| The Ju-lin wai-shih, or The Unofficial History of the Scholars, is one of the most outstanding literary achievements of eighteenth-century (mid-Ch'ing) China. Although in recent years it has been a subject of increasing scholarly interest, insufficient attention has been given to its literary technical achievements which mark a new departure in the development of Chinese literature, and it has been examined mainly as a source for biographical information concerning its author Wu Ching-tzu, as well as a source of material for considerations about Wu Ching-tzu's ideological views. In the present study, a comparative approach has been used to investigate the literary techniques and the structure of the Ju-lin wai-shih. In this dissertation, the Ju-lin wai-shih is subjected to the same critical process currently applied to the eighteenth-century English literary achievements of Henry Fielding and Tobias Smollett. The thesis first describes the picaresque mode of Fielding and Smollett--defined by Robert Scholes as a mode in which a naive innocent is transformed through a lengthy, episodic journey into a resourceful rogue. After defining the picaresque elements in Fielding's Joseph Andrews and Tom Jones, and Smollett's Roderick Random, the thesis proceeds to examine in detail several picaresque accounts in the Ju-lin wai-shih, including that of K'uang Ch'ao-jen, Fan Chin, and Chou Chin. Through these accounts, as well as through analysis of the novel's structure and rhythm, elements of the picaresque are determined in Wu Ching-tzu's work. An annotated, abridged translation of the novel is included in the dissertation.;The following introduction discusses the author, textual versions, and structural anomalies of the Ju-lin wai-shih. It includes a survey of recent Chinese scholarship on the Ju-lin wai-shih, as well as that of Western critics. Following that comes the central argument, in which the claim is made that the Ju-lin wai-shih has elements which allow it to be labeled "picaresque." Finally, three additional aspects of the novel are examined, including the novel's accurate cultural detail, the examination system, and Wu Ching-tzu's repeated use of the feast as metaphor. In the final section, the author's meaning is discussed with reference to the novel's symmetric structure, as well as the "eccentric" characters (i.e., Wang Mien, Chi Hsia-nien, Wang T'ai, Ko K'uan, and Ching Yuan) in the opening and closing chapters of the novel. |
