general reader but to scholars of this work."--Sophie Volpp, University of California, Berkeley

"In Volume Three of David Tod Roy's magnificent translation, corruption is in full swing in the world of Chin P'ing Mei. Roy brings to vivid life the clamoring voices of courtesans, wives, hangers-on, and officials, and, as no previous translator has done, he shows how the narrative weaves together literary genres from doggerel couplets to palace edicts. Roy's is the first translation in which Western readers can experience the full impact of this monumental novel."--Katherine Carlitz, University of Pittsburgh

Author Biography

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.