China's "Forbidden Classic"

CHIN P'ING MEI--Putnam--(2 Vols.$5).

Chinese legend declares that Chin P'ing Mei (Metal Vase Plum-blossom) was written by a famed 16th-Century Confucian scholar as a satire on the private life of a corrupt official. The official received a presentation copy, fell dead as he finished the last of its 1,600 subtly poisoned pages. No believer in such legend, Arthur Waley, expert on Chinese literature, says the novel's authorship is doubtful, like that of China's other famed novels. He traces first mention of it to a book published around 1600, wherein Chin P'ing Mei is highly commended as an aid to companionable drinking. Banned some 100 years after publication by a puritanical Manchu dynasty, it has been a popular under-the-counter item to Chinese readers ever since.

A sort of Oriental Decameron, Chin P'ing Mei tells the story of a rich young rakehell named Hsi Men, of whom it was said that "unless they are concubines of the Prince of Hell himself, they belong to the harem of wealthy Hsi Men." Fretful because he is not ten men, something of a sadist (though a pleasant fellow at times), Hsi is figuratively said to enjoy "spending his nights among blossoms and willows." The details are put much more plainly.

Because of the number and frequency of Hsi's seductions, they tend to grow somewhat wearisome. More diverting is the spirited account of Hsi's relations with his six wives. They comprise an amazing harem, a-seethe with complex jealousies and intrigues which mostly originate with a voluptuous, canny beauty named Gold Lotus, who knows how to lead Hsi around by the nose.

Lest readers doubt the author's moral purpose, Hsi's only son is clawed to death by Gold Lotus' cat. Hsi himself dies in his prime from an overdose of aphrodisiac pills.

Filled with Confucian aphorisms ("With a passionate man love is like the sun, which follows its course to the west and rises again in the east!"), Chin P'ing Met puts many a simple moral into simpler verse. Extolling the homely virtues, one ends:

Why this is better soon is told:

You spare your nerves and save your gold.

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