The Ming and Qing dynasties are the golden age of ancient Chinese fiction. The satirical novel The Scholars is one of the masterpieces of that time. 
The author of this novel Wu Jingzi was born into a gentrys family in a small county on Yangtze River. He in his youth tried to seek fame and wealth and passed the imperial civil examination at the county level. But his talent in literary creation did not match the stereotyped writing needed for the imperial examinations. He despised the contemporary vulgar taste and belittled the feudal code. For this he was not tolerated by his time.
At his age of 33 Wu Jingzi moved to Nanjing and made friends with many scholars. He knew their life and psychology very well. He got a deep insight into the examinations, the officialdom and the social customs. His life experience during that time provided necessary conditions for his novel The Scholars.
The novel begins with an aged student Zhou Jin who has not passed the lowest level imperial examinations at his age of 60. When some merchants offer money for him to buy a permit to sit examinations, he kneels down and calls them his "second parents".
Fan Jin begins to take imperial examinations at his twenties and only in his fifties he passes the provincial-level examination by chance. He is delirious and goes mad.
 Before he passes the examination, Fan Jin was poor and was bullied in many ways by others. As soon he is told that he passes the examination, he seems to jump from the rock bottom into the upper classes. He is so happy that he can't control his mood and behavior and gets mad soon afterwards. This is the magic of the imperial civil examinations.
Under Wu Jingzi's pen, some influential persons are immoral and shameless. Yan Dawei is a student of the Imperial College or Royal Academy. When the pig he has sold out runs back, he hides the pig away and lets his son break the leg of the pig's new owner.
After the death of his brother, Yan Dawei drives away his brother's wife and child and seizes their property. But such a bully is commended by the education supervisor Zhou Jin as a person of "excellent conduct".
The Scholars also describes a number of false celebrities. Most of them have failed in the imperial examination, but pretend to be indifferent in fame and wealth. Some of them are not students at all, but they mingle with scholars and pose as culture promoters. The young man Niu Pulang discovers a secret from the poem collection of the deceased scholar Niu Buyi, "So long as one can write a few lines, one can contact bigwigs. How illustrious this isŁĄ" Since then he swindles and bluffs everywhere in Niu Buyi's name. These ridiculous fakes are by-products of the system of imperial civil examinations and the degenerating society.
The Scholars is written in plain language. It represents the characters' personality in the novel by the characters' own words and actions. It is a rare masterpiece that describes everyday life.
The Scholars that took Wu Jingzi ten years' hard work has exerted far-reaching influence. Translated into many languages in the last half century, it has become part of the world literary heritage.
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Chinese Culture
