Ping Shan Leng Yan

''Ping Shan Leng Yan'' ( zh, c=平山冷燕, p=Píng Shān Lěng Yān, w=P'ing Shan Leng Yen), also translated into English as ''Flat Mountain and Cold Swallow'' and ''Cold Swallows in the Peaceful Hill'', is a classic ''caizi jiaren'' novel written in early Qing dynasty China. The earliest extant edition of the novel is a printed edition dating from 1658, now preserved in the Dalian Library. The title of the book is derived from the surnames of the two couples featured in the book. The novel is sometimes attributed to Di An Shanren ( zh, c=荻岸山人), but the authorship is uncertain. It has also been attributed to Tianhua Zang Zhuren (), a pseudonym meaning "Master of the Heavenly Flower Sutra". '' Yu jiao li'' and ''Ping Shan Leng Yan'' were both written by the same Tianhua Zang Zhuren according to a style analysis by caizi jiaren scholar Qing Ping Wang. Classical Chinese scholar and Yale professor Chloë Starr lists ''Ping Shan Leng Yan'' along with ''Yu jiao li'' and ''Haoqiu zhuan'' as one of the three best-known examples of the caizi jiaren genre.

In the novel, both Miss Shan Dai and her maid Miss Leng Jiangxue are talented writers. Two young scholars decide to woo them with their own poetry, but discover that their poems have been plagiarized by rival suitors. The ladies and their would-be suitors challenge each other to a poetry contest, which the ladies win. The two new couples gain imperial approval to marry.

Plot

Miss Shan Dai, a beautiful girl, is so talented that she passes the challenging tests set by her tutor and impresses her father, an imperial official. Miss Leng Jiangxue, also a talented young woman, is sent from a poor family to be Shan's maid, on the way sees a striking poem written by an impoverished student, Ping Ruheng. Ping is traveling to Songjiang, where he meets the accomplished and handsome scholar, Yan Baihan. The two young men decide to go to Beijing in disguise to find the renowned Shan Dai, but while they are en route, other suitors plagiarize their poetry to woo the young ladies. The plot climaxes in a poetry contest in which the two young ladies defeat Ping and Yan in a competition to write the best poem, and in the end their marriages are approved by the emperor himself.

Pseudo-''caizi'' are foils to the real ''caizi'' in ''caizi jiaren'' stories. Here, the characters, Song Xin (C: 宋 信, P: ''Sòng Xìn'', W: ''Sung Hsin'') and Dou Guoyi (T: 竇國一, S: 窦国一, P: ''Dòu Guóyī'', W: ''To Kuo-i''), plagiarize poems written by Ping and Yan and pretend to be poets.

File:Harvard drs 49885440 繪圖平山冷燕四才子書 v.1.pdf, page=5, Ping Ruheng
File:Harvard drs 49885440 繪圖平山冷燕四才子書 v.1.pdf, page=6, Shan Dai
File:Harvard drs 49885440 繪圖平山冷燕四才子書 v.1.pdf, page=7, Leng Jiangxue
File:Harvard drs 49885440 繪圖平山冷燕四才子書 v.1.pdf, page=8, Yan Baihan

See also

* Iu-kiao-li: or, the Two Fair Cousins, another classic caizi jiaren novel

Notes

References

External links

Ping Shan Leng Yan
- Project Gutenberg e-book (in Chinese)
{{Authority control

1658 novels
1658 in China
17th-century Chinese novels
Qing dynasty novels
Chinese romance novels
Works about poets