中国文学名著——《儒林外史》英文介绍中国文学名著介绍
Chinese Literature Introduction
7-儒林外史The Scholars
儒林外史The Scholars
The Ming and Qing dynasties are the golden age of ancient Chinese  fiction. The satirical novel The Scholars is one of the
masterpieces of that time. The author of this novel Wu Jingzi was a native of Quanjiao, Anhui
Province. Born into a gentry family, he in his youth tried to seek  fame and wealth and passed the imperial civil examination at the  county level. But his talent in literary creation did not match  the stereotyped writing needed for the imperial examinations. He  despised the contemporary vulgar taste and belittled the feudal  code. For this he was not tolerated by his time.
scholarsAt his age of 33 Wu Jingzi moved to Nanjing and made friends with  many scholars. He knew their life and psychology very well. He
got a deep insight into the examinations, the officialdom and the
social customs. His life experience during that time provided
necessary conditions for his novel The Scholars.
The novel begins with an aged student Zhou Jin who has not passed  the lowest level imperial examinations at his age of 60. When some  merchants offer money for him to buy a permit to sit examinations, he kneels down and calls them his "second parents". Fan Jin begins to take imperial examinations at his twenties and
only in his fifties he passes the provincial－level examination by chance. He is delirious and goes mad. Before he passes the examination, Fan Jin was in dire straits and
was bullied in many ways by others. Once he passes the examination,  he jumps from the rock bottom into the upper classes. This is the  magic of the imperial civil examinations. Under Wu Jingzi's pen, some influential persons are immoral and
shameless. Yan Dawei is a student of the Imperial College. When  the pig he has sold out runs back, he hides the pig away and lets  his son break the leg of the pig's new owner. After the death of his brot
her, Yan Dawei drives away his brother's
wife and child and seizes their property. But such a bully is
commended by the education supervisor Zhou Jin as a person of
"excellent conduct".
The Scholars also describes a number of false celebrities. Most  of them have failed in the imperial examination, but pretend to be indifferent in fame and wealth. Some of them are not students
at all, but they mingle with scholars and pose as lovers of
culture. The young man Niu Pulang discovers a secret from the poem  collection of the deceased scholar Niu Buyi, "So long as one can write a few lines, one can contact bigwigs. How illustrious this  is！" Since then he swindles and bluffs everywhere under Niu Buyi's  name. These ridiculous fakes are by－products of the system of
imperial civil examinations and the degenerating society.
The Scholars exposes corruptive feudal officials. In order to get
a chance of promotion, the magistrate of Gaoyao County Tang Feng
torments a craftsman of Hui nationality to death in front of his  yamen.
Wang Hui the prefect of Nanchang inquires ways to collect money
upon his arrival at his office. He also punishes people with
extraordinarily large flogs. He is commended as the first capable  official in Jiangxi Province and is promoted to the province
governor.
The Scholars is written in plain language. It represents the
characters' personality in the novel by the characters' own words  and actions. It is a rare masterpiece that describes everyday
life.
The Scholars that took Wu Jingzi ten years' hard work has exerted
far－reaching influence. Translated into many languages in the last half century, it has become part of the world literary
heritage.

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