Here is the translation of the given content: "Twenty Years A Dreaming of the Strange States of the World"

Author: Wu Jianren
Publisher:
Publish Date: 1995-04-01
Features: This book can be considered a documentary novel of its era. It weaves together horizontal and vertical perspectives, recording both officials and common people, comparing the foreign and the domestic, and coexisting beauty and ugliness. It depicts various fields of society at the time, whether it be the officialdom, business world, or foreign-influenced areas; politics, military, or culture; friendship, marital love, or maternal love, all areed to varying degrees. To some extent, it can also be said to be a historical record of the era's national culture. It is both a novel and a history. In this book, it prominently reflects a social form that previous generations rarely, if ever, depicted: the fear of enemies among late Qing officials, their veneration of foreigners and subservience, and their betrayal and surrender. For example, during the Sino-French War, when the captain of the Zuyuan ship of the Southern Sea Fleet saw a dense smoke on the horizon, mistaking it for a warship, he dared not face it and instead opened the waterway to deliberately sink the ship, with the soldiers fleeing in lifeboats. Afterward, they falsely reported, "We encountered the enemy in error and were sunk." In the Sino-Japanese War, before even firing a shot, General Ye surrendered to the Japanese army, pleading for mercy and fleeing in panic. As for the dignified imperial envoys, they were even more terrified in the face of enemies. In Chapter 16, it is described thus: "The Battle of Mazhou produced many laughable stories. Some said that the imperial envoy, upon hearing a single cannon fire, fled immediately on horseback, one foot in boots and the other bare. Others claimed he escaped in a sedan chair, with half a ham hanging behind it." Faced with such a state of affairs, the author, in his memories, uses Wang Bosu's voice to lament, "From top to bottom in China, there are so many of these people. What is wrong with our country?"