On Fruits and Flaws of WEI Zi-yun's Studes of Chin Ping Mei

As a pioneer of studying Chin Ping Mei in contemporary China, WEI Zi-yun had made notable achievements as well as some flaws. He was the first person who challenged one of LU Xun's authoritative views. He thought that the early novel Chin Ping Mei had satirized emperors Wanli and Shenzong of Ming Dynasty who doted on highest-ranking concubine ZHENG and deprived their eldest sons of rights to succeed the throne. This seemed uncertain and had become his core view of studying the novel. Based on this, the issues like the background, year of completion, publication of the first edition of the novel he solved did not seem so correct. He took as the evidence the lyrics Drifting Red on Water which was composed by LI Ri-hua who found his own activities in the middle and late years of Wanli. Accordingly, he thought that the novel had been completed in the years of Wanli. In fact, he was wrong. The author of Drifting Red on Water was in the period of Jiangjing or even earlier. Therefore, it is not correct that he thought the novel appeared in the 24 ^thyear of Wangli.