The Appearance of Officialdom

"The Appearance of Officialdom" was written by Li Boyuan (also known as Li Baojia) in the late Qing Dynasty. It is one of the "four major condemnation novels" in the late Qing Dynasty. It is also a satirical masterpiece that caused a sensation in society once it was published. The book has sixty chapters in total, connected by more than thirty relatively independent officialdom stories. The book focuses on describing all kinds of dark, ugly and corrupt situations in the officialdom of the late Qing Dynasty. The characters represented include military ministers, governors and governors, admirals, magistrates, magistrates, and miscellaneous officials. They are either dirty and despicable, ignorant, or corrupt, forming a picture of the ugliness of the late Qing bureaucracy. "The Appearance of Officialdom" is a textbook for ordinary people to understand officialdom, a revelation for officials to alert themselves, and a treasure handed down from generation to generation for the whole society to combat corruption and maintain the integrity and justice of officialdom. It had a profound influence at that time and in later generations, and has an enduring artistic charm.