Jou Pu Tuan, the Chinese title of Li Yu's novel, means 'The Prayer Mat of Flesh'. It was first published in about 1640 and its author's intentions were virtuous: to prove that a libertine's life could only end in spiritual poverty and disaster.
It is unlikely that anyone today would read this book as a moral treatise; but its purpose, and still more its author's benign gaiety, give it a charm and interest quite uncommon in erotic novels.
Jou Pu Tuan, the Chinese title of Li Yu's novel, means 'The Prayer Mat of Flesh'. It was first published in about 1640 and its author's intentions were virtuous: to prove that a libertine's life could only end in spiritual poverty and disaster.
It is unlikely that anyone today would read this book as a moral treatise; but its purpose, and still more its author's benign gaiety, give it a charm and interest quite uncommon in erotic novels.