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.

Although it is generally classified as a novel, its structure is quite different from what people usually call a novel. The whole novel has no main characters and story frame, but a series of relatively independent stories; After the previous story is finished, some new characters are introduced, and these new characters become the protagonists of the latter story.

The Scholars has an aesthetic style of blending sadness and joy. Wu can truly show the double structure of qi, harmony, sadness and joy in the satirical object, and show the tragic connotation hidden behind the funny reality, thus giving readers a double aesthetic feeling. Zhou Jin smashed the number plate, Jin Fan went crazy, Mr. Ma Er paid homage to the Imperial Bookstore, and Wang Yuhui advised the female martyr to laugh.

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Creative background:

On the background of the times, capitalist relations of production sprouted in the three generations of Kangxi, Yong Zhengdi and Qianlong in the Qing Dynasty, and the superficial prosperity of society could not conceal the decay of feudal society. While suppressing the armed uprising, the rulers adopted Daxing Literary Prison, stereotyped examination and imperial examination, and advocated Neo-Confucianism to imprison scholars with ruling ideology. Wu opposed stereotyped writing and the imperial examination system, and hated literati's obsession with art and their passion for fame and fortune.

Wu, the author of The Scholars, was born in a noble family. Great-grandfather and great-grandfather are two generations of "versatile officials" (Biography of Mr. Wenmu by Cheng Jinfang). * * * has six scholars, including one second prize and one flower detective. And his father, Wu, was a tribute during the Kangxi period. In sixty-one (1722), Wu Kangxi was admitted as a scholar, and his father died in the same year. Because he is not good at managing his livelihood, he lives like a prodigal son.

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