Jin Ping Mei is the first novel independently written by China literati, which is famous for its "forbidden books" and "fantastic books". This book is based on a story of Song Wu killing his wife in Water Margin. It is written that Pan Jinlian was not killed by Song Wu, but married Ximen Qing as his concubine, thus becoming the main body of the novel. The description of Ximen Qing and his family's sinful life reflects the folk life at that time.

Taking the street people as the protagonist, through multi-faceted and multi-level descriptions, the darkness and decay of feudal society in Ming Dynasty are exposed to the fullest. At this point, Jin Ping Mei is far superior to Water Margin.

Extended data

The first time this book returns to the twelfth time, I wrote Jin Ping Mei; From the thirteenth to the sixty-second time, write bottles and golden lotus; From sixty-third to eighty-seventh, because the bottle died, Chun Mei was written in addition to Jin Ping Mei; Back to the eighty-eighth, then write Chun Mei. This book is called Jin Ping Mei because it is mainly composed of Jinlian, Pinger and Chun Mei.

The book was written between Qin Long and Wanli in Ming Dynasty, or earlier, and the author signed it as Xiao Sheng in Lanling. The versions that have been circulated so far are Chongzhen Edition and Wanli Edition. Based on the Chongzhen edition, this book deleted Xiu Xiang's illustrations and revised some typos and other words. Before the article, there are Preface to Wu Dong's Making Beads, Twenty Public Postscripts and Four Greedy Words, and after the article, there are Zhupo Gossip and Zhupo Notes.