Jin Ping Mei
Jin Ping Mei ( Chinese 金瓶梅 , Pinyin Jīnpíngméi outdated, even Kin Ping Meh or Djin Ping Meh ) is in the late period of the Ming Dynasty (16th century) incurred Chinese novel of manners , famous for its erotic or pornographic passages. The authorship is controversial; Sometimes it is attributed to Lanling Xiaoxiao Sheng ( 蘭陵 笑笑生 / 兰陵 笑笑生 , Lánlíng Xiàoxiào Shēng - "the laughing student of Lanling", a pseudonym).
title
The title of the book alludes to the names of the three main female characters:
- Pān Jīn lián ( 潘金蓮 / 潘金莲 - "golden lotus"),
- Lǐ Píng 'er ( 李瓶兒 / 李瓶儿 - "Small Vase") and
- Páng Chūn méi ( 龐春梅 / 庞春梅 - "spring plum blossom ");
but also on the character of the main character Ximen Qing. Since Jin 'gold', ping means next to 'vase' also 'bottle' and Mei 'plum' (or apricot), whereby gold is a metaphor for money, bottle is a metaphor for wine and plum is a Chinese metaphor for sex. The character of Ximen Qing is thus shaped by the greed for money, wine and sex.
After the person Pan Jinlian, the title is often translated simply as “gold lotus”.
meaning
The book, along with the Journey to the West , the Robbers of Liangshan Bog and the History of the Three Kingdoms, is counted among the four great masterpieces ( 四大 奇書 / 四大 奇书 , sì dà qíshū ) of Chinese literature. In the canon of the four classical novels ( 四大 名著 , sì dà míngzhù ), created in the 18th century, it has lost this place to the dream of the Red Chamber .
Because of the explicit sexual descriptions, the novel is viewed by some as pornographic in the People's Republic of China .
action
Although Jin Ping Mei was written at the end of the Ming Dynasty (1368–1644), the action takes place between 1111 and 1127, ie at the time of the Song Dynasty (960–1279). It should be noted, however, that this backdating is a trick in order not to offer the censors of the time even more open ground.
The novel describes in 100 chapters the life and household of the rich pharmacist and silk merchant Xīmén Qìng ( 西門慶 / 西门庆 . The family name Ximen literally means 'West Gate') in Shandong Province . The main storylines are the erotic adventures of the protagonist, who besides his six official wives also has numerous affairs outside the home, and the resulting conflicts between the women concerned. 102 sex scenes are described, 47 of them in some detail. Since the ruin of the house inevitably follows the lottery life, the book can be viewed as a moral novel with a moral mandate. According to some sources, the author is said to have taken a contemporary as the model of his antihero in order to seek personal revenge. The first edition of the book is said to have even resulted in the death of the person concerned with poisoned pages. It is more likely, however, that the author constructed the household of Ximen as an image of the empire and its moral decline.
The specialty of the novel is the exact, unvarnished description of life in the Ming period. The circumstances in extremely poor families are portrayed with the same accuracy as life in the rich household of Ximens and even of the imperial court. All language levels are reproduced in the same way; the spectrum ranges from extremely vulgar and vulgar expressions to formal language on official occasions. In the end, the author describes with great meticulousness daily life, clothing, food, sexual practices , funeral customs and much more, without glossing over or leaving out anything. To this day, Jing Ping Mei is the most important social and cultural resource for the late Ming period.
Translations
As the earliest translation ever, the excellent Manju version from 1708, presumably sponsored by members of the imperial court, should be emphasized.
The first and almost complete German translation was made by Hans Conon von der Gabelentz and his sons between 1862 and 1869. It is the first ever translation of the novel into a Western language. Gabelentz used the Manjuric version from 1708 as a template, since the Manju translations from Chinese were an essential, because it was considerably easier to learn, bridging language to the more difficult Chinese for the early sinologists. The translation was only published in brief excerpts and was considered lost for a long time until Martin Gimm rediscovered it in the Thuringian State Archives at Altenburg Castle in 1998.
