The Travels of Lao Can
A Novel of the Late Qing Dynasty
A wandering healer crosses a province where the rivers are rising—and the officials are worse than the flood.
In one of the greatest novels of late imperial China, compassion becomes the only answer to corruption, injustice, and the slow collapse of an empire.
ABOUT THE BOOK
At the close of the nineteenth century, Lao Can travels across northern China carrying little more than a physician's remedies, a keen eye, and an unwavering conscience. With no official rank or political power, he witnesses a society unraveling beneath the weight of bureaucratic corruption, judicial cruelty, and disastrous government policies.
From the flood-threatened banks of the Yellow River to the bustling towns and mountain retreats of Shandong, he encounters innocent prisoners condemned to satisfy ambitious officials, widows driven toward false confessions, scholars, singers, monks, philosophers, and ordinary people struggling to preserve their dignity in an age of decline.
Blending social criticism with lyrical landscapes, philosophical dialogue, mystery, and unforgettable scenes of everyday life, The Travels of Lao Can stands among the masterpieces of Qing-dynasty fiction—a profound portrait of a civilization approaching the end of an era.
ABOUT THIS EDITION
This complete English translation presents Liu E's celebrated twenty-chapter novel directly from the traditional Chinese text.
The translation preserves the elegance of the original while offering clear, natural modern English for today's readers. Chapter-title couplets, poems, and literary passages have been carefully rendered to reflect both their meaning and artistic character, accompanied by a glossary of names, places, and historical terms.
Designed for both general readers and students of Chinese history and literature, this edition brings one of China's greatest modern classics to a new English-speaking audience.
THEMES AND LEGACY
- The final decades of the Qing dynasty and the crisis of imperial government • Corruption, justice, and the moral responsibility of honest officials • The Yellow River, natural disaster, and human suffering • Confucian philosophy, Buddhism, and the search for wisdom • One of the most influential novels of late Qing literature and modern Chinese fiction
FOR READERS WHO LOVE
Dream of the Red Chamber • The Scholars • Romance of the Three Kingdoms • The Good Earth • Classic Chinese Literature • Historical Fiction
"A timeless portrait of a nation in transition—where one wandering healer reveals the conscience of a dying empire."
At a glance
About the series
Rediscover the great epics, mysteries and chronicles of dynastic China: gods and generals, swindlers and scholars, courtesans, ghosts and emperors, in complete English translations.
