What is the main content of The Scholars?

The Scholars is a long satirical novel by Wu in Qing Dynasty, which mainly describes intellectuals.

It depicts the social life of the Qing Dynasty. The book describes some images of Confucian scholars who were deeply poisoned by stereotyped imperial examination system and feudal ethics, reflecting their extremely hypocritical social habits caused by their pursuit of fame and fortune at that time, and then satirizing the fatuity and incompetence of feudal officials, the greed and meanness of landlords and gentry, the hypocrisy and meanness of arty celebrities, and the decay of the whole feudal ethics system and the distortion of human soul.

Extended data:

Theme of the work

The Scholars is a satirical novel, which criticizes and exposes the present social situation and the fate of Confucian scholars with pungent brushwork. The novel vividly depicts the decadent status quo of spiritual morality and cultural education of the intellectual class under the imperial examination system. It reveals the concept of fame and fortune, bureaucracy, interpersonal relationship and the whole social atmosphere through life.

The influence of later generations

The appearance of The Scholars had a great influence on the history of China's novels and laid the foundation for China's classical satirical novels. The Scholars has been translated into English, French, German, Russian, Japanese, Spanish and other languages, and has been widely circulated around the world, becoming a world-famous literary masterpiece. And published some foreign scholars' research monographs.

References:

Baidu encyclopedia-the history of scholars