Novel
The Scholars
儒林外史
Wu Jingzi · 1750
Synopsis
Under the Ming, scholars and candidates for the imperial examinations follow one another through the chapters, none of them becoming the hero of the book. Fan Jin, poor and grown old in failure, loses his reason the day he learns of his success, in front of his father-in-law, a butcher. On his deathbed, the miser Yan Jiansheng holds up two fingers and cannot give up the ghost as long as two wicks are burning in his lamp. Around them pass corrupt officials, impostors and swindlers.
Context
Begun in Nanjing around 1740, the novel was completed around 1750; the first editions are lost, and the oldest surviving one dates from 1803. The book has fifty-six chapters. Set under the Ming, it portrays the scholars of the author's own time and the examination system that governed their lives. Lu Xun and Hu Shi reproached it for its lack of unity; it is nevertheless considered the summit of the Chinese satirical novel. Tchang Fou-jouei translated it into French in 1976, Yang Xianyi and Gladys Yang into English as early as 1957.
Who it is for
A long novel in fifty-six chapters, made up of successive portraits that can be read separately.
Prizes and reception
Regarded as the first great Chinese satirical novel, it inspired several novels of the late Qing.
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