In this paper I present a survey of Jin Shengtan’s commentaries and critical editions of two of the masterpieces of Chinese literature: Shuihu zhuan (Water Margin) and Xixiang ji (The Romance of the West Chamber). I investigate the textual emendations made by Jin and how they influence his copious annotations covering such areas as grammar, pronunciation, history, Buddhism, and a wide variety of technical fields. Drawing on the perspectives of Confucianism, Buddhism, and Daoism, Jin conflates the traditional images of the gifted scholar, the bodhisattva, and the man of integrity, and his annotations can be seen as a dialectic on realizing the Way.
Adopting the approach of Hans-Georg Gadamer, who in Truth and Method presents the dialogue between interpretation and truth, I focus on the historical consciousness, dialectic, and integrated field of vision revealed in Jin’s commentaries and critical editions, which I compare to the commentary on the Lotus Sutra written by Zhiyi, the founder of the Tiantai school of Chinese Buddhism. I discuss how Jin adapted various interpretive principles used by Zhiyi, such as “the five categories of profound meaning,” “the four kinds of exegesis,” and “the three insights in one thought.” I also discuss the similarities between Jin’s application of the Tiantai exegetical methodology and the “remarkable adaptation” and “extension of change” characteristics of the Zhuangzi. All this reveals Jin’s playful approach to language, by which he draws the reader into a kind of dialogue with himself, the writer, and the characters in the book. Finally, I examine the way in which Jin delights in riding the fence between “method” and “non-method” and blurring the distinctions between different interpretive methodologies so as to meld them into a single ingenuous perspective, thereby expanding the reader’s aesthetic experience.
