The Scholar and the State: Fiction as Political Discourse in Late Imperial China

In imperial China, intellectuals devoted years of their lives to passing examinations to obtain a civil service position. This traditional employment of the literati class conferred social power and moral legitimacy, but changing circumstances forced many to seek alternative careers. Politically engaged but excluded from traditional bureaucratic roles, creative writers authored critiques of state power in the form of fiction, showing that as the literati class grappled with its own increasing marginalization, they began to imagine possibilities for a new political order.