The first and last chapters portray recluses, but most of the loosely connected plotlines that form the bulk of the novel are didactic stories, on the one hand holding up exemplary Confucian behavior, but on the other ridiculing over-ambitious scholars and the imperial examination system.

Language reformers in the early 20th-century New Culture Movement used the novel to support their view that wenyan was a form of snobbery.

Addressing the ruling Qing dynasty could lead to capital punishment; thus it was safer to depict Ming intellectual life.

Via these scholars and the novel's sarcastic voices, Wu Jingzi indirectly criticized the civil service examination and education system under the Qing dynasty.

[4] Wu Jingzi did create several "good" characters as model for an ideal Confucian scholar; they cannot be corrupted by fame or money and they despise the contemporary civil service.

Wu Jingzi also addresses feminism by portraying Du's kindly treatment of his wife at a time when women were considered inferior to men.

"[6] Chinese commentators have traditionally seen The Scholars as having an irregular and much relaxed structure compared to other novels, and its narrative form has continued to fascinate and be scrutinized by modern critics.

Both modern and Qing dynasty commentators have noted that this chapter constitutes the "high point" and "structural apex" of the novel.

The literary scholar Shang Wei believes that the chapter highlights Wu Jingzi's simultaneous desire to follow Confucian ritual and to critique it.

The progression from civic activism to salon life in the novel, Roddy continues, is parallel to the withdrawal into scholastic dillentantism in the late reigns of the Ming.

It deeply influenced some of the most acclaimed Chinese novels of the late Qing period, such as Officialdom Unmasked, Bizarre Happenings Eyewitnessed over Two Decades, The Travels of Lao Can, A Flower in a Sinful Sea and Modern Times.