Officialdom Exposed

Author: Li Baojia
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2003-03-01
Features: In the late 19th century, the Eight-Nation Alliance invaded China, suppressing the Boxer Movement for anti-imperialist patriotism. The Qing government signed the humiliating Boxer Protocol, exacerbating the national crisis and igniting widespread anger. Some intellectuals, filled with grief and indignation, used their pens as weapons to express their emotions, giving rise to many novels in the form of condemnation. The most representative work is The Real Story of the Court. This book exposes the darkness and corruption of the Qing court, covering politics, economy, military, and diplomacy, presenting a gallery of villains from the highest court officials like Grand Secretaries and provincial governors to lower-ranking officials such as circuit intendants, magistrates, commanders, and clerks. These bloodsuckers tyrannized internally, exploiting and robbing the people, recklessly disregarding human lives, and harming the populace. Externally, they bowed subserviently, surrendering and betraying their country. They valued money above all, adhering to the belief that "a thousand miles of office were sought only for wealth," openly selling and buying official posts, profiting at public expense, accepting bribes, embezzling military rations, and trafficking in human beings, going to extremes with no restraint. They vied for fame and profit, flattering superiors and catering to their whims while either colluding treacherously, mutual benefiting, or scheming against each other to eliminate rivals. They indulged in extravagance, in luxury, drugs, gambling, taking concubines, and debauchery, losing all sense of morality. The entire book objectively reflects the dark reality of society at the time. Reading it makes one feel that the fall of the Qing dynasty was inevitable. Although the author claimed in the book to specifically criticize the faults of officials, hoping they would realize their mistakes and "abstain from wrongdoing" or "be guided toward goodness," this good intention could not be realized at the time. Additionally, the author held a negative attitude toward peasant uprisings, slandered the Taiping Rebellion and the Boxer Movement. Both aspects reflect the author's limitations of his era and his reformist ideology.