Chao Shu-li (Zhao Shuli) (1906-1970), a novelist and short story writer, is best remembered for his early novels and short stories depicting rural society in early 20th-century China. Coming from a peasant background himself, Chao Shu-li employed forms of expression and story-telling that were rooted in this society, contributing to the emergence of a new "proletarian" literature vaunted by Mao and characteristic of the revolutionary era.

This book is an advanced reader in Chinese together with an introduction, a bibliography and notes on difficult points of language.