Preface

This book grew out of a dissertation completed at the University of Chicago, “The Role of Drama in the Chinp’ingmei.” That dissertation treated allusion to drama as part of the rhetoric of the novel, the allusiveness characteristic of the author’s style. In this book, the field of investigation has been widened to include allusion to other kinds of literature, and the author’s rhetoric and concerns have been related to the rhetoric of fiction and the philosophical concerns of late sixteenth-century China.

Parts of Chapters 4 and 5 have appeared as “Puns and Puzzles in the Chinp’ingmei: A Look at Chapter 27,” T’oungPao LXVII, 3-5 (1981), pp.216-239.

Unless otherwise indicated, all translations are my own.

Many people read part or all of the manuscript and gave me valuable advice. My deepest thanks go to David Roy, who first suggested investigating the role of drama in Chinp’ingmei and identified a great many allusions. His encouragement and advice have been warmly appreciated. Ann Waltner read the entire manuscript and provided an extremely useful critique, chapter by chapter. My friend and colleague Y.T. Wang wrote the Chinese characters for the Bibliography and Glossary. Judith Berling, Robert Hegel, Daniel Overmyer, Andrew Plaks, Evelyn Rawski, Catherine Swatek, and Anthony Yu all contributed to my understanding of the issues discussed here. Leo Lee offered useful suggestions on how to turn a dissertation into a book. But that transformation could not have been made without the help of my husband Robert Carlitz, who produced the copy for this book using the facilities of the University of Pittsburgh Computer Center.