The Travels of Lao Can says that honest officials can sometimes be even more frightening than corrupt ones.
Tips
history
By 刘鹗 (1857–1909), serialized from 1903, in 20 chapters. The wandering doctor 老残 travels through Shandong and sees officials famed for their honesty torture innocent people to prove their zeal. Lu Xun counted it among the four late-Qing novels of exposure, with 官场现形记.
culture
Its pictures of 济南, the city of springs, are school reading, above all the chapter in which Lao Can hears a celebrated drum singer. 刘鹗 was also an early collector of oracle bones and in 1903 published the first book of oracle-bone inscriptions, 甲骨文.
