Author: WU CHING-TZU,
Title: The Scholars. [Second english language edition translated from the chinese by Yang Hsien-yi and Gladys Yang].
Description: Peking, Foreign Languages Press, 1964. Stout 8°., original cloth. 721pp. Fairly large coloured decorative vignette on ti.-p., 18 monochrome plates of which 2 extending, after original chinese woodblock printes, list of principal characters Classic chinese novel, translated into english, which has been widely red for nearly two hundred years. Directly and indirectly this book has educated the Chinese people and contributed to the development of democratic ideas. Because of the high quality of its satire, The Scholars has always made a deep impression on its readers. Thus the preface written during the Tung Chih period (1862-1874) by Hsin Yuan Tui Shih declares:..You are warned not to read this novel; for once you have read it, you will feel you are meeting it characters all the time in real life. (quote preface). Unquote: [sound negative, but could be interpreted as a positive advice!]. (traces of removals on both inner covers, private ms. annotations in ink on verso of final blank, outer covers stained, contents clean).

Keywords: china literature literati satire rulingclass novel fareast asia criticism parody history classic examinations