The Story Archive

The Scholars

Wu Jingzi · 1750 CE · Novel · Chinese · Enlightenment

Candidates, degree holders, patrons and hangers-on move through a world organized entirely around the imperial examinations, where a butcher's son-in-law who has failed for twenty years goes out of his mind when he finally passes, and a reputation for filial devotion can be arranged in advance. Linked episodes hand the narrative from one figure to the next, with no hero left standing in the middle of it. The book that made social satire the whole method of Chinese fiction, and the model every later Chinese satirist has worked from.

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Lineage

Attributes

Genre
SatireComedy
Theme
Ambition & HubrisAppearance vs RealityClass & InequalityIndividual vs Society
Archetype (Jung / Campbell)
EverymanTricksterWise Fool
Plot structure
EpisodicPicaresque
Symbol / motif
The Book / ManuscriptThe FeastThe Mask
Conflict
vs Society
Mode / tone
SatiricalIronicRealist
Culture / tradition
Chinese

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