Introductory article, translated from Chinese and comments by O. M. GORODETSKAYA
(c) 2002
In the sixteenth century, an unknown Chinese author, playfully disguising himself as the Lanlin Scoffer, which certainly indicated something, hinted at what one can only fantasize about now, created one of the most famous and mysterious, frivolous novel "Jin, Ping, Mei", although translated into Russian, but Unfortunately, it was not fully published. With its fascinating storyline, Jin, Ping, Mei is also a unique historical source, containing almost encyclopedic information about the everyday life of various strata of society, about social hierarchy, rituals, culture, beliefs, and even science.
In addition, the novel contains a large number of specifically attributed, both anonymous and author's borrowings. With considerable justification, it can be qualified as a" Textbook " of artistic and popular religious literature of the Ming era (XIV-XVI centuries). The list of works cited in it is sometimes partially and sometimes completely impressive:
1. Twenty ancient Canonical texts and philosophical treatises (X century BC-X century AD);
2. Twelve medical treatises and compilations of prescriptions (IV century BC-XVI century AD);
3. The six canons of religious Taoism included in the sacred "Treasury of Tao" (Tao Tsang) ;
4. Four occult works devoted to mantic practices, geomancy, astrology and physiognomy;
5. Eighteen Buddhist canons, codices, sacred sutras and precious scrolls (IV-XVI centuries);
6. Sixty-seven poems and dramatic works (III-XVI centuries);
7. One hundred and eighty-two romances (ci) 2 .
This publication is a 16th-century Buddhist work known from many Buddhist sources and fully cited in "Jin, Ping, Mei", which belongs to the" pure land school", or Amidaism, one of the leading branches of Buddhism in the Far East. This precious scroll... published for the first time. Only one very large work of this genre was published in Russian - "The Precious Scroll of Pu-min", m ...
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