Open this book and you will see the most authentic "ugly picture" of the officialdom in the late Qing Dynasty. There are some fake officials who force their daughters to become concubines for their superiors in order to get promoted, some "purchase" brothers who fight against each other because of uneven distribution of spoils, and some "incorruptible" imperial envoys who say they are honest but are greedy for half a million taels.
From Zhao Wen, who was cheated out of money by his servant just after winning the imperial examination in Chaoyi County, Shaanxi, to the "business experience" of the governor of Jiangxi in buying and selling officials; from the imperial envoy who blackmailed officials under the banner of "only drawing the bow but not firing the arrow", to the bandit suppressor commander who killed good people and pretended to be honest in order to claim credit.
This book is composed of more than thirty independent officialdom stories, ranging from military ministers to miscellaneous minor officials, and vividly interprets the absurdity of "working thousands of miles to become an official just for money". Here, corruption is the norm, incorruptibility is an anomaly, and no one is clean!
