Old Man Zan's Journey

Author: Liu E
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2000-08-01
Features: Hu Shi said: "The Old Man Rescued from Peril excels in the technique of description. Whether depicting people or landscapes, the author avoids clichés and clichéd expressions, always striving to coin new words and provide realistic descriptions. In this regard, this book can be considered unprecedented. The 'Popular Readings of Chinese Classical Literature' series provides concise and clear annotations in simple and popular language for difficult words and allusions, and adds pinyin and homophones for hard-to-identify characters, enabling readers with a junior high school education level to understand the text. The book's design is both beautiful and practical, yet simple and functional. It allows readers to gain a basic understanding of the essence of Chinese classical literature in a relatively short time. The Old Man Rescued from Peril is a successful novel. The actions of the protagonist, the old man Lao Can, as a physician traveling to various places, reflect the author's strong desire to heal the nation and its people. The book exposes the corruption of late Qing politics, and the revelation of the harm caused by 'honest officials' to the people is a pioneering achievement in Chinese literary works. The language of the book is vivid and fluent, with exquisite descriptions of landscapes and psychology, praised by critics for over a century, and some chapters have even been selected for language textbooks. Due to historical limitations, the book contains some discussions attacking the Boxers and revolutionaries, as well as content promoting superstition, which readers should discern and discard. In August 1903, Liu E wrote The Old Man Rescued from Peril, which was first serialized in Illustrated Novels. With its unique concept and beautiful language, it elevated late Qing fiction to a new realm. As an enlightened and progressive industrialist with a passion for enriching the nation and saving its people, Liu E's career was filled with hardships and repeated failures. The Old Man Rescued from Peril is a work born out of his grief for China's fate and his own, hoping to awaken the sleeping masses and repair the broken nation. The book criticizes the corruption of late Qing society from a unique perspective, focusing on exposing the crimes of the so-called 'honest officials' and the incompetence of the so-called 'good officials,' directly targeting the pillars of feudal political rule, striking at the core of the issue. The descriptive art of The Old Man Rescued from Peril has been praised since its publication. Whether it is the depiction of landscapes, the of images, the portrayal of psychological activities, or the creation of atmosphere, Liu E's writing is effortless, fresh and simple, vivid, and full of life.