Well, I have no problems with understanding cuz i'm reading russian version of it :)  I read about 25 chapters and continue) But i don't think that erotics are implicit in there (or it is russian translators service <img alt="" src="http://www.italki.com/fckeditor/editor/images/smiley/msn/wink_smile.gif" /> ), there is a lot of poems and unusual specific metaphors. Hope I can read it through up to the end, but it is reeaally long! It's like soap opera in 100 series <img alt="" src="http://www.italki.com/fckeditor/editor/images/smiley/msn/regular_smile.gif" />, but more peculiar.

Read part of it (probably 15-20 chapters). I own a copy from the 80's, not sure if they were bootleg or what, I wondered whether certain _good_parts, *wink wink nudge nudge*, were not in this edition. It was banned for a loooong time so even for now many editions don't have it intact. To thicken the plot there seem to be different versions. If you were in for the erotica, you'd find it incredibly implicit and non-erotic like a PG movie. :O The book is a real gem for its beauty in language. It's the diction, characterization, stylistic features and narrative devices that count. Not an easy read for any Chinese learners or even some Chinese speaking people. Lots of archaic words and ancient Chinese for it was written hundred years ago. The difficulty can be understood as, if ancient Chinese was similar to Medieval English, this book is more like post-Shakespeare to Renaissance/pre-Restoration writing. For the plot, I thought it was disappointing in many ways.