Reviews

The Scholars Rulin Waishi by Gladys Yang, Wu Jingzi

eressea0806's review against another edition

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4.0

大部份台灣人
應該都是國中讀王冕
高中讀范進中舉
就沒有然後了吧
我也是這樣,國小時曾經大概翻翻
那時看不懂,轉去看西遊記三國演義去了
國高中國文課上完也沒想去看
最近中亞大特價買了一本註釋來看
現在看滿多哽都又酸又好笑
看得速度比當代小說都快

不過小時候教條上學到的諷刺科舉亂像
好像還是看不太懂
長越大越覺得白話章回小說還是很難懂的
沒有註釋一堆名詞和科舉制度根本不知道在幹麻
這樣怎麼能懂作者要諷刺什麼呢~

以現代觀點來看小說的架構很鬆散
雖然支線也會收,但各種人物像連環套一樣不斷出現
卻沒有明確的劇情推進,只是一堆彼此有關係的人演單元劇而已

看完只覺得好人都不長命
有錢膽小怕事的人活該被搶奪家產
正直的人戲份很少
而且多半迂的可笑,不比那些得了官癌的人好到那去
好些得了官癌的傢伙也不過就銅臭味重了點
還比那些休掉糟糠妻或打腫臉充胖子被抓包的"名士"好多了
最嘲諷的是這一堆嘉靖間品行不良沽名釣譽冒名頂替的垃圾
到了萬曆四十幾年全都被旌表了
叫那些(雖然很迂的)高風亮節之士情何以堪呢?

最近看得這幾本古典章回小說
有趣的是在裡面找尋回民蹤跡
儒林外史裡回民的戲份比金瓶梅多很多
但本書裡的回民除了"教門不用大葷"不吃豬肉之外
酒色財氣樣樣都來,而且還迷信文曲星
這一堆教門人的行為
似乎可以印證我以前看過的"清代西北回民事變"裡頭
說康熙對古蘭經好奇
結果找來的阿訇只會念卻不解其意
但也是有精通阿語波斯語的
只是教外的人大概不會注意到~
所以儒林外史這樣寫,究竟是作者不懂
還是當時回民漢化已深呢?

總之意外的好讀,但沒料想中的好看

marystevens's review against another edition

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4.0

A satire of the Chinese imperial examination system in the 18th century Qing Dynasty and of the literati it produced. The examination system goes back to 200 AD and continued to 1911. Chinese officials in all that time were drawn almost exclusively from the ranks of those few who passed. The odds were 3300 to 1 of passing the highest rank in the Qing Dynasty. There were 9 levels and even those who failed or passed the lowest rank were respected elites. The subject matter always included the Confucian classics, but during the Qing practical subjects like agriculture and economics were tested too.
The novel gently lampoons all aspects of the system and the literati in a series of tangentially related vignettes, often quite funny and sometimes very touching.
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