"The Scholars" is a chapter-length novel written by Wu Jingzi, a realist novelist in the Qing Dynasty. It created an example of using novels to directly evaluate real life and represents the peak of ancient Chinese satirical novels. This book, with fifty-six chapters in total, was written in the 14th year of Qianlong's reign (1749) or a little before. It was first handed down as a manuscript and was first engraved in the eighth year of Jiaqing's reign (1803).
The novel was written from the end of the Yuan Dynasty to the beginning of the Ming Dynasty ("Cunei") and ended in the forty-fourth year of Wanli in the Ming Dynasty ("Youbang"), which lasted about 248 years. The main text begins with the second chapter, which takes place in the late Chenghua years of the Ming Dynasty, about one hundred and twenty years from "Chunzi"; it ends with the fifty-fifth chapter, the story of "Four Guests", which happened in the twenty-third year of Wanli, and the bottom is twenty-one years from "Youbang". It has experienced the rise and fall of a dynasty.
