From abroad, we often see China as a caricature: a nation of pragmatic plutocrats and ruthlessly dedicated students destined to rule the global economy—or an addled Goliath, riddled with corruption and on the edge of stagnation. What we don’t see is how both powerful and ordinary people are remaking their lives as their country dramatically changes.
As the Beijing correspondent for The New Yorker, Evan Osnos was on the ground in China for years, witness to profound political, economic, and cultural upheaval. In Fortune, Truth, and Faith, he describes the greatest collision taking place in that country: the clash between the rise of the individual and the Communist Party’s struggle to retain control. He asks probing questions: why does a government with more success lifting people from poverty than any civilization in history choose to be the first regime since Germany in 1935 to prevent the relatives of a Nobel Peace Laureate from accepting his prize? And why do millions of young Chinese professionals—fluent in English and devoted to Western pop culture—consider themselves “Angry Youth,” dedicated to resisting the West’s influence?
Writing with great narrative verve and a keen sense of irony, Osnos follows the moving, illuminating stories of everyday people and reveals life in the new China to be a battleground between aspiration and authoritarianism, in which only one can prevail.

本书汇集了四篇研究中国明代所谓“四大奇书”的专著，这些论文皆可独立成篇，分别作为对这几部作品的阐释，听任读者随意取舍。但全书也想提出一些争辩性的论点。　　本书的核心论调原来是从比较文学理论的观点出发的，即视明清小说文类为一种归属书香文化界的出产品，因此始终标榜着“文人小说”的概念。这个看法并不否认所谓“四大奇书”各各脱胎于通俗文化的民间故事、说书等现象，而只是强调这些长篇小说是经过文人撰著者手里的写造润色才得出一新的文体来，这个体裁除了反映明清文人的美学手法、思想抱负之外，也常呈现一层潜伏在错综复杂的字里行间、含蕴深远的寓意，惯用反讽的修辞法来提醒读者要在书的反面上去追寻“其中味”。作者特别突出这四部泛称“通俗小说”的作品富有文人色彩的一面，并不敢表示扬雅抑俗的偏见。相反，我的用意正是要推崇中国文化传统独有的雅俗交融的伟大精神。