Zhulin yeshi

Set in around 600 BC during the Spring and Autumn period, a young and unmarried lady named Su'e (素娥) dreams of being taught the art of love-making by Taoist master Hua Yue (華月).[5] First using her newfound sexual prowess to attain eternal youth,[5] 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.[4]

Comprising sixteen chapters[3] and twenty-one poems,[6] Zhulin yeshi was written in the late Ming dynasty by an anonymous writer using the pseudonym Chi Daoren (痴道人),[7] translated into English as "Infatuated Moralist"[7] or "Man of the Crazy Way".[4] 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.[7]

The title of the novel is derived from the song "Zhulin" (株林, "tree forest") collected in the Book of Songs;[8] according to the critic Kong Yingda (孔穎達) in Mao Shi zhengyi (毛詩正義),[9] the song was written to rebuke Lord Ling of Chen (陳靈公) for his illicit sexual relationship with the femme fatale and noblewoman Xia Ji (夏姬),[10] whose "destructive beauty ... nearly caused the collapse of the state of Chen"[9] and "who was traditionally numbered among the most wicked women of Chinese antiquity."[3] In Zhulin yeshi, the main protagonist is based on Xia Ji,[7] 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 (素娥篇; published c. 1610).[5]

Numerous stories concerning "a woman achieving first eternal youth and then transcendency through esoteric sexual practices with multiple partners" predate Zhulin yeshi.[5] For instance, in the Liexian Zhuan (列仙傳), a female protagonist named Nü Wan (女丸) is guided by a mystery sex master.[5] Likewise, in the Han dynasty text Yufang mijue (玉房秘訣) or Secret Instructions from the Jade Chamber, the Taoist mistress Xiwangmu (西王母) is described as engaging in "sexual vampirism".[6]

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 (巫山豔史) or Romantic History of Mt. Wu.[11] 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."[12]

Zhulin yeshi is noted for its "rich descriptions of sexual life",[13] both heterosexual and homosexual.[14] Olivia Milburn writes that the female protagonists of the novel "are in striking contrast to those described in other contemporary Ming-dynasty erotic novels".[15] She also praises the author of Zhulin yeshi for their "careful erudition" and meticulous "historical background and characterizations".[16]