杜少卿

杜少卿 is the figure in [[RulinWaishi|《儒林外史》]] whom 58.儒林外史：假如考公成了唯一出路 reads as closest to [[WuJingzi|吴敬梓]]’s ideal scholar. The episode presents him as generous, resistant to official flattery, and willing to help people whom fashionable local society has abandoned.

The source especially stresses his emotional sincerity. Du Shaoqing treats an old steward with kinship-like care, refuses concubinage, loves his wife openly, and acts from feeling rather than status calculus. In the episode’s interpretation, he is not simply “modern” or “advanced”; he is a counterexample to Imperial Examination As Only Exit, showing a person whose worth is not measured by examination success, official proximity, or ritual performance.

Connections

• [[RulinWaishi|《儒林外史》]] - novel where Du Shaoqing appears.
• [[WuJingzi|吴敬梓]] - author whose self-projection and ideal values the episode sees in Du Shaoqing.
• Imperial Examination As Only Exit - social order Du Shaoqing resists.
• Non-Instrumental Literary Reading - literary value in encountering an ideal of personhood rather than extracting a simple lesson.