Sān Xù Jīnpíngméi 三續金瓶梅
Third Continuation of the Gold Vase Plum by 訥音居士 Nèyīn Jūshì (撰)
About the work
Sān Xù Jīnpíngméi 三續金瓶梅, also titled Xiǎobǔ Qísūan Zhì 小補奇酸志 (A Small Supplementary Record of Strange Sourness), is a Qīng-dynasty sequel to Jīnpíngméi 金瓶梅 in 40 huí 回, composed by the pseudonymous author 訥音居士 Nèyīn Jūshì (Gentleman of Inarticulate Sound). The Kanripo text runs to approximately 8,399 lines. The preface and a brief notice (xiǎoyǐn 小引) by the author, followed by a copying-out note dated Dàoguāng 1 / 1821 (道光元年歲次辛巳孟夏谷旦謄錄) by Wùběn Táng Zhǔrén 務本堂主人, together establish the early Dàoguāng period as the terminus ante quem.
Tiyao
No tiyao found in source.
Abstract
The author’s preface (zì xù 自序) identifies the primary Jīnpíngméi as the work of “Wáng Fèngzhōu xiānshēng” 王鳳洲先生 — that is, Wáng Shìzhēn 王世貞 (1526–1590), following the traditional (now largely discredited) attribution. The preface surveys the earlier continuations of the novel — implicitly the Xù Jīnpíngméi 續金瓶梅 by Dīng Yàokàng 丁耀亢 (KR4k0218) and at least one other sequel (Sān shì bào 三世報 is mentioned) — and finds them unsatisfying. The author presents his 40-chapter work as a corrective supplement: starting from the character 幻 (illusion) and concluding with 空 (emptiness), it traces the consequences of the original novel’s events through the lens of Buddhist karma and Confucian ethics, while deliberately excising all obscene passages (“穢言污語盡皆刪去”). The xiǎoyǐn 小引 reinforces the Buddhist framing: wealth and sex (cái sè 財色) are the two fundamental delusions; the work aims to help readers “return to the shore” (令人回頭是岸).
The author’s self-identification as a military man (余本武夫) who enjoys studying literary theory (性好窮研書理) is unusual and, if genuine, suggests a background in the Qīng military establishment rather than in literati examination culture. The pseudonym Nèyīn Jūshì is otherwise unattested.
The narrative structure of the 40 chapters is confirmed by the chapter titles visible in the Kanripo source: the story begins with the Buddhist monk Pǔjìng 普靜師 reanimating Xīmén Qìng 西門慶 and the ghost of Páng Dàjiě 龐大姐 returning to seek reincarnation (chap. 1), and ends with a nun’s tonsure completing the karmic cycle (chap. 40: 完宿債藍屏為尼, “Completing karmic debt: Lán Píng takes the tonsure”). The novel thus functions as a Buddhist-inflected moral epilogue to the Jīnpíngméi cycle rather than as a continuation of its erotic plot.
The copying notice by Wùběn Táng Zhǔrén 務本堂主人 (dated 1821) establishes that the text circulated in manuscript before print publication; the exact print date is unknown. The work is one of several Qīng sequels to Jīnpíngméi and is less well known than Dīng Yàokàng’s Xù Jīnpíngméi (KR4k0218). No modern scholarly monograph on this text has been located.
Translations and research
No substantial secondary literature located.
Other points of interest
The preface’s unusual structure — moving from literary analysis of the original Jīnpíngméi to self-deprecating authorial apology (“余雖無才，粗知筆墨”) — mirrors the conventional modesty rhetoric of Qīng fiction prefaces while inserting a genuine critical reflection on the problem of continuing a morally complex canonical text.