The Modus Operandi of Pimping in Two Ming Dynasty Classic Chinese Novels

In Chinese literary history, Classic Chinese Novels germinated in the pre-Qin period and gradually developed in the form of literary sketches divided into humanity and mystery in the Western and Eastern Han, Wei, Jin and Southern and Northern dynasties. Classic Chinese Novels neared maturity in the Tang dynasty and pinnacled in late Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties when full-length novels known as Zhang Hui Xiao Shuo—marked by a summary couplet as lead in each chapter and an ending urging readers to “read on to find out what is to develop”—succeeded. The pimping plotted in both Jin Ping Mei (popularly known as The Plum in the Golden Vase or The Golden Lotus in the west), a one-million-word literary product of the late Ming dynasty and Jiang Xing Ge’s Reunion with His Pearl Vest, yet another Ming-era creation of some twenty thousand words are found to share similar modus operandi and they are thought to be revealing and enlightening when scanned by Discourse Analysis and Speech Act theory. Nigh verbatim scrutiny of discourse and verbal utterances generated in the initiation and completion of the pimping also informs a causal relationship and it is concluded both humans’ innate weakness and contextual convergence, if not retribution due to the decision made, contributed to the submission of temptations and lusts unwittingly notwithstanding the thought humans are not as puny and weak.