The Wizard of Oz - Up and Down

Author: Li Baichuan (Qing Dynasty)
Publisher:
Publication Date: 2001-06-01
Features: During the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty, Li Baichuan, who enjoyed talking about ghosts and strange tales, traveled extensively and endured hardships before spending nine years writing Green Fields and Immortal Adventures. Green Fields and Immortal Adventures achieved outstanding literary success. It broke new ground and innovated in traditional fantasy novels, blending fantasy, social novels, and historical novels into one. The character portrayals in the novel are particularly brilliant, especially those of the lively common people in the mortal world. The passage describing Wen Ruyu, the son of a high-ranking official, indulging in the pleasures of the flesh and losing his family fortune, is truly brilliant. Mr. Zheng Zhenduo believed that this was the best part of Green Fields and Immortal Adventures, as well as the best part of many "brothel literature" works. The writing style is sharp, grand, and humorous. The dialogue in the novel is lifelike, vivid, and full of color, capturing the personalities, identities, and psychology of the characters in their spoken words, truly showcasing the style of a master of language. Li Baichuan's friend Tao Jiahe praised the book as "the greatest landscape in the realm of storytelling." Mr. Zheng Zhenduo ranked Green Fields and Immortal Adventures alongside Dream of the Red Chamber and The Scholars as one of the three great novels of the mid-Qing Dynasty.