Water of the Canglang River by Yan Zhen, a powerful work of art, depicts the nature and mechanism of power. With high spirit of realism, the novel pungently reveals how power is realized, how the mind of the power holders distorted, how the personality of the power-seekers poisoned, and how justice and conscience destroyed with power's true nature of selfishness and dictatorialness fully expressed and the unalterable-ness of all hinted.