WARNING ~ FOR ADULT ONLY

Translated, with an introduction and notes, by Patrick Hanan

An Available Press Book
Published by Ballantine Books

Translation, notes, and introduction
copyright © 1990 by Patrick Hanan

All rights reserved under international and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. Published in the United States by Ballantine Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, and simultaneously in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto.

Grateful acknowledgment is made to Harvard University Press for permission to reprint an excerpt from The Invention of Li Yu by Patrick Hanan. Copyright © 1988 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College.

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 89-91506

ISBN: 0-345-36508-9

Text design by Holly Johnson
Cover design by James R. Harris
Cover illustration: Whiling Away the Summer by Yin Chi, one of twelve album leaves, 19th century.
Courtesy of Sydney L. Moss Ltd.

Manufactured in the United States of America

First Edition: August 1990
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Book Reviews

University of Hawaii Press 1996

A book review by Danny Yee © 2004 http://dannyreviews.com/

One of the great classics of Chinese erotica, The Carnal Prayer Mat certainly gets pretty raunchy in places. It stands out not for this, however, but for its brilliant comedy and satire; it could be read as a sparklingly witty light novel even by those without an interest in erotica.

Li Yu begins with a chapter explaining that he's actually arguing puritan values, "making use of lechery in putting a stop to lechery"... He then introduces the Zen priest Lone Peak, who doesn't ask for alms, explicate the scriptures, or live on a mountain — and who fails to deter our hero, the Scholar Vesperus, from a life of lechery.

The Carnal Prayer Mat goes on to describe Vesperus' exploits. He marries, debauches his innocent wife, and then sets off seeking amorous adventure, leaving her in the care of his stern father-in-law. He befriends the Knave, an honorable thief, who agrees to help him find and seduce the most beautiful women. But first he has to remedy a serious deficiency, finding an adept to help him with a penis enlargement...

That problem solved, Vesperus devotes himself to six far from unwilling women. But it is his relationships with them, their relationships with one another and the social setting which provide most of the entertainment, not the raw sex.

There has to be retribution to preserve the moral balance, but in Li Yu's perverse vision this turns out to involve further debauchery. Vesperus eventually returns to Lone Pine, where Li Yu wraps up his novel with an appropriate conclusion — well, one that is appropriate given that, as he says: "This truly is a book that mocks everything!"

Li Yu includes brief authorial comments at the end of some chapters, in which he praises himself immodestly, prods fun at his critics, and otherwise entertains himself and us. Patrick Hanan offers a ten page introduction and unobtrusive footnotes which explain the literary references — mostly used for parody — and a few untranslatable puns, but The Carnal Prayer Mat really doesn't need explanation.

October 2004

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"This strange and delightful book, one of the most vivid text on the shelf of Chinese erotica, shows Chinese society in a state of undress.
Patrick Hanan's translation is illuminating, fluent, and exhaustive - not only scholarly but sexy."
Paul Theroux

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About the Author

Li Yu was a renowned essayist, novelist, short-story writer, playwright, and critic. The Carnal Prayer Mat was first published in 1657.

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ABOUT THE TRANSLATOR

Educated in New Zealand and England, Patrick Hanan is a professor of Chinese literature at Harvard University. Among his books is a study of the author of The Carnal Prayer Mat entitled The Invention of Li Yu (Harvard University Press, 1988). Mr. Hanan is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and has received numerous awards for his research and translation projects

WARNING ~ FOR ADULT ONLY

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