A literal and complete translation with the title Djin Ping Meh, sloe blossoms in a golden vase comes from the brothers Otto (1880–1956, lawyer) and Artur Kibat (1878–1961); it consists of five volumes and comprises a total of over 3,000 pages. This translation is from the 1920s. After the first two volumes, which appeared in 1928 and 1932, were banned in 1933, they could not appear in full until 1967 to 1983 together with a commentary volume.
A strongly shortened and quite free German translation from Chinese, especially reserved in terms of sexualibus, comes from Franz Kuhn and was published in 1930 under the title Kin Ping Meh or The adventurous story of Hsi Men and his six women .
Translation expenses
- Gin Ping Mei bithe . Manchurian translation in a print from 1708. Digitized from the Documentation and Information Center for Chinese Studies, Kyoto University.
- Djin Ping Meh . With extensive assistance from Artur Kibat. Translated from the unabridged Chinese original and provided with explanations by Otto Kibat. 2 volumes, Engelhard-Reyher, Gotha 1928–1932. (Volume 1: Chapters 1–10, Volume 2: Chapters 11–23; Volumes 1 and 2 each have a private special edition of a few pages with erotic passages and the imprint “Not for free distribution!”)
- Kin Ping Meh or The Adventurous Tale of Hsi Men and His Six Wives . Translated from the Chinese and with an afterword by Franz Kuhn. Insel, Leipzig 1931. (numerous new editions)
- Djin Ping Meh - sloe flowers in a golden vase. A moral novel from the Ming period . For the first time completely translated from Chinese into German by Otto and Artur Kibat. Ed. U. a. by Herbert Franke. With 200 woodcuts e. Edition of 1755. 5 volumes and commentary volume. Publishing house Die Waage, Hamburg 1967–1983. New editions: Ullstein Verlag, Berlin 1987; Diogenes, Zurich 1989.
- Hans Conon von der Gabelentz (1807–1874): Jin ping mei. Chinese novel, fully translated into German for the first time. Edited and edited by Martin Gimm , Heft I – X (Berlin State Library, New Acquisitions of the East Asia Department, Special Issues ), Berlin 2005–2013 (provisional edition in 10 parts DNB 97995021X ), Part 10: ISBN 978-3-88053-190-1 .
literature
- Jörn Brömmelhörster: Chinese novel literature in the West: a translation review of the Ming period novel Jing ping mei (China Themes Volume 50). Brockmeyer, Bochum 1990, ISBN 3-88339-817-9
- Martin Gimm: Hans Conon von der Gabelentz and the translation of the Chinese novel Jin Ping Mei . Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 2005, ISBN 3-447-05235-X
- Friedrich A. Bischoff: Djin ping meh. Epitome and analytical name index as translated by the Kibat brothers . Verlag der Österr. Akad. Der Wiss., Vienna 1997 (= Austrian Academy of Sciences. Meeting reports, Philosophical-Historical Class; 641.)
- Thomas Zimmer: The Chinese novel of the late imperial era . 2 parts, Saur, Munich 2002. (= History of Chinese Literature. Ed. By Wolfgang Kubin; 2.1-2.)
filming
The work was filmed in 1968 by the Japanese director Kōji Wakamatsu . In the German-speaking countries, the film was released on June 27, 1969 under the title King Ping Meh - Chinese love dance . Another film adaptation by Qian Wenqi called Jīnpíngméi with the English title The Forbidden Legend Sex & Chopsticks was released in Hong Kong in 2008 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ U. L. G. Zibet : Laterna stimulans, tsuipa, Kung Fu and Ritsch-ratsch. Notes on a really early Jin Ping Mei translation from the 1920s and an alleged translation of the Mandjurian Jin Ping Mei version into German . In: Erotic literature. Research communications and bibliography . Edited by W. v. Murat. Berlin 1996, pp. 63-89, here: p. 68.