Lánhuā Mèng 蘭花夢
Dream of the Orchid Flower (Part One)
by 吟梅山人 (撰)
About the work
Lánhuā Mèng 蘭花夢 (Dream of the Orchid Flower) is the first part (第一部, 34 huí) of a late-Qīng vernacular novel attributed to the pen name Yínméi Shānrén 吟梅山人 (“Mountain-Man Who Sings of the Plum Blossom”). The complete novel, titled Lánhuā Mèng Qízhuàn 蘭花夢奇傳, is preserved in the Kanripo corpus as KR4k0169 with 68 huí total. The present text (KR4k0168) represents only the first 34 chapters of that larger work. The novel belongs to the late-Qīng subgenre of romance-and-talent (cáizǐ jiārén 才子佳人) fiction combined with social satire. The central figure is Sōng Bǎozhū 松寶珠, a highly accomplished young woman who rises to extraordinary political and military prominence — an “exceptional woman” (nǚzhōng zhàngfū 女中丈夫) narrative. The title derives from the closing poem of the complete work: “from now on, wake from the lánhuā mèng, and let virtue flow down through a hundred generations.”
Tiyao
No tiyao found in source.
Abstract
The preface to the novel, dated to the thirty-first year of Guāngxù (光緒御極三十一載, i.e., 1905), and signed by “Yānbō Sǎnrén” 煙波散人 “written at the bright-windowed, neat-desked studio by the Hùjiāng [= Shànghǎi],” places the composition firmly in Shanghai’s late-Qīng literary milieu, around 1905. The preface praises Yínméi Shānrén’s work as “fantastical and varied, free-flowing and humorous, all originating from the heart, every style overturning old conventions.”
The novel opens by introducing the family of the elderly scholar (老學士) Sōng 松, whose daughter Sōng Bǎozhū is of exceptional beauty and learning. A young nobleman (jiā gōngzǐ 佳公子) named Zhāng Shānrén 張山人 encounters Bǎozhū and falls in love. The plot unfolds through a series of comedic social situations (wine parties, poetry contests, misunderstandings among rivals for Bǎozhū’s attention), punctuated by a subplot involving the seduction of young men by disreputable elements of Shanghai society. By chapter 18, Bǎozhū’s adversary “Liú gōngzǐ 劉公子” is exiled to the far northeast (充發黑龍江), clearing the way for Bǎozhū’s romantic and later official career.
As Part One of the complete work, KR4k0168 ends at chapter 34 without narrative closure; the story continues in KR4k0169.
The pen name Yínméi Shānrén is unattested in standard reference works. The Shanghai literary setting and 1905 preface date suggest an author active in the city’s commercial fiction circuit. CBDB contains no entry.
Translations and research
No substantial secondary literature on this specific novel located.
Links
- KR4k0169 Lánhuā Mèng Qízhuàn 蘭花夢奇傳 (the complete work, 68 hui)