Product Description

The Lord of Perfect Satisfaction (Ruyijun zhuan), a short work of fiction from the early sixteenth century, tells the story of the Tang Dynasty's notorious Wu Zetian, the only woman to rule as emperor of China. It is famous not for the history it relates, but for its graphic sexual descriptions--the first ever in a Chinese novel--purportedly given from a woman's point of view. For the next century, most works that include explicit sexual descriptions refer to the Ruyijun zhuan or employ some of its vocabulary.

Despite its renown and unmistakable influence on later writing, the origins and significance of the Ruyijun zhuan have never been explored, in any language, and until now it has never been translated. Its date of composition is unknown, its author unidentified. One of its earliest appraisals, written by a contemporary scholar known for his conservatism, maintains that the Ruyijun zhuan is a moral work notwithstanding its sexual content. Combining a complete translation with a detailed and far-ranging study of the text, The Fountainhead of Chinese Erotica places this important cultural document into historical context and offers possibilities on its possible meaning. Charles Stone's meticulous work reveals the Ruyijun zhuan's author to be a scholar of Tang history who employed a wide range of historical and classical allusions that serve as a surprisingly subtle commentary on the actions of central characters.

The Fountainhead of Chinese Erotica is a scrupulously researched, critically sophisticated, and urbane work of scholarship that illuminates an important primary text and Chinese erotic writings in general.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #462379 in Books
• Published on: 2003-03
• Original language: Mandarin Chinese
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 271 pages

Language Notes
Text: English (translation)
Original Language: Chinese

About the Author
Charles R. Stone received his doctorate from the Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations, University of Chicago.

Customer Reviews

Scholarly, but still fun
I 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.

//wiredweird