Rulin Wai Shi

Author: Wu Jingzi
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2005-12-01
Features: A (outstanding) satirical novel in the history of Chinese literature. It depicts the author Wu Jingzi's personal experiences and observations, reflecting his high ideals of valuing literary merit and personal integrity while despising fame and wealth. With vivid and lifelike descriptions, the novel realistically portrays society, presenting a living picture of social realities. Wu Jingzi refined folk language into simple, humorous, and authentic prose to expose the corruption and darkness of the imperial examination system, the vulgarity and absurdity of corrupt scholars and fake scholars, and the cruelty and despicable behavior of corrupt officials—all executed with precision, satire without harshness, and without resorting to vulgarity or revealing the novel's moral depravity. The Story of the Scholars (Rulin Waishi) is an outstanding realist satirical novel in the history of Chinese literature. The original version contained only 55 chapters. According to Cheng Jinfang's Poems on Deceased Friends, it was completed when Wu Jingzi was 49 years old, but it was not published until more than a decade after his death by Jin Zhaoqian. This edition has since been lost. The currently circulated edition has 56 chapters, with the last chapter being a posthumous forgery.