On ZHU Xing's Achievements and Mistakes in Study of Chin Ping Mei

ZHU Xing was a pioneer of studying Chin Ping Mei. Through rigorous textual research, he confirmed WANG Shi-zhen as the writer of the novel Chin Ping Mei and negated the view held by LU Xun, ZHENG Zhen-duo and WU Han that the novel had not been written by WANG. Therefore, he made great achievement in studying the writer of this novel. In ignorance of MAO Ze-dong's argument that the novel has written a real history of Ming Dynasty, he proposed, through textual research, that the novel was a social history of late Ming Dynasty. This really deserved people's praise. However, his textual research of the editions of the novel and the early view that there was no obscene language in the novel was not so correct.