Before he takes his monastic vows, the scholar Vesperus, student of Zen, handsome, clever, and exceptional lustful, must seek enlightenment on the carnal prayer mat. He devotes his life – and his body – to sexual exploration and erotic adventure, treading a path strewn with comedy, misadventure and sensual refinement towards ultimate wisdom. "Hero of the boudoir and champion of sex", his adventures, related here, establish Vesperus as an ancestor of Fanny Hill and Lady Chatterley. Published for the first time in English, this beautifully written seventeenth-century Chinese classic is both a superb historical novel and a surprisingly modern comedy of manners.
