Autumn Water Studio Discusses Jin Ping Mei

Author: None
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2003-03-01
Features: Yuwen Qiushui (author Tian Xiaofei's pen name, editor's note) discusses The Golden Lotus, urging readers to see the compassion in the illustrated editions. Rather than a compassion that belongs to moral instruction, it is a compassion that belongs to literature. Even the fallen characters are endowed with a poetic touch of humanity; no character possesses a non-human perfection, offering us an absolute standard for judgment. We still make moral judgments about the characters in the book—the novel demands that we do so—but our merciless judgments are often softened by moments of innocent humanity, which compel us to transcend judgment and move toward a kind of sympathy that lies on the edge of compassion.