This thesis takes " the first-rate great writer of social novel within the four seas " Li Hanqiu ( 1874 - 1923 ) and his novel from the last years of Qing dynasty to the early years of the Republic of China as its chief study , and makes every effort to interpret Li Hanqiu and his novel in a relatively comprehensive way on the base of a lot of firsthand material .The thesis consists of seven sections . The section of foreword mainly summarizes the present situation of study on " Mandarin Ducks and Butterflies " and Li Hanqiu within the four seas and overseas , explains the significance of studying Li Hanqiu and his novel , and briefly introduces the method of study . The first chapter gives the information of Li' s life and friends , and reveals Li' s temperament of femalization and gifted scholar because of regional culture and family circumstances . The second chapter checks Li against three well-known novelists at the nearly same time and simply combs the developping orbit of all novels from the last years of Qing dynasty to the early years of the Public of China , lays stress on the content of family and society in Li' s early years poets , in order to clarify the trait which Li produces the novel from the very beginning and the one of the evolution of his all novels . The third chapter discusses the middle-lower-level family life in Li' s novels - the death , the marriage , the relations of family memberships that occur in the family of merchant and scholar . These all reflect the outlook of " good " ," hardworking " , " harmonious " and retribution on the family ." Conserving the old morality " becomes the main point of view that Li describes the family life . The fourth chapter probes into the middle-lower-level society life in Li' s novels from three sides to be related with the revolution and the republic , the life styles of personalities of various circles in the turbulent society , the culture of folk custom . Both " supporting the new political system " and" rectifying the will of the people , reforming the custom " turn into the basic starting point that Li describes the society life . The fifth chapter expounds the narrative feature of Li' s novel in the structure ,the visual angle and the language , in order to manifest its artistic feature that the foreign and the native mingle with the scholar and the folk . The section of concluding remarks emphasizes that Li is a man of the inherent qualities and his novel is to reform society , but points out the limitations of traditional form - the disadvantage to describe the new life and express the new thougt about his novel as well as some accidental flaws .