Classical Literature Classics of the New Century -- Selected and Commented on from the West Chamber

Author: Li Mengsheng
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2002-12-01
Features: The love story of Cui Yingying and Zhang Sheng described in The Story of Yingying, adapted from Yuan Zhen's legendary The Story of Yingying. The plot of The Story of Yingying begins with Zhang Sheng flirting and Yingying firmly rejecting him, and ends with the two becoming close, but Zhang Sheng later marries another woman, leaving Yingying abandoned by the faithless lover. The Zhang Sheng in The Story of Yingying is a self-portrait of Yuan Zhen. In Yuan Zhen's collected poems, there are Two Ancient Love Poems, Parting Thoughts, Poem for Yingying, Spring Dawn, To the Twin Wen, and Thirty Rhymes of the Meeting at the True Garden, all of which reminisce about the Twin Wen (Yingying). The line "Once you have seen the vast ocean, nothing else can compare; apart from the clouds of Mount Wu, no other clouds are as beautiful" from Parting Thoughts has been widely praised. The love story of Zhang Sheng and Yingying ends in sorrow, which is hardly something to heavily criticize. However, Yuan Zhen condemns Yingying as a "bewitching beauty" and calls Zhang Sheng a "master at making amends" at the end of the story, using this to paint a rosy picture for himself and feudal morality. Thus, the theme is no longer about celebrating the freedom of love between men and women, but instead takes a reactionary turn. Therefore, Lu Xun remarked, "At the end of the story, the author tries to whitewash his faults, and thus falls into vulgarity."