嚴嵩父子とその周邊 : 王世貞、『金瓶梅』その他

Abstract

Yan Song (1480-1567), the powerful prime minister of the Jiaqing 嘉靖 (1522-1566), has been portrayed as a villain in various historical and literary works ever since his downfall in 1562. It was Wang Shi-zhen (1529-1593), whose father's death was caused by Yan in a power struggle in the court, who contributed greatly to the creation of this negative portrait. Ming feng ji, a popular play criticizing Yan Song published shortly after his fall, was commonly attributed to Wang Shi-zhen. Starting in early Qing 清, Wang was also considered to be the author of Jin ping mei which according to some contemporary critics, was an expose of Yan's faction. Thus, in people's minds, satires of Yan Song were associated with Wang Shi-zhen. Moreover, although we cannot be certain about the authorship of Jin ping mei, we know that early manuscripts of the novel circulated among Wang Shi-zhen's friends. It seems almost certain that Wang had some connection with the novel.