嚴嵩是明代嘉靖年間官至宰相役使極權的人物。他失勢以後，在許多歷史資料或文學作品中被視為「奸臣」 。在形塑及傳播嚴嵩的奸臣形象上，王世貞做出了一定的貢獻。推其緣由在於：王世貞之父──王忬被嚴嵩無情殺害。嚴嵩下臺後，坊間馬上出現了批評嚴嵩的戲曲作品： 《鳴鳳記》 ，這部作品有人認為出自王世貞之手。清初亦流傳著這種說法：長篇小說《金瓶梅》是王世貞為了殺死嚴嵩之子嚴世蕃所執筆之作。儘管漢學界對於王世貞是否為《金瓶梅》原作者的說法眾說紛紜，目前亦無確解。然本文意圖並不在此，而是關注王世貞撰寫《金瓶梅》這樁傳說產生的歷史社會背景。至少明代萬曆年間的《金瓶梅》讀者認為小說中存有嚴嵩父子的影子，這是不爭的事實。據此，進一步直指《金瓶梅》的作者是與嚴嵩對立的王世貞，亦屬自然。爾後，王世貞為報父仇而寫作《金瓶梅》的這樁傳說普遍流傳了幾百年之久。最後，筆者從另一角度探討《金瓶梅》文本與嚴嵩抄沒的記錄： 《天水冰山錄》二者之間具有的共同點。

We have little information about the author of The Plum in the Golden Vase (Jin Ping Mei). We know only his pen name, Lanling Xiaoxiaosheng. However, during the Qing period many people believed that The Plum in the Golden Vase was written by Wang Shi-zhen, an eminent man of letters who lived during the late Ming, and was intended to criticize Yan Song, a powerful prime minister during the Jiajing era and his son, Yan Shi-fan.
In this paper I will examine both the materials that suggest Wang Shi-zhen was the author of The Plum in the Golden Vase and the background of this story’s production.
Yan Song was an enemy of Wang Shi-zhen’s father and it was well known that Wang Shi-zhen and Yan Song disliked each other. On the other hand, because The Plum in the Golden Vase was thought to have been written as a critique of Yan Song, it was quite natural that people would believe that Wang wrote this novel. I will also examine the similarity between the descriptions of objects in The Plum in the Golden Vase and those found in the list of Yan Song’s confiscated items when he lost power.