《金瓶梅》由《水滸傳》"武松殺嫂"一段衍展而來,但在時空敘事上卻突破了原書的規限。它在時代背景上有意混淆宋明兩朝,成為通俗長篇小說鮮明深刻地反映時代特征的先例。其疏密有致的紀時敘事、接踵不斷的節慶書寫,也都通過前后的對比呈現出盛衰之變、冷熱之感。它把主要敘事地域由陽谷轉換到清河,產生具體指實卻又無法確究的藝術效果,進而以家庭為中心展開社會描寫,將庭院布局與故事發展、人物塑造相結合,營造了聯系緊密的多層空間場域。總體而言,《金瓶梅》為通俗長篇小說樹立了新的范式,開創了世情章回小說這一新類型,對后來的小說創作影響深遠。

Although The Plum in the Golden Vase is a derivation of the episode "Wu Song kills his sister-in-law" in The Water Margin, its temporal and spatial narration breaks through the restrictions of the original text. In terms of historical background, The Plum in the Golden Vase intentionally blends the Song and the Ming dynasty, which sets a precedent for profound reflection of the times in popular novels. The coherent chronological narrative and the continuous festival writing in this work also demonstrates the ups and downs as well as the prosperity and decline through the comparison of before and after. The main location in the narrative shifts from Yanggu to Qinghe, which ambivalently forms a realistic but illusory artistic effect. Then the novel describes society by focusing on family issues, and combines the courtyard layout with the story development and characterization, which constructs an interlocked and multilayered space. On the whole, it sets up a new paradigm for the popular novels by creating the chaptered novel of worldly affairs, which had a far-reaching impact on subsequent fictional writing.