Ping Shan Leng Yan

Ping Shan Leng Yan (Chinese: 平山冷燕; pinyin: Píng Shān Lěng Yān; Wade–Giles: P'ing Shan Leng Yen) is a classic caizi jiaren novel written in early Qing dynasty China. The earliest extant edition of the novel is a printed edition dating from 1658, now preserved in the Dalian Library. The title of the book is derived from the surnames of the two couples featured in the book. The novel is sometimes attributed to Di An Shanren (Chinese: 荻岸山人),[1] but the authorship is uncertain. It has also been attributed to Tianhua Zang Zhuren (天花藏主人), a pseudonym meaning "Master of the Heavenly Flower Sutra".[2] Yu jiao li and Ping Shan Leng Yan were both written by the same Tianhua Zang Zhuren according to a style analysis by caizi jiaren scholar Qing Ping Wang.[3] Classical Chinese scholar and Yale professor Chloë Starr lists Ping Shan Leng Yan along with Yu jiao li and Haoqiu zhuan as one of the three best-known examples of the caizi jiaren genre.[4]

Cover of Ping Shan Leng Yan, from the Hanan collection, Harvard-Yenching Library, Harvard University.
Pages from chapter nine of the novel

Plot

Miss Shan Dai, a beautiful girl, is so talented that she passes the challenging tests set by her tutor and impresses her father, an imperial official. Miss Leng Jiangxue, also a talented young woman, is sent from a poor family to be Shan's maid, on the way sees a striking poem written by an impoverished student, Ping Ruheng. Ping is traveling to Songjiang, where he meets the accomplished and handsome scholar, Yan Baihan. The two young men decide to go to Beijing in disguise to find the renowned Shan Dai, but while they are en route, other suitors plagiarize their poetry to woo the young ladies.[5] The plot climaxes in a poetry contest in which the two young ladies defeat Ping and Yan in a competition to write the best poem, and in the end their marriages are approved by the emperor himself.[6]

Pseudo-caizi are foils to the real caizi in caizi jiaren stories. Here, the characters, Song Xin (C: 宋 信, P: Sòng Xìn, W: Sung Hsin) and Dou Guoyi (T: 竇國一, S: 窦国一, P: Dòu Guóyī, W: To Kuo-i), plagiarize poems written by Ping and Yan and pretend to be poets.[7]


Illustrations of the four protagonists, whose surnames forms the novel's title
  • Ping Ruheng
    Ping Ruheng
  • Shan Dai
    Shan Dai
  • Leng Jiangxue
    Leng Jiangxue
  • Yan Baihan
    Yan Baihan

See also

References
  1. Jin Feng (2013). Romancing the Internet: Producing and Consuming Chinese Web Romance. Konklijke Brill NV. p. 143. ISBN 9789004259720. Retrieved 1 January 2014.
  2. Li Mengjun (2009). Master of Heavenly Flowers Scripture: Constructing Tianhua zang zhuren's Three Personae as Publisher, Commentator, and Writer of Scholar-beauty Fiction (PDF) (MA thesis). Ohio State University. pp. ii. Retrieved 1 January 2014 – via OhioLINK.
  3. Qing Ping Wang (1996). "Dating and Authorship of Chinese Fiction: On Stylistic Method". Conference paper, annual meeting of the Association for Asian Studies.
  4. Starr, Chloë F. (2007). Red-Light Novels of the Late Qing. Leiden, The Netherlands: Koninklijke Brill NV. p. 40. ISBN 978-90-04-15629-6. Retrieved 1 January 2014.
  5. Idema, Wilt and Lloyd Haft (1997). A Guide to Chinese Literature. Ann Arbor: Center for Chinese Studies, The University of Michigan. p. 227. ISBN 0892641231.
  6. Berg, Dara (2001), "Traditional Vernacular Novels: Some Lesser Known Works", in Victor Mair (ed.), The Columbia History of Chinese Literature, New York: Columbia University Press, pp. 659–674, ISBN 0231109849, esp. pp. 666-667
  7. Song, Geng (2004). The Fragile Scholar: Power and Masculinity in Chinese Culture. Hong Kong University Press. p. 203. ISBN 962-209-620-4.


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