The Scholars of Wu Jingzi and The LiaozhaiZhiyi of Pu Song ling
3 min readThe Scholars of Wu Jingzi
The Ming and Qing dynasties are the golden age of ancient Chinese fiction.The satirical novel-The Scholars is oneof the masterpieces of that time.If anyone wants to learn the corruptive side of Chinese education，please read this book！
The author of this novel Wu Jingzi was a native of Quanjiao ，Anhui Province.Born into a gentry family，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 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.
Figure 70 Pu Songling 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.
Pu Song-ling and his Liaozhai Zhiyi
Pu Song-ling（1640-1715）（see Figure 70）was born in Shandong province.Though well-trained by his father in the classics，he never qualified for public office except for a brief appointment as an aide to a county magistrate in Jiangsu.
When he returned to his home town he worked as a private tutor.His most famous work is Liaozhai Zhiyi，a collection of stories about ghosts and spirits which he began to work on at the age of twenty and only completed late in his life.
Liaozhai Zhiyi meaning”Strange accounts from the Leisure Study”or”Strange Stories from a Studio for Leisurely Conversations”is a posthumous collection of five hundred-odd entries that the author Pu Songling made into little books and circulated among his scholar friendsduring the last thirty or so years of his relatively long life75 years Although the stories met with immediate success upon publication and are now classic，it was ironically not Pu Songling’s life ambition to be known as the author of these“strange tales.”For the most part，Pu Songling viewed himself as a failed“imperial scholar”chasing the empty dream of public office.
It is a challenge to categorize the five hundred entries，but we might roughly divide them into three genres:Notes，Tales and Romances.This Book contains short stories collected widely by the then unknown writer Pu Songling，whose writings on Chinese mythology and the supernatural have influenced subsequent generations of writers.Though written in an entertaining and accessible manner，the short stories often have complicated plots and hidden social criticism of the feudal system of the time.The stories feature Chinese spirits，ghosts and monsters and have become an important part of Chinese culture and folklore.
