But in the face of the dark reality, the scheme of transforming society put forward by the author in the book is really unrealistic. When promoting the weaving department, he invited Guan Xinmin, the son of heaven, to uphold justice in Redjade, and to help the weak in Redjade. In addition, in some stories of solving crimes, he wanted to rely on honest officials to get rid of violence. These show that he still has illusions about the feudal ruling class.
Strange Tales from a Lonely Studio widely exposed the drawbacks of the imperial examination system and criticized it. Representative works in this field include Examining Liars, Ye Sheng and Wang Zian. These works profoundly exposed the darkness of the examination room and the confusion of examiners, and gave an incisive description of the abnormal psychology of candidates.
According to Textual Research Secretarial Division, the director of textual research in the underworld depends on the director of the Secretarial Division to set the rules. Every candidate who meets for the first time must cut a spleen to honor the director, but those who bribe the rich can avoid cutting it. But the couplets he hangs in class are "filial piety" and "courtesy, righteousness, honesty and shame". This is a ruthless exposure and bitter irony to the dark examination room and shameless examiner in the world.
The author not only wrote the darkness of the imperial examination system, but also exposed the non-staple food and spiritual destruction of the intellectual soul by the imperial examination system. Due to the desire for fame and fortune, Wang Zi Ann lost her mind. He thought he had won the Jinshi Hanlin, put on airs and made many tragic jokes. Ye Sheng can't get sick because of repeated attempts. In Wang Zian, the author describes the psychology and attitude of the candidates. They entered the exam like beggars, prisoners, cold bees in late autumn and sick birds out of the cage. They are looking forward to good news, fidgeting and crazy, which describe the soul of scholars in detail. By describing the abnormal psychology of intellectuals, the works tell people how the imperial examination system erodes people's souls. Therefore, the deeper significance of Strange Tales from a Lonely Studio lies in that it reveals the destruction of the national spirit by the corrupt system.
Opposing feudal ethics and marriage system and praising pure love are also important contents of Strange Tales from a Lonely Studio. Famous works in this field include Grandma, Liancheng and Lianxiang. The love novel in Strange Tales from a Lonely Studio has its distinctive features: the writer expresses his strong thoughts of anti-feudal ethics and anti-feudal marriage system and his love ideal through unrealistic fantasy of people and things in the world. In the writer's works, although the girls who are fascinated by the fox have different temperament, most of them are beautiful and intelligent, kind and selfless, do not want wealth, do not admire power, choose people with virtue, love loyalty, love loyalty, and never change after disasters. They come and go freely, leave and leave at will, and are not bound by feudal commandments; No affectation, no hypocrisy, full of vitality, indomitable spirit. They no longer have a feudal society of free love, but they get happy love. For example, Ying Ning is a fox girl who grew up in a grave. She can get rid of any bondage in the world, be free from the norms of feudal ethics, be free from vulgar human pollution, be innocent, pure and transparent, and be a new person who does not exist in real life. Wang Zifu is also a simple-minded and sincere person. The writer allowed two people to freely combine, which showed his dissatisfaction with secular marriage in twists and turns. Whether the love story in Strange Tales from a Lonely Studio is a comedy or a tragedy, people can find clues to the development of the story and get a glimpse of the sharp social contradictions and profound social contradictions and struggles contained in it.
The love novel in Strange Tales from a Lonely Studio puts forward a new concept of love. Po and Liancheng are unique works under the concept of love. "Po" is about a pedantic grandson, Chu, who is infatuated with Po, the daughter of a wealthy businessman, regardless of his family disparity. The female opera said, "The canal belongs to its branches, and the rest belongs to Angelica." He really cut off the branches and fingers with an axe, although he was "in great pain, blood spilled on the spot and died" and did not regret it. Later, I flew to the girl's room with a parrot. Sincerely, the stone blossomed and Sun finally formed a happy marriage. This story is about infatuation, the whole story is about infatuation, and every word is love. It encourages readers that what is needed between men and women is sincerity, and only with affection can we break through all obstacles and realize the ideal of marriage. This view of love has broken through the barriers of feudalism and has a strong sense of citizenship and progressive democratic ideas. In Liancheng, Lian Xiao's daughter Liancheng wrote a poem about courtship, and Sheng Qiao's poem was appreciated by it. However, his father forbade Sheng Qiao to be poor, and his daughter gave him money to help him study, so Joe took her as his confidant. "The whole city is starving." But Shi Xiaolian finally married his daughter to Wang Huacheng, the son of a salt merchant. Soon, when a woman is sick, she needs a dollar to buy male breast meat and mash the drug residue. Wang Huacheng refused to provide meat, but Sheng Qiao actually cut the meat as a drug guide. Later, the woman died with a negative hair, and Sheng Qiao entered the soul and followed the ground. In the afterlife, they got help from others and finally became husband and wife. Liancheng gives people a brand-new concept, that is, intimacy between men and women. Sheng Qiao likes Liancheng because Liancheng appreciates his poems. Liancheng loves Sheng Qiao because he can really understand his situation. In this way, their foundation will be solid, they can break through any obstacles and finally get married.
In addition to the above three kinds of works, Strange Tales from a Lonely Studio exposes and criticizes contemporary society in many ways, either satirizing the vulgarity of the times, or depicting the sinister nature of people's hearts, or describing the speculative psychology of rulers who get something for nothing, or praising the integrity and courage of workers. In a word, the picture of soldiers' life in Strange Tales from a Lonely Studio is very extensive, and the content reflecting social life is very rich.
However, a considerable part of Strange Tales from a Lonely Studio propagandizes backward and even reactionary ideas. Even those excellent chapters are often mixed with feudal dross. For example, some chapters are hostile to and vilify peasant uprisings, some preach karma and reincarnation, some preach feudal ethics, and some beautify polygamy or envy fame and fortune. In addition, there are many obscene languages and obscene descriptions.