The Ten-Tailed Turtle (2)

Lu Shi'eJun 2024

3.8

Word count: 47K words
Chapters: 8

Summary

Ten-Tailed Turtle (Volume 2) is a serialized vernacular social novel of the Qing dynasty by the late-Qing literatus Lu Shie, set in turn-of-the-century Shanghai. Completed in 1911, the third year of the Xuantong reign, it survives chiefly in the 1911 Xinxin Xiaoshuo She edition and a 1994 typeset edition in Chunfeng Wenyi Press's Rare Novels of Ancient China series.

The book depicts the gaudy life of old Shanghai's foreign concession: local tyrants, compradors, nouveau riche, returned students, shop owners, military and civil officials, brokers, hangers-on, swindlers, young ladies, concubines—all drawn into a whirlpool of corruption, revealing the social phenomena of the early transition from closure to openness, which still resonates today.

Editor's review

Volume 2 of Ten-Tailed Turtle continues Lu Shie's cool-eyed depiction of late-Qing Shanghai, drawing landlords, compradors, the nouveau riche, returned students, brokers, and hangers-on into the profit vortex of the foreign concession. Through the linked narratives of the serialized form, it shows the disorder and reordering of social rules in the early shift from closure to openness. The appeal lies not in a single protagonist's fate but in the mutual scheming and mismatched identities among the ensemble: the old-style gentry's helplessness in the city, the new figures' wavering between money and respectability, all rendered with concrete detail. The language is vernacular serialized fiction with the rhythm of late-Qing newspaper installments—short passages, frequent turns—well suited to reading alongside social history. Readers may situate it within late-Qing Shanghai urban history, treaty-port culture, and the social novel tradition to recognize speculation, packaging, and credit issues still familiar today. For readers interested in China's modern social transformation and the origins of Shanghai culture.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers interested in late-Qing Shanghai urban life and social transformation
Literature lovers who enjoy serialized social novels and ensemble narratives
Students of modern treaty-port culture, social history, and popular literature
General readers curious about old Shanghai's social strata through fiction

Not a good fit for

Readers who prefer tight single-plotlines and strong suspense
Those impatient with late-Qing vernacular serialized style and episodic structure
Readers expecting modern urban romance or clear moral judgment

Reading tips

Read Volume 1 or learn the background first for clearer character relationships.
Track characters' identities and interests as you read, like social observation notes.
Compare episodes of speculation, packaging, and credit with today's social phenomena.
If the serialized pace feels loose, read two or three chapters a day for continuity.

版权信息
第八回老英雄县监遭惨弧小侠女黑夜报亲仇
第九回谭老头幻术弄偷丁毛惠伯正言摧俗论
第十回张胜贵妙术起沉疴郑紫阳微言箴恶俗
第十一回乡曲辫洋行访友小滑头酒馆谈心
第十二回梅心泉发起国货会袁福生空娶粉桃花
第十三回推星命乱道胡言煮人肉毁尸灭迹
第十四回王阿聪力学毁家周湘卿精心吊膀

FAQ

Can I read Volume 2 without having read Volume 1?

You can, but this is a continuation of a serialized novel with linked characters and threads. Reading Volume 2 directly may leave some characters' origins and relationships unclear. It's smoother to know Volume 1's outline or start from Volume 1 first.

What era and place does this book mainly describe?

According to sources, the novel is set in Shanghai in the late Qing dynasty and was completed in 1911 (Xuantong 3). It portrays the gaudy life of old Shanghai's foreign concession, involving local tyrants, compradors, the nouveau riche, returned students, shop owners, military and civil officials, brokers, hangers-on, swindlers, young ladies, concubines, and many others.

What should I note about the serialized (zhanghui) form when reading?

Serialized fiction often devotes one or several chapters to a group of characters and events, with many threads and frequent turns rather than a single protagonist as in modern novels. Pay attention to character relationships and conflicts in each chapter; brief notes help grasp the ensemble's social observation.

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About the author

Lu Shi'e Author · China · 1878–1944

Lu Shi'e (1878–1944), whose given name was Shouxian and courtesy name Yunxiang, was a novelist and a well-known physician in Shanghai during the late Qing and early Republican periods, hailing from Qingpu, Jiangsu (now part of Shanghai). He wrote more than a hundred novels on a wide range of subjects, including social fiction, martial arts tales, and historical reading, with representative works such as New China, New Shanghai, and The Ten-Tailed Turtle, the last noted for its social satire portraying the manners and life of the era. He also compiled several medical books, including A Compass for Medicine, contributing to the popularization of medicine and the organization of clinical experience. The library holds forty-five of his works, among them the Southern School Swordsmen series, showing that his writing spanned both popular entertainment and medical works, making him a prolific man of letters and physician in modern Shanghai.