The Journey of Lao Can

The most famous work of Liu E is considered to be "The Journey of Lao Can", written in the genre of "satirical novel", similar in its idea to "Journey from Petersburg to Moscow" by A. N. Radishchev. "The Journey of... Lao Can" was highly appreciated by contemporaries, including Lu Xun and Hu Shi, and was included among the great novels of the late Qing era.
The reader, along with the brave and noble wandering healer Lao Can (in whose image the author himself can be guessed), will embark on an extraordinary journey through the cities and towns of China in the early 20th century. Lao Can witnesses countless abuses and the arbitrariness of officials, who bring nothing but suffering to the common people. The healer, concerned about the fate of the country, sometimes with words, sometimes with deeds, helps his compatriots: he investigates a high-profile murder case, tries to tame a great river, and shares reformist views on the future of China.