Approaches to Teaching The Plum in the Golden Vase (The Golden Lotus)
- Editor: Andrew Schonebaum
- Pages: 400
- Published: 2022
- ISBN: 9781603294126 (Paperback)
- ISBN: 9781603295444 (Hardbound)
“A stellar crew of senior scholars contributed essays for this volume.”
—David Rolston, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
The Plum in the Golden Vase (also known as The Golden Lotus) was published in the early seventeenth century and may be the first long work of Chinese fiction written by a single (though anonymous) author. Featuring both complex structural elements and psychological and emotional realism, the novel centers on the rich merchant Ximen Qing and his household and describes the physical surroundings and material objects of a Ming dynasty city. In part a social, political, and moral critique, the novel reflects on hierarchical power relations of family and state and the materialism of life at the time.
The essays in this volume provide ideas for teaching the novel using a variety of approaches, from questions of genre, intertextuality, and the novel’s reception to material culture, family and social dynamics, and power structures in sexual relations. Insights into the novel’s representation of Buddhism, Chinese folk religion, legal culture, class, slavery, and obscenity are offered throughout the volume.
Acknowledgments (xi)
Abbreviations for Commonly Cited Editions (xiii)
Note on Citation and Romanization (xv)
PART ONE: MATERIALS
Plum’s Infamy and Influence (3)
Historical Context (9)
Authorship and Origins (12)
Editions of Plum (14)
The Golden Lotus, Translated by Clement Egerton and Lao She (19)
The David Tod Roy Translation (21)
Resources for Teaching (26)
Structure, Pattern, and Plot (36)
Early Modern Comments on Plum and Its Origins (51)
PART TWO: APPROACHES
Introduction (63)
Reading Plum
Interiority in The Plum in the Golden Vase (69)
Buddhist-Inflected Patterns of Characterization in The Plum in the Golden Vase (80)
Borrowed Time and Infinitude: Narrative, Media, and the Body in The Plum in the Golden Vase (92)
Recalcitrant Things in The Plum in the Golden Vase (105)
I Lie, Therefore I Am (123)
Historical Contexts and Affects
The Ximen Household as a Warning to a Doomed Dynasty (134)
The Case in the Vase: Legal Process, Legal Culture, and Justice in The Plum in the Golden Vase (151)
Nation, Brand, Afterlives: The Plum in the Golden Vase in Early-Twentieth-Century China (172)
Divination and Retribution in The Plum in the Golden Vase (186)
Filial Piety and The Plum in the Golden Vase (205)
Games in The Plum in the Golden Vase (218)
Women, Gender, Marriage, and Sex
Domestic Violence in a Premodern Context in The Plum in the Golden Vase (230)
Wives, Concubines, Prostitutes, and Other Men’s Wives: The Portrayal of Sex in The Plum in the Golden Vase (253)
Trafficking Women in The Plum in the Golden Vase (263)
Sexual Acts and the Articulation of Norms and Hierarchies in The Plum in the Golden Vase (285)
Plum and the Literary Tradition
Popular Songs and Drama in The Plum in the Golden Vase (295)
The Emergence of the Novel: From Outlaws of the Marsh to The Plum in the Golden Vase (310)
The Plum in the Golden Vase and The Story of the Stone (328)
Digital Approaches to The Plum in the Golden Vase (339)
Notes on Contributors (357)
Works Cited (361)
