Xiuta yeshi, translated into English as The Embroidered Couch,[a] is a Chinese erotic novel composed during the late Ming dynasty by playwright Lü Tiancheng (呂天成) under various pseudonyms.

[9] Xiuta yeshi was composed in vernacular Chinese (with the influence of Wu Chinese as the story is set in Yangzhou)[13] during the late Ming dynasty in 1597[7] by playwright Lü Tiancheng (呂天成) under various pseudonyms like "Qingdian zhuren" (情癲主人; "Master of crazy passion") and "Zuimiange hanhanzi"(醉眠閣憨憨子; "The silly literati at the drunken slumber gazebo")[14] at around the same time Tang Xianzu finished The Peony Pavilion.

[18] For centuries after its publication, during the Qing dynasty, Xiuta yeshi was constantly included in the lists of jinshu (禁書) or forbidden books by central and local bureaucrats.

[20][21] Xiuta yeshi is a "realist erotic novel", similar to Jin Ping Mei (The Golden Lotus) which was also published in the late Ming dynasty;[22] according to Wilt L. Idema, Xiuta yeshi is "most likely China's earliest vernacular pornographic novel",[15] while Ka F. Wong notes that it is "supposedly preceded only by Jin Ping Mei and Langshi (浪史) ... although the chronology of these three works is debatable".

[9] According to Wong, Xiuta yeshi "is destined to be compared with Jin Ping Mei", although he finds it an unfair comparison insofar as the latter novel is primarily a socio-satirical work, with its sex scenes being a minor part of the plot.

[19] Yiheng Zhao describes the book as one of the "dirtiest late Ming novels extant"[17] while Bret Hinsch writes that it is "lurid pornography" and "extravagantly grotesque".

[7] Unfavourably comparing it to "higher-class" works like The Golden Lotus and The Carnal Praying Mat, John Minford dismisses Xiuta yeshi as a "crude" novel.

"[27] Similarly, Jie Guo argues that in the novel, "priority is often given to sex, rather than to plot or characterization", although he acknowledges that the sexual episodes in Xiuta yeshi link to one another to create a coherent narrative.