Zhulin yeshi

Set in around 600 BC during the Spring and Autumn period, a young and unmarried lady named Su'e ({{lang|zh|素娥}}) dreams of being taught the art of love-making by Taoist master Hua Yue ({{lang|zh|華月}}).{{Sfn|Milburn|2017|p=10}} First using her newfound sexual prowess to attain eternal youth,{{Sfn|Milburn|2017|p=10}} she then seduces multiple men until she is stopped by a rival Taoist master who becomes her lover and joins her in her quest for immortality.{{Sfn|Mair|2010|p=665}}

Comprising sixteen chapters{{Sfn|Milburn|2017|p=1}} and twenty-one poems,{{Sfn|Milburn|2017|p=11}} Zhulin yeshi was written in the late Ming dynasty by an anonymous writer using the pseudonym Chi Daoren ({{lang|zh|痴道人}}),{{Sfn|Milburn|2017|p=9}} translated into English as "Infatuated Moralist"{{Sfn|Milburn|2017|p=9}} or "Man of the Crazy Way".{{Sfn|Mair|2010|p=665}} The novel was published in Suzhou and likely had its first printing sometime between 1610 and 1620, although it was subsequently banned by the Qing government.{{Sfn|Milburn|2017|p=9}}

The title of the novel is derived from the song "Zhulin" ({{lang|zh|株林}}, "tree forest") collected in the Book of Songs;{{Sfn|Milburn|2017|p=7}} according to the critic Kong Yingda ({{lang|zh|孔穎達}}) in Mao Shi zhengyi ({{lang|zh|毛詩正義}}),{{Sfn|Milburn|2017|p=8}} the song was written to rebuke Lord Ling of Chen ({{lang|zh|陳靈公}}) for his illicit sexual relationship with the femme fatale and noblewoman Xia Ji ({{lang|zh|夏姬}}),{{Sfn|Milburn|2017|pp=1-3}} whose "destructive beauty ... nearly caused the collapse of the state of Chen"{{Sfn|Milburn|2017|p=8}} and "who was traditionally numbered among the most wicked women of Chinese antiquity."{{Sfn|Milburn|2017|p=1}} In Zhulin yeshi, the main protagonist is based on Xia Ji,{{Sfn|Milburn|2017|p=9}} although she is referred to as Su'e, which is in turn an apparent reference to the "extremely rare" illustrated erotic novel titled Su'e pian ({{lang|zh|素娥篇}}; published {{circa}} 1610).{{Sfn|Milburn|2017|p=10}}

Numerous stories concerning "a woman achieving first eternal youth and then transcendency through esoteric sexual practices with multiple partners" predate Zhulin yeshi.{{Sfn|Milburn|2017|p=10}} For instance, in the Liexian Zhuan ({{lang|zh|列仙傳}}), a female protagonist named Nü Wan ({{lang|zh|女丸}}) is guided by a mystery sex master.{{Sfn|Milburn|2017|p=10}} Likewise, in the Han dynasty text Yufang mijue ({{lang|zh|玉房秘訣}}) or Secret Instructions from the Jade Chamber, the Taoist mistress Xiwangmu ({{lang|zh|西王母}}) is described as engaging in "sexual vampirism".{{Sfn|Milburn|2017|p=11}}

Across the novel, the author adapts sexually explicit scenes from several other sources. For example, a scene in which the protagonist is in Chu, left in a pitiful state with her step-son, is "a cut-and-paste piece taken straight" from Wushan yanshi ({{lang|zh|巫山豔史}}) or Romantic History of Mt. Wu.{{Sfn|Milburn|2017|p=13}} Zhulin yeshi also presents an "extremely confused" discussion of sex toys; a dildo, for instance, morphs into a Burmese bell without any explanation, which Olivia Milburn suggests may be due to a "garbled interpolation from some unknown source."{{Sfn|Milburn|2017|p=14}}

Zhulin yeshi is noted for its "rich descriptions of sexual life",{{Sfn|Hu|2013|p=312}} both heterosexual and homosexual.{{Sfn|Vitiello|2011|p=23}} Olivia Milburn writes that the female protagonists of the novel "are in striking contrast to those described in other contemporary Ming-dynasty erotic novels".{{Sfn|Milburn|2017|p=18}} She also praises the author of Zhulin yeshi for their "careful erudition" and meticulous "historical background and characterizations".{{Sfn|Milburn|2017|p=12}}

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{{Reflist|20em}}

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• {{cite book|first=Fuchen|last=Hu|title=General Theory of Taoism|publisher=Paths International Limited|year=2013|isbn=9781844640959|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bmRZDwAAQBAJ}}
• {{cite book|last=Mair|first=Victor H.|title=The Columbia History of Chinese Literature|year=2010|publisher=Columbia University Press|isbn=9780231528511}}
• {{cite journal|first=Olivia|last=Milburn|title=The Legend of Lady Xia Ji: Two Late Ming Dynasty Portrayals of an Ancient Chinese "Femme Fatale"|journal=Chinese Literature: Essays, Articles, Reviews|pages=1–25|year=2017|volume=39|jstor=45014208|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/45014208}}
• {{cite book|first=Andrew|last=Schonebaum|title=Novel Medicine: Healing, Literature, and Popular Knowledge in Early Modern China|publisher=University of Washington Press|year=2016|isbn=9780295806327|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=W3N7CwAAQBAJ}}
• {{cite book|first=Giovanni|last=Vitiello|title=The Libertine's Friend: Homosexuality and Masculinity in Late Imperial China|year=2011|publisher=University of Chicago Press|isbn=9780226857923|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=a0kGm8dGjBcC}}

{{refend}}

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Category:17th-century Chinese novels

Category:1610s novels

Category:Ming dynasty novels

Category:Chinese erotic novels

Category:Works published under a pseudonym

Category:Novels set in the 7th century BC

Category:Novels set in the Zhou dynasty

Category:Spring and Autumn period in fiction