Jīnshí Yuán 金石緣
A Bond as Enduring as Metal and Stone by 不題撰人 (撰; anonymous)
About the work
Jīnshí Yuán 金石緣 (“A Bond as Enduring as Metal and Stone”) is an anonymous vernacular social novel (zhānghui xiǎoshuō 章回小說) of the Qīng dynasty in 24 huí. The title alludes to the idiom jīnshí zhījiāo 金石之交 — a bond of unwavering loyalty — and the novel traces the intertwined fates of several morally contrasted characters: a talented young scholar (the “small prodigy,” xiǎo shéntóng 小神童), a virtuous substitute bride (dàijià 代嫁) Shí Wúxiá 石無瑕 (“Stone of Flawless Purity”), and a villainous faction of corrupt officials and a demon-monk. The novel advocates Confucian moral orthodoxy — loyalty, filial piety, chastity — and ends with the punishment of villains and a communal happy reunion, including a final transcendence into immortality for the virtuous.
Tiyao
No tiyao found in source.
Abstract
The source text opens with a preface (xù 序) signed by an unnamed writer, which explicitly positions the novel within the tradition of moral social fiction (shèhuì xiǎoshuō 社會小說) and distances it from earlier popular novels, notably Yùlóu Chūn 玉樓春, Yùjiāo Lí 玉嬌梨, and Píngshān Lěng Yàn 平山冷燕, criticizing their implausible plot devices (a man disguised as a woman sold as a maid; a child girl prodigy surpassing court officials). The preface promotes Jīnshí Yuán as more plausible, better structured, and morally exemplary.
The novel’s plot centers on the misfortunes visited upon the scholar Jīn (referred to as “金進士”) and his circle, the rescue of Lin Pāngùi’s 林攀貴 daughter through a substitute marriage, the eventual triumph over the villainous Qīng official and a demon-Daoist (yāodào 妖道), and a final restoration of the just social order. The work is not recorded in the Sìkù quánshū 四庫全書. The author is anonymous (catalog metadata: 不題撰人). Dating is uncertain; stylistic and genre conventions suggest a mid-to-late Qīng composition. The preface’s awareness of earlier popular fiction suggests a date no earlier than the late eighteenth century.
Translations and research
No substantial secondary literature located.
Links
- Wikipedia (zh): 才子佳人小說