The author of "The Scholars" is Wu Jingzi, a novelist, writer, and poet in the Qing Dynasty of my country. Let's first talk about his life resume, and then talk about him and his "The Scholars". What influence did it have on his later life?
Wu Jingzi was born in Quanjiao, Anhui, in the 40th year of Emperor Kangxi's reign (1701), into a bureaucratic family with "many prominent officials". His ancestral home was Wenzhou, Zhejiang. His biological father was Wu Wenyan, and he was later adopted by the eldest son, Wu Lin, as his heir (the eldest son with the right to inherit).
Because his adoptive father placed great expectations on Wu Jingzi, he was very strict in his education. He had to study the Four Books, Five Classics and Eight-Part Articles all day long. However, everything must be reversed at the extreme, and the pressure from his father made Wu Jingzi very tired of the eight-part article and other articles. Since childhood, he has loved various types of poems, lyrics, music and novels that can cultivate emotions. Extensive reading broadened Wu Jingzi's horizons, increased his knowledge, and allowed him to accumulate a lot of humanistic materials, which laid a solid foundation for his later creations.
?Statue of Wu Jingzi, author of "The Scholars"?
Under the pressure of his father, Wu Jingzi once passed the examination as a scholar, but he later resolutely gave up the imperial examination and became an official, and moved to Nanjing , and poured his dissatisfaction with feudal customs such as the imperial examination system into literary works, and began a journey of concentrated creation. Although his life was always difficult until his later years, and he had to rely on selling his articles and receiving donations from friends to survive, he nevertheless created a wealth of novels, poems and works throughout his life, among which "The Scholars" is the most famous. It has left a brilliant cultural heritage to future generations.
Because the rulers of the Qing Dynasty, in order to consolidate their dominance, used the imperial examination system of eight-part essay selection as bait, many intellectuals at that time fell into the trap of pursuing wealth and became ignorant, despicable philistines. Wu Jingzi, who grew up in such an environment, saw through this dark politics and decadent social atmosphere, so he opposed the eight-part essay and the imperial examination system, and hated the custom of scholars who were obsessed with crafts and fame and wealth.
"The Scholars"
Wu Jingzi boldly reflected his own views in his "The Scholars". He used satirical techniques to profoundly expose and powerfully criticize these ugly things, fully demonstrating his democratic ideological color. "The Scholars" is a groundbreaking masterpiece in the history of Chinese novels. It uses realism as its background and irony as its aesthetic pursuit. Together with "A Dream of Red Mansions" that appeared later, it constitutes another peak of ancient Chinese novels and plays an irreplaceable role in the history of the development of Chinese novels.
The Scholars laid the cornerstone of Chinese satirical novels and had a huge and far-reaching influence on subsequent literature. Since then, a large number of condemning novels appeared in the Qing Dynasty, starting from "The Scholars", such as "The Flower of Evil", "The Strange Current Situation Witnessed in Twenty Years", "The Appearance of Officialdom", etc., thus forming a trend of criticizing feudal society. , this trend has continued to influence the new literature after the May 4th Movement.
Introduction to "The Scholars"
In addition to novel creation, Wu Jingzi also created a large number of poems, essays and historical research works throughout his life, including "Collection of Poems and Essays on Wenmu Shanfang" 12 volumes, 4 volumes are preserved today. The artistic achievements of his poetry mainly include three aspects: making good use of allusions, combining multiple styles, each having its own characteristics, and diversifying expression methods. Wu Jingzi's classical Chinese sentences include parallel and prose, combining parallel and prose. His tone is natural and smooth, with a strong sense of rhythm, and has strong persuasiveness and expressive power.
In short, Wu Jingzi’s novels, classical poems and other literary works are of high research and reference value and are rare cultural and artistic heritage in the history of Chinese literature.
This answer was originally created by "Lao Wu Kan Guoxue Today".