The Embroidered Couch: An Erotic Novel of China

Jerremie Clyde is a reference librarian at the University of Alberta.

The Embroidered Couch is the English-language translation of a
17th-century Chinese erotic novel about a scholar named Easterngate, his
wife Jin, his friend Dali, and Dali’s mother. Easterngate arranges for
his Jin and Dali to have a sexual liaison, in part so that he can watch.
Dali is too rough with Jin, however, and to gain revenge Easterngate
sends Dali away and invites Dali’s widowed and chaste mother to stay
with him in order to seduce her. The majority of the text details, in
very frank language, the sexual encounters between the characters.

The translator’s introduction does a good job of providing necessary
context and establishing the text’s usefulness as a historical source.
The literary merit of The Embroidered Couch, on the other hand, is
questionable, although the book does offer an amusing look at life in
the late Ming dynasty.