The Scholars (Chinese novel)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is about the Chinese novel. For the Orange County Ska/punk band, see The Scholars.

The Scholars (Traditional Chinese: 儒林外史 pinyin: rú lín wài shǐ; lit. "The Unofficial History of the Forest (ie. World) of the Literati") is a Chinese novel of the Qing Dynasty, authored by Wu Jingzi (吳敬梓) and completed in 1750.

Set in the Ming period, the novel describes and often satirizes Chinese scholars in a vernacular Chinese idiom, although in a style that is more highbrow than the other famous vernacular novels. The first and last chapters portray recluses, but most of the loosely-connected stories that form the bulk of the novel are didactic and satiric stories, on the one hand holding up exemplary Confucian behavior, but on the other ridiculing over-ambitious scholars and criticizing the civil service examination system.

Promoting naturalistic attitudes over belief in the supernatural, the author rejects the popular belief in retribution: his bad characters suffer no punishment. The characters in these stories are intellectuals, perhaps based on the author's friends and contemporaries. Wu also portrays women sympathetically: the chief character Du treats his wife as a companion instead of as an inferior. Although it is a satiric novel, a major incident in the novel is Du's attempt to renovate his family's ancestral temple, suggesting the author shared with Du a belief in the importance of Confucianism.