Aspects of the Plot of Jin Ping Mei

This essay will consider three aspects of the plot of JIN PING MEI, its indebtedness to and development out of the SHUI HU ZHUAN (The Water Margin), various representative plotting techniques of the first twenty chapters, and its conclusion. In interpreting the plot of the JIN PING MEI, one must inevitably give some consideration to the fact that the novel has drawn on a vast variety of fictional and dramatic sources. While undoubtedly much more fruitful work will result from further consideration of all the various sources of the novel, for the purposes of this essay I will focus on one source of primary importance. When we strive for a relatively unified interpretation of the text, we find one source, indeed the most obvious one, SHUI HU ZHUAN, enjoys a unique relationship with the JIN PING MEI. Chapters twenty-three through twenty-six of the SHUI HU ZHUAN provided JIN PING MEI with two central characters, Pan Jinlian and Ximen Qing, in addition to various other secondary figures such as Wu Da and Wu Song, Pan Jinlian's husband and brother-in-law respectively. Equally significant is the presence of the themes of revenge and retribution found in SHUI HU ZHUAN, which are played out in similar, if not identical fashion, in JIN PING MEI. Nevertheless, no matter how inspirationally dependent on SHUI HU ZHUAN JIN PING MEI may have been at its creative inception, it is equally apparent that the latter moved far into areas left unexplored by SHUI HU ZHUAN

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• The Conclusion of the Jin Ping Mei

  Katherine Carlitz•Ming Studies•1980

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