The Scholars

A masterpiece from the Ming dynasty, Wu Ching-tzu's ranks with , and the as one of the greatest classic novels of China. is the first Chinese novel of its scope not to borrow any characters from history or legend and it is the first work of satiric realism to achieve an almost complete disassociation from the religious beliefs of the people. Departing from the impersonal tradition of Chinese fiction, Wu abandons such established narrative formulas as folk songs and poetic verse in favor of autobiographical experiences, descriptive realism, and characters modeled after his friends and relatives -elements that combine to give this critique of the Confucian civil service system an unprecedented immediacy and humor.

Literature & Fiction

Yang, Gladys

Wu, Jingzi

Yang, Hsien-I

Classics

Columbia Univ. Pr.

Selections from Records of the Historian

History

Chien, Szuma

Yang, Hsien-yi

Asia

China Books & Periodicals

Wu, Ching-Tzu. The Scholars. Translated by Yang Hsien-yi and Gladys Yang. The author's portrait and illustrations by Cheng Shih-Fa. Third Edition. Peking, Foreign Languages Press, 1973. 22 cm. 8, 607 pages. 21 leaves of plates, dome folded. Illustrations (including colour frontispiece) and portraits in black and white. Original hardcover. Very good condition with only very minor signs of external wear. The Scholars is a Chinese novel authored by Wu Jingzi and completed in 1750 during the Qing Dynasty. Set in the Ming period, the novel describes and often satirizes Chinese scholars in a vernacular Chinese idiom. The first and last chapters portray recluses, but most of the loosely connected stories that form the bulk of the novel are didactic and satiric stories, on the one hand holding up exemplary Confucian behavior, but on the other ridiculing over-ambitious scholars and criticizing the civil service examination system. Promoting naturalistic attitudes over belief in the supernatural, the author rejects the popular belief in retribution: his bad characters suffer no punishment. The characters in these stories are intellectuals, perhaps based on the author's friends and contemporaries. Wu also portrays women sympathetically: the chief character Du treats his wife as a companion instead of as an inferior. Although it is a satiric novel, a major incident in the novel is Du's attempt to renovate his family's ancestral temple, suggesting the author shared with Du a belief in the importance of Confucianism. (Wikipedia)

The Scholars Rulin Waishi

Ching-Tzu, Wu

Shih-Fa, Cheng

Contemporary

Cheng Tsui Co.

The Unofficial History of the World of the Literati, this classic novel, written in the Chinese vernacular and published around 1750, is Wu Ching-Tzu's account of many friends (and enemies), academics all, who struggle to cope with the burdens of a Confucian society and the difficulties of the Civil Service Exam. It's book that appeals in every era. Under Mao, the work was taught to mainland students, not for the comedy, but to educate on the failings of "the Old Way." Follow this author as he charts through faculty, of good morals and bad, with noble objectives and venal ones, on a Ming Dynasty romp you'll find impossible to put down.

Silk Pagoda

Selected Plays of Guan Hanqing

Containing eight plays by the magnificent Guan Hanqing, the "Shakespeare of China." Hanqing lived in the 13th century, at the height of the Yuan Dynasty. An actor himself, he is said to have written more than 60 plays for the traveling theater groups which flourished on the mainland in those days. His works concerned history, deception, treachery, men, women, and the abuse of official power. Also of note are the powerful and resourceful women he gives in such comedies as "Rescued by a Coquette," the portrayals of middle-class life back then, and not a bit of bawdy humor.

Selected Plays Of Guan Hanqing

Hanqing, Guan

Dramas & Plays

Yang Xianyi Yu Dai Naidie

Yang, Xianyi

Li, Hui

杨宪益

大象出版社

An eighteenth-century satire, it is outstanding among Chinese classic novels. The author mercilessly exposes the decadence of the literati produced by the feudal examination system, the disastrous effects of that institution, the corruption of the feudal regime, and the darkness of the feudal society. The Yangs are also the translators of the most famous Chinese classic novel A Dream of Red Mansions.

The Scholars (Library of Chinese Classics Chinese-English edition: 3 Volumes)

Jingzi, Wu

Hunan Peoples Publishing House

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