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Since the May Fourth era many scholars criticized "The Nine-tailed Turtle", accusing it of being a depravity novel. Hu Shih and Lu Xun accused it of being, as paraphrased by David Wang, "a showcase of the bad taste and frivolity of late Qing literati writers". Hu Shih and Lu Xun said that readers had poor tastes, so the book became a best-seller. According to David Wang, by calling it a handbook or textbook Hu Shih and Lu Xun "ensured its lasting notoriety". David Wang added that in 1997 the work still had "an image problem".