In "Hakkenden" Bakin, praised for his extensive reading and good memory, refers and incorporates into the organization so much of his training in Sinology and intimate knowledge of Hakuwa Shosetsu that the novel is sometimes criticized as pedagoguish.
『八犬伝』には博覧強記をうたわれた馬琴の漢学教養や中国白話小説への造詣が、ときに衒学的と評されるほど引用されたり、物語構成に組み込まれたりしている。