Novel
孽海花
Not translated into English
Zeng Pu · 1905
Synopsis
Jin Wenqing, who placed first in the palace examination and has become a senior official, takes a former courtesan, Fu Caiyun, as his concubine. Appointed envoy to Europe, he takes her with him to Russia and Germany, where she has numerous affairs, while he fails in his mission and buys a map of the frontier that proves to be false. Around them parade, under assumed names, the real figures of the court and letters of their day.
Context
The novel was begun by Jin Songcen, who published two chapters in 1903 in a magazine of Chinese students in Tokyo; Zeng Pu took it up in 1904 to turn it into a historical fresco. The first twenty chapters appeared in two volumes in 1905, a few more in a magazine in 1907, and the author revised it into thirty chapters, in 1928 or in 1931 depending on the sources, without ever finishing it. Jin Wenqing in it is the diplomat Hong Jun, sent to Europe from 1887 to 1890, and Fu Caiyun is the courtesan Sai Jinhua. Isabelle Bijon translated it into French in 1983.
Who it is for
A novel of some thirty chapters, whose reading is enriched by knowing the real models for the characters, from Hong Jun to Sai Jinhua.
Prizes and reception
Lu Xun, who found in it the faults of the exposé novels, praised its ingenious construction and brilliant style.