色，戒 (1979)

《色，戒》是小说家张爱玲撰写的短篇小说。

故事背景

《色，戒》的故事背景设定在第二次世界大战期间，于太平洋战争发生前后的上海与香港（1939年—1942年），描述一名为中华民国国民政府服务的大学话剧团里的年轻女演员王佳芝，自愿充当性诱饵，密谋暗杀汪精卫国民政府里的特务头目易先生。

出版

起初小说于1978年4月11日在台湾《中国时报》“人间副刊”连载，后收录在一本名为《惘然记》的张爱玲短篇小说集中，由台湾皇冠出版社出版。

改编作品

电影

2007年改编成同名电影，由李安执导。

Lust, Caution (Chinese: 色，戒; pinyin: Sè, Jiè) is a novella by the Chinese writer Eileen Chang, first published in 1979. It is set in Shanghai and Hong Kong during the Second Sino-Japanese War. Reportedly, the short story "took Chang more than two decades to complete".

The 2007 film of the same name by renowned Taiwanese director Ang Lee was an adaptation of this novel. The story focuses on the plight of Wang Chia-chih and her involvement in a plot to assassinate Mr. Yee, who is a co-collaborator of a Chinese collaborator with the invading Japanese force. The novella was allegedly based on a true story of the wartime spy Zheng Pingru. According to David Der-wei Wang, Lust, Caution "drew controversy thanks to a biographical subtext: it seems to project Chang's own wartime experience as a collaborator's lover".

Original manuscript

In 2008, Hong Kong magazine Muse released an unpublished English manuscript by Eileen Chang, entitled The Spyring or Ch'ing Kê! Ch'ing Kê!, an earlier draft of Lust, Caution. The manuscript was dated as early as the 1950s. According to an article in Southern Metropolis Daily, Chang willed all her possessions to Stephen Soong and his wife Mae Fong Soong in Hong Kong, but they later died. Their daughter Elaine and son Chinese-American translator Roland Soong inherited Chang's literary estate. An online newspaper article in The New York Times reveals that Roland Soong "was approached about making a film" from Chang's Lust, Caution upon returning to Hong Kong in 2003. Soong decided to release the manuscript when the 2007 film adaptation hit the cinemas.

The title of the work eventually adopted, Lust, Caution, is a pun. The character for "lust" (色, sè) can be read as "colour", while "caution" (戒, jiè) can be read as "ring", therefore the title can also read as "colourful ring", an object that plays a pivotal role in the story.

Plot summary

During the Japanese occupation of China, Wang Chia-chih (Wang Jiazhi), a young former actress and drama student, along with other radical Cantonese students, takes on a dangerous mission to disrupt the Wang Jingwei regime. Wang is the man who has negotiated and collaborated with the invading Japanese forces to form a government in China. The radical group plans to assassinate Mr. Yee (Yi), a co-collaborator of Wang Jingwei. Chia-chih is assigned a role in disguise as the wife of Mr. Mai, a Hong Kong businessman who is made bankrupt after the bombing of Pearl Harbor and the fall of Hong Kong. Her task is to seduce Mr. Yee and facilitate the assassination.

Initially, the student conspirators plan to assassinate Mr. Yee during his stay in Hong Kong. However, the Yees unexpectedly have to leave for Mainland China. The group is disbanded due to a lack of funds and the low chances of getting close enough to Mr. Yee in order to kill him. During this period, the female student conspirators denounce Chia-chih as a whore because of her sexual relationship with Liang Jun-sheng, who is tasked with training Chia-chih as a seductress. The mission resumes after Wu, a member of the anti-Japanese underground resistance in Shanghai, offers to sponsor its continuation in Shanghai.

In Shanghai, Chia-chih becomes a part of Mrs. Yee's regular mahjong group. She seduces Mr. Yee and has a secret affair with him. Throughout their liaison, Chia-chih struggles internally between her personal attachment to Mr. Yee and her assignment to lure him into an assassination trap. On the day of the impending assassination, Mr. Yee offers to buy Chia-chih a rare diamond ring when they visit a jeweller to replace a gem from one of her earrings. As they wait for the jeweller to prepare a receipt, Chia-chih presumes that Mr. Yee's feelings for her are genuine and agonizes over the thought of his impending assassination. At the last minute, she simply tells him to run, a discreet way of warning him of the attempt on his life. He successfully flees.