The Fountainhead of Chinese Erotica: The Lord of Perfect Satisfaction (Ruyijun zhuan) With a Translation and Critical Edition Review

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The Fountainhead of Chinese Erotica: The Lord of Perfect Satisfaction (Ruyijun zhuan) With a Translation and Critical Edition ReviewI had very little idea what this book was about - a translation and commentary on the Ruyijun zhuan, plus whatever clue lies in the title. I got a lot more than I expected.
The central part of this book is the promised translation. The fiction in it turned out to be based loosely (maybe very loosely) on the historical life of emperor Wu Zitian. She was not only the one female emperor in China's history, according to the translator's notes, but an erratic, brutal, and debauched libertine. Some historians credit her excesses with the fall of the Tang empire. As a result, her brazen personal life made a good foundation for a sexually outrageous story. So did history's view of her, somewhat like Shakespeare's Richard III, as a character that could be vilified safely.
Despite its explicitness, Stone is careful to point out that this is not pornography in any meaningful sense. It contains many literate allusions to history and to the classic texts, unlike the mindless "organ recitals" before and after it. And, unlike those lesser works, its imagery is not centered on physicality brought to completion. Instead, there are odd interruptions in the story and wide variations in the level of descriptive detail.
Stone's commentary adds a lot to the reader's appreciation of this brief (45 page), bawdy story. He fills in the historical context that makes the Ruyijun zhuan make sense, and positions it with respect to later works that plagiarize heavily from it. He also addresses the mystery of its author, making a strong case for Huang Xun - a prim, proper, and otherwise unlikely functionary of the early/mid sixteenth century.
Stone's copious footnotes alternate between dry bibliographic references and insightful notes on historical context or untranslatable wordplay. His commentary, the large majority of the text, is generally lively and interesting. This book reads somewhat like a doctoral dissertation. If that's what it is, it's among the better written ones. It's also the best expression I've seen of an author having plain old fun in work that a lesser researcher would have rendered dry and dull.
//wiredweirdThe Fountainhead of Chinese Erotica: The Lord of Perfect Satisfaction (Ruyijun zhuan) With a Translation and Critical Edition Overview

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