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Jin Ping Mei or The Plum in the Golden Vase (also The Golden Lotus) is a Chinese naturalistic novel composed in the vernacular (baihua) during the late Ming Dynasty. The author was Lanling Xiaoxiao Sheng (兰陵笑笑生), "The Scoffing Scholar of Lanling", a clear pseudonym.
Jin Ping Mei is sometimes considered to be the fifth classical novel after the Four Great Classical Novels. It is the first full-length Chinese fictional work to depict sexuality in a graphically explicit manner, and as such has a notoriety in China akin to Fanny Hill or Lady Chatterley's Lover in English.
Jin Ping Mei takes its name from the three central female characters — Pan Jinlian (潘金蓮, whose name means "Golden Lotus"); Li Ping'er (李瓶兒, literally, "Little Vase"), a concubine of Ximen Qing; and Pang Chunmei (龐春梅, "Spring plum blossoms"), a young maid who rose to power within the family.
Within Chinese societies, Jin Ping Mei is considered to be pornographic material, due to its contents.