Jin Ping Mei

}} |l=Lanling laughing student}} ''Jin Ping Mei'' (}})—translated into English as ''The Plum in the Golden Vase'' or ''The Golden Lotus''—is a Chinese novel of manners composed in vernacular Chinese during the latter half of the 16th century during the late Ming dynasty (1368–1644). Consisting of 100 chapters, it was published under the pseudonym Lanling Xiaoxiao Sheng (), "The Scoffing Scholar of Lanling," but the only clue to the actual identity is that the author hailed from Lanling County in present-day Shandong. The novel circulated in manuscript as early as 1596, and may have undergone revision up to its first printed edition in 1610. The most widely read recension, edited and published with commentaries by Zhang Zhupo in 1695, deleted or rewrote passages to help understand the author's intentions.

The explicit depiction of sexuality garnered the novel a notoriety akin to ''Lady Chatterley's Lover'' and ''Lolita'' in the West, but critics such as the translator David Tod Roy see a firm moral structure which exacts retribution for the sexual libertinism of the central characters.

''Jin Ping Mei'' takes its name from the three central female characters—Pan Jinlian (, whose given name means "Golden Lotus"); Li Ping'er (, literally "Little Vase"), a concubine of Ximen Qing; and Pang Chunmei (, "Spring plum blossoms"), a young maid who rose to power within the family. Chinese critics see each of the three Chinese characters in the title as symbolizing an aspect of human nature, such as ''mei'' (), plum blossoms, being metaphoric for sexuality.

David Tod Roy calls the novel "a landmark in the development of the narrative art form—not only from a specifically Chinese perspective but in a world-historical context...noted for its surprisingly modern technique" and "with the possible exception of ''The Tale of Genji'' ( 1010) and ''Don Quixote'' (1605, 1615), there is no earlier work of prose fiction of equal sophistication in world literature." ''Jin Ping Mei'' is considered one of the six classics of Chinese novels. Provided by Wikipedia