About
The Scholars describes the life activities of various Chinese Confucius scholars, mostly under the early Jiajing period of the Ming dynasty. Most of them are corrupted scholars, however. Some of them are overly obsessed by the fame and glory of civil service to the point of losing all sanity and became mentally unstable. Some of them are theoretically dogmatic, rigidly follow the old writing style and denied all flexibility and innovation. Some of them are hypocrites, spending days talking about morality and ethics but actually live a despicable and useless life. Some of them are corrupted by fame and glory; they are eager to sacrifice relatives and family for more fame, more glory. Via the corrupted Confucius scholars, Wu Jingzi indirectly criticized the civil service examination and education system under the Qing dynasty. The author could not directly attack the ruling Qing dynasty, which could lead to capital punishment; therefore he chose to portray his story in the Ming period, which was increasingly dogmatic and meaningless, criticized the cruel government officials who treated the people with violence and exploited them brutally, and criticized the backward feudal "moral codes" which confined people in an ideological prison.
Wu Jingzi did create several "good" characters as model for an ideal Confucius scholar. They uphold a moral life, they cannot be corrupted by fame or money, and they despise the contemporary civil service of Chinese feudal government. One of them, the scholar Du, is strikingly similar to the author: descended from a well-to-do family, spent all of the family assets and became poverty-stricken, hated the civil officials, expressed progressive ideas and was strongly critical of the popular Zhu Xi's Neo-Confucianism dogma. Via the character Du, Wu Jingzi portrayed women sympathetically as Du treated his wife kindly and equally in the time when women were considered inferior to men.
Wu Jingzi did create several "good" characters as model for an ideal Confucius scholar. They uphold a moral life, they cannot be corrupted by fame or money, and they despise the contemporary civil service of Chinese feudal government. One of them, the scholar Du, is strikingly similar to the author: descended from a well-to-do family, spent all of the family assets and became poverty-stricken, hated the civil officials, expressed progressive ideas and was strongly critical of the popular Zhu Xi's Neo-Confucianism dogma. Via the character Du, Wu Jingzi portrayed women sympathetically as Du treated his wife kindly and equally in the time when women were considered inferior to men.