|
|
Post by Admin on May 12, 2020 10:23:14 GMT
Introduction of Jin Ping Mei at Wikipedia So a friend of mine recommended me to read this book. And I was pretty shocked as this book reputation as a porn book written in the middle of Ming Dynasty. Yet my friend insisted and said that the book gained its notoriety since the western translation of this book only emphasize on the porn part instead the beauty of the literature. My friend said that this book is really awesome and should be considered as one of the 5 Classics of China, - among the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Dream in the Red Mansion, Outlaw of the Marsh and Journey to the West. Then when I look at the Wikipedia, I found out that one of the English translator, a Sinologist and a professor at Princeton University spent thirty years to translate this book, and his work with the annotations is even translated back to Chinese as he made a thorough study on this book. Curious, I gave it a try. My friend lent me the ebook version and apparently David Tod Roy the translator was really serious and his introduction of this book is enough to make me continue to read this book. According to David T. Roy, the translator of this book used this story to describe the decadent of the Ming Dynasty, using the story of Ximen Qing and his women who described to live in the end of the Northern Song Dynasty. He gave a very long introduction about this book, how the author was a fervent supporter of Xunzi theory. As recently I'm reading Xunzi and Hanfeizi (a pupil of Xunzi), the book introduction although very long (a few hundred pages) is enough to keep me reading. The translator also wrote that this book, is definitely one of the most misunderstood book, and the book should not be viewed as porn novels. Therefore I started to read this book with more openminded and without judging this book as a porn novel. Yet, I have to say that there are pretty much sexual themes in this novel, and they're pretty descriptive that sometimes I scratch my head and compared the novel with the original Chinese text. And apparently, the translation is very faithful compared with the original Chinese text. The novel is pretty interesting. Just like Dream of the Red Mansion, this book also pretty descriptive. And one can learn from the book about the life of the people at that time - what they ate, how they travelled, their wedding custom, etc. The English translation by David T. Roy consisted of 5 books. And I have been reading up to the 3rd novel and gave some peeps on the 5th novel just to see how Pan Jinlian died  Apparently, although sometimes boring and too long, but the story is pretty interesting. and I think the best part of this book is because it's very detailed and it enabled us to see how the people live in that era. I would recommend this book if you have time. You can search read online on the internet for this book. The Chinese version is definitely more original, but without annotation it will be difficult to understand the whole points. Therefore if you're a bilingual, you should read the Chinese and use the English annotations if needed.
|
|
|
|
Post by Admin on May 19, 2020 13:28:10 GMT
As I previously said : the best part of this book is because it's very detailed and it enabled us to see how the people live in that era. Therefore, here is the list of the things you can learn from the novel Jin Ping Mei: 1. in Song Dynasty, there are officers in Yamen who was in charge to check people death. This person acted like a modern forensic doctor to determine if a person died naturally or was killed / poisoned. This person in charge to make a death certificate. And if a person died unnaturally, then the yamen had an obligation to investigate the death cause and bring justice to the victim or his/her family. Therefore, random killing just like in wuxia novel was very unlikely, cause it was not easy to escape from the law. 2. In Song Dynasty, many men had a fetish on three inches feet - or golden feet lotus. Therefore foot-binding was very common among girls and women. 3. Prostitution had to be registered. Prostitutes and courtesans had licenses to operate. Those who operated without proper registration might be brought to court and be fined. Brothels were called "licensed quarter', in which they're concentrated in one area. Not all courtesans were prostitutes, just like geisha in Japan. 4. Slaves had a miserable life and totally had no rights to their own bodies. Unless there's a death case, then the government (yamen) would not be involved to defend their rights. Many of the slaves were molested and sexually harassed by their bosses. 5. Concubines, just like slaves, often be sold as slaves once the husband died. They might enjoy a good life when the husband was still alive, but once he died, then everything is gone. 6. The man gave betrothal gifts to his wife, and the wife would bring trousseau to her husband's house. The trousseau might consist of : bed - luxurious bed frame from rare expensive wood; silk bolts, shoes, chest with drawers, etc. And if there's divorce, or if the woman left the house - then she usually would bring her trousseau back. 7. Homosexuality was pretty common and was not considered as something odd or weird. Many masters had sexual relations with their boy assistants - or page boys - 书童 8. Even nuns could be promiscuous. Once when I went to Tongli, Suzhou, I went to a museum in which they displayed a wooden sex toy used by nuns in Tang Dynasty. Yep...so I guess it was a public secret that a lot of nuns were not as holy as their look. 9. They had lozenge with peppermint or cinnamon flavor to refresh their breath. 10. They knew something in modern time called PICNIC. It was pretty common for the rich family to go picnic. They brought many foods with desserts and sweets put in lunch boxes. There are some other things, that I may later have to add. I forget them now |
|
|
|
Post by chefying on May 19, 2020 15:20:26 GMT
10. They knew something in modern time called PICNIC. It was pretty common for the rich family to go picnic. They brought many foods with desserts and sweets put in lunch boxes. I thought that was what they had always done for the Chong Yang Festival (9th day of the 9th Month of the Chinse lunar calendar) - they bring food and drink up with them to a high spot - a hill or something similar - and have a picnic. In my family, our annual picnic is actually during Qing Ming Festival - at my grandfather's grave.  |
|
|
|
Post by Admin on May 20, 2020 10:06:17 GMT
10. They knew something in modern time called PICNIC. It was pretty common for the rich family to go picnic. They brought many foods with desserts and sweets put in lunch boxes. I thought that was what they had always done for the Chong Yang Festival (9th day of the 9th Month of the Chinse lunar calendar) - they bring food and drink up with them to a high spot - a hill or something similar - and have a picnic. In my family, our annual picnic is actually during Qing Ming Festival - at my grandfather's grave. Ah yes, that's true the Chong Yang festival I heard that my parents' family picnic was also during Qingming Festival. And they always had spring rolls as one of the foods. I wonder why, but that's they're tradition. I've never experienced that 'picnic' though. |
|
