[6] By describing the lives of commoners, the novel reveals a complex balance of power among the local Christian communities, Elder Brothers Society and the bureaucracy, during the last decade of the 19th century.

According to Yuehtsen Juliette Chung[note 6] of National Tsing-Hua University, Cambuel Luo and Gu Tiancheng represent both a city-country tension.

An English translation by Bret Starling and Yin Chi[note 7], titled Ripple on Stagnant Water: A Novel of Sichuan in the Age of Treaty Ports, was published by University of Hawaii Press in 2013.

[1] Kristin Eileen Stapleton[note 8] of the University of Buffalo stated that in the Starling/Chi version, the Sichuanese dialect speech in the original novel was translated into "what I gather is a sort of Scottish brogue".

There is also a 1992 British Hong Kong-China film, titled in English as Ripples Across Stagnant Water [zh], with the Chinese name being "狂" (kuáng).