Qīnglóu Mèng 青樓夢
Dream of the Green Bower by 俞達 (撰)
About the work
Qīnglóu Mèng 青樓夢 is a Qīng-dynasty romantic chapter novel in 64 huí, attributed to 俞達 Yú Dá (fl. late nineteenth century). It is the principal version in the literary record of this title, belonging to the qīnglóu 青樓 romantic subgenre of late Qīng fiction. The novel is centred on the talented literatus Jīn Yìxiāng 金挹香 and his friend Yáo Mèngxiān 姚夢仙, who move through a world of thirty-six gifted and named courtesans (míjì 名妓) in an extended dream-frame narrative. An anonymous copy of essentially the same text is also preserved in the Kanripo corpus as KR4k0204.
Tiyao
No tiyao found in source.
Abstract
Yú Dá 俞達 (fl. late 19th century) is recorded in the CBDB with a floruit year of 1884 (CBDB id 85025). Little else is known of his biography. The novel he is attributed with composing, Qīnglóu Mèng, is labeled 第一部 (Part One) in the Kanripo text heading, though the 64-chapter structure appears complete in itself; the designation may reflect a publisher’s convention rather than a genuinely planned continuation.
The novel opens with the dream-vision trope (huángliang 黃梁, alluding to the Tang tale “枕中記”), signaling from the outset that the romantic world of the narrative is explicitly framed as illusion. The protagonist Jin Yixiang and his companion traverse a social world of poetry gatherings (shīshè 詩社), banquets (jiǔyàn 酒宴), seasonal outings, romantic entanglements, marriage arrangements, examination success, and mortal illness, with each of the 36 courtesans developed as a distinct personality. The narrative arc culminates in the deaths of the most beloved figures and the protagonists’ retreat from the dream-world back into ordinary life.
The work belongs to the cáizǐ jiārén 才子佳人 tradition and the specifically courtesan-focused branch of that tradition that flourished in the Tóngzhì (1861–1875) and Guāngxù (1875–1908) periods — a genre epitomized by the earlier Pǐn huā bǎojiàn 品花寶鑑 (by Chén Sēn 陳森, mid-19th century) and Hǎishàng huā liè zhuàn 海上花列傳 (by Hán Bāngqìng 韓邦慶, 1892). Qīnglóu Mèng occupies the more idealizing, less realist end of the spectrum, projecting a fantasy of mutual cultivation and poetic refinement between scholar and courtesan.
The Kanripo text is labeled 第一部 (Part One) suggesting it may have been published in installments. No 第二部 is recorded in the Kanripo corpus. The text is also preserved in a second copy without attribution as KR4k0204.
Translations and research
- Yú Dá 俞達, Qīnglóu Mèng 青樓夢. Standard discussions in:
- Liú Tsun-yan [Liú Zūnyán] 柳存仁, Chinese Popular Fiction in Two London Libraries (1967) — background on the genre.
- Patrick Hanan, The Chinese Vernacular Story (Harvard University Press, 1981) — genre context.
- David Der-wei Wang [Wáng Déwēi] 王德威, Fin-de-siècle Splendor: Repressed Modernities of Late Qing Fiction, 1849–1911 (Stanford University Press, 1997) — pp. 66–108 on courtesans and the romance novel.
No monograph specifically on this work located.