Dame Wang’s Dumplings: Mediating the Obscene in Manchu Translations of Erotic Literature at the Turn of the Eighteenth Century

Abstract

Abstract This article examines the surprising attention to taboo works of Chinese erotic literature within the corpus of early Manchu literary translations, focusing on the Manchu interpretations of Jinpingmei (The plum in the golden vase), Xixiang ji (The story of the western wing), and Rouputuan (The carnal prayer mat). The Qing court is well known to have sponsored translations of core works of the Chinese classical and historical tradition, while simultaneously banning texts perceived as heterodox, lascivious, or politically sensitive. A lively engagement among Manchu commercial publishers with the literary tradition, including vernacular novels and plays, highlights the broader reading habits of the early Qing Manchu reader in practice. In mediating erotic material for this new audience, translators employed a variety of interpretive choices, ranging from expurgation to the opposite extreme of hyper-sexualization. This study situates these translation practices within the broader Manchu justifications of reading this material, shifting our attention from the conventional representation of Manchu literary repression.