Thinly disguising his own views in those of Lao Can, the physician hero, Liu describes the rise of the Boxers in the countryside, the decay of the Yellow River control system, and the hypocritical incompetence of the bureaucracy.

Its social satire[2] showed the limits of the old elite and officialdom and gave an in-depth look into everyday life in the countryside in the late Qing period.

[6] The scholar Milena Doleželová-Velingerová writes that the integration of the detective subplots, "entirely dissimilar to its lyrical components," "makes the novel so innovative.

"[7] She remarks on the use of poetry and symbolism that "What sets this novel apart from the others is just this nonaction discourse, including the famous poetic descriptions of Chinese landscape, which are, however, meant to be understood not merely as images of natural beauty but as metaphorical statements about the condition of society.

[8] In particular he believes that the novel's characters and events illustrate a "complex conservatism" that concludes that technology instead of social change is the answer to the problems experienced by China.