| dc.description.abstract | This dissertation discusses the perspectives of four ancient and contemporary readers on human body and body experiences while reading the Ming novel “Jin Ping Mei”. It contains two parts: the first focuses on two important male readers, Zhang Zu-po (1670-1698) and Ding Yao-kang(1599-1669) in the 17th century, followed by a second part on two modern readers in the 80’s, Andrew H. Plaks (1945-) and Tien Xaiofei (1971-).
As a reader of “Jin Ping Mei”, Zhang Zu-po’s point of view differs slightly from Ding’s. Zhang emphasized that “one with a sharp view (Ming Yian Ren，明眼人)” was the ideal reader. He concentrated on various symbols and metaphors of the body in “Jin Ping Mei”, and demonstrated how one can write based on such rhetoric. Compared to Zhang’s “sharp view” perspective, Ding Yao-kang declared himself to be “a blind literati” (Mang Shi，盲史), and regret to write the sequel “Xu Jin Ping Mei” (續金瓶梅). However, with his masterpiece “Xu Jin Ping Mei”, he still contributed profoundly to the understanding of “Jin Ping Mei”. By interleaving the expressions of “cold” (冷) and “hot” (熱) in turn, he restrained the readers’ desires while evoking their body experiences such as sorrow (酸) and sexual urge (癢). The main purpose of Zhang and Ding’s rewriting is to constrain the reader’s sexual craving, and transformed the reading process into a path of enlightenment. However, the essence of rewriting is a game which the writer plays to satisfy himself with tricks and challenges to the readers. Part of Zhang’s connotation unveiled his licentious imaginations, and showed that he was unconsciously involved and obsessed with sex while reading “Jin Ping Mei”. Ding likewise pleased himself by creating the playful episodic chapters (Yao xi ping，遊戲品). Their rewritings suggest that reading “Jin Ping Mei” is more of an experiential than interpretive process.
The other two readers in the 80’s – Andrew H. Plaks and Tien Xaiofei – emphasized different aspects of reading “Jin Ping Mei”. Base on Zhang Zu-po’s commentary, Andrew H. Plaks systematically constructed a “Confucian Reading” to demonstrate that reading is a process of practicing moral teaching. Compared to “Confucian Reading”, Tien Xaiofei read “Jin Ping Mei” with a compassionate reading method from Buddhism. Not only she appreciated the non-beauty, middle-age woman Mong Yu-lo whom C. T. Hsia could not admire, but also detected a real and vivid beauty from reading Pan jinlian that differed from the conventional sense. Moreover, Tien Xaiofei tried to echo creatively “Xin Ke Xiou Xiang Jin Ping Mei” (新刻繡像金瓶梅) with modern photographs and pictures in her rewriting “Qiou Shui Tang Lun Jin Ping Mei”.(秋水堂論金瓶梅)
From readers like Zhang Zu-po, Ding Yao-kang in the 17 century to Andrew H. Plaks and Tien Xaiofei in the 80’s, the motivations of rewriting “Jin Ping Mei” have changed from annotating to recreating. The history of reading and rewriting “Jin Ping Mei” has thus been shown to be a process of recreation.
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