本书是老舍的一部代表作品，全书通过刻画了祥子、虎妞、小福子、二强子、老马祖孙以及刘四爷等人物形象，反映了旧社会的社会制度和劳动者的生活状况。 本书主以北平（今北京）一个人力车夫祥子的行踪为线索，以二十年代末期的北京市民生活为背景，以人力车夫祥子的坎坷、悲惨的生活遭遇为主要情节，深刻揭露了旧中国的黑暗，控诉了统治阶级对劳动者的剥削、压迫，表达了作者对劳动人民的深切同情，向人们展示军阀混战、黑暗统治下的北京底层贫苦市民生活于痛苦深渊中的图景。This book is a representative work of Lao She. It reflects the social system and the livelihood of laborers in the old days by portraying such characters as Xiangzi, Huniu, little Fuzi, Er'qiangzi, Old Ma and his grandson, and the Fourth Elder Liu. This book, with its primary clue being the whereabouts of rickshawman Xiangzi in Beiping (today's Beijing), the civil life of Beijing in late 1920s as its background and major plots concerning the rough and miserable misfortunes of Xiangzi, profoundly reveals the darkness of the old Chinese society, accuses the exploitation and oppression exerted on laborers by the ruling class, expresses the author's deep sympathy to the toiling masses, and presents to readers a picture of miserable abysses in which the lowest class in Beijing were living under the oppressive rule in a time of incessant fighting between warlords. )