Strange Currents in a Decade of Life -- One Hundred Chinese Classical Novels

Author: Wu Jianren
Publisher:
Publish Date: 1998-10-01
Features: This book is one of the "100 Chinese Classical Masterpieces." Strange Currents in a Decade is a semi-autobiographical novel. The work follows the of the author's (which includes the author's own experiences) and describes the various strange phenomena encountered over twenty years, touching upon various aspects such as the officialdom, business world, foreign-influenced areas, imperial examinations, and family life, fully depicting the social scene of the declining late Qing Empire. The novel exposes some dark secrets in the military and diplomatic affairs of the late Qing era, which were not written about in other novels of the same time. For example, it describes a naval commander spotting a thick smoke at sea and suspecting it to be a French warship, mistakenly sinking the ship and then falsely reporting it as having been sunk by the enemy. Another instance is when dealing with the Lushan issue in Sino-Foreign relations, a minister from the Imperial Household Department casually hands over the entire Lushan Mountain to foreigners with just a few words.