Big Cheat (Da ma bian): A Late Qing Novel by Huang Shizhong on Kang Youwei

Luke S. K. Kwong, Ph.D. (1978), University of Toronto, is professor emeritus at the University of Lethbridge. Hispublications include A Mosaic of the Hundred Days (Harvard, 1984), T’an Ssu-t’ung (Brill, 1996), and The PhonyReformer, tr. (Rowman & Littlefield, 2018).

• Translator’s PrefaceNotes on the TranslationTranslator’s IntroductionPreface by Suogong [Lu Xin], Master of My Humble Abode1 Scoundrel Kang Makes a Fool of Himself at the Academy;Savant Miao Composes His New Work at His Beijing Residence.2 Crossing Paths with a Scoundrel Costs Miao Jiping His Manuscript;Failure to Become Academy Head Leaves Kang Youwei Distraught3 The Phony Sage Obsessed with Fame Receives His Provincial Degree;Failed Exam Candidates Propose Banalities in Group Policy Petition.4 Censor Yu Adamantly Rejects Any Contact with the Unbridled Scholar;The Shrewd Mama-Maid Boards the Ship to Go after the Unruly Drifter.5 Pedant Kang Rhapsodizes about His Flight from Debt in Dreadful Poem;Censor An Bases His Impeachment of the Phony Sage on Reported Facts.6 In Pursuit of Scholarship, Zhu Yixin Calls Attention to Historical Origins;His Life Abruptly Cut Short, Chen Qianqiu Goes Prematurely to His Grave.7 His Commitment Shifts When He Writes a Letter to the Revolutionaries;Pretense to Transmit Doctrines Ends in a Moonlit Trek up a Barren Hill.8 Talk of Sagely Doctrines Is Distracted by Festive Moods and Sights;For Money, Homecoming Enables the Fight to Become Bureau Chief.9 Feud over Bureau Seal Ends in Provincial Degree-Holder Kang’s Beating;Sly Plot to Fool Master Weng Is Calculated to Get Entry into Officialdom.10 Weng Tonghe Is Tricked into Proposing Nominations of Talented Men;The Qing Empress-Dowager Is Terrified to Hear of Talk of Policy Reform.11 Acting on Slander, the Emperor Dismisses All Board of Ceremony Ministers;The Sorcerer Conjures Up Chaos inside Palace Chambers with His Memorial.12 Kang Changsu Holds a Grudge in Plotting against the Empress-Dowager;Tan Sitong Is Tricked by False Pretenses into Going to the Imperial Capital.13 An Impromptu Letter Is Written to Feign Commitment to Revolution;A Heartless Lie Is Told about the Secret Edict to Mobilize the Army.14 He Flees from Danger Alone after Getting Others in Trouble;An Honorable Man Goes to Beijing-Tianjin for the Rescue.15 His Actions Fuel Factional Strife and Implicate Others in a Capital Crime;Dinner Invitation Is Spoiled by Fear of an Associate’s Telling the Truth.16 Harassing Maid-Servers at Minister’s Residence Is a Breach of Etiquette;Failure to Show Proof of Secret Edict Leads to His Expulsion from Japan.Appendix: Huang Shizhong’s DeathWorks CitedGlossary