Chinese Literature

People who have always lived in a morass of “Ceremonial Edicts,” “Clan Laws” and “Family Rules,” may not follow them to the letter, but many are quite vociferous in paying them lip service. Yang the Elder took this as confirmation of his views, and as “clan leader,” interfered in this and meddled in that. With his own family, he was exceptionally strict. He had married his daughter, Huan, to a man in a neighbouring village. The mother-in-law tormented the girl mercilessly, and the Elder frequently lectured her.

“Annoy your mother-in-law, avoid your own mother’s door” was the feudal aphorism he often quoted at his daughter. “Huan, if you go on acting this way, I won’t have you crossing our threshold. Ill disown you!”

Two days ago, the girl had taken part in a meeting. When she got home, her husband and mother-in-law locked her in her room. Then, knowing Yang the Elder’s disposition, the old lady sent for him. As soon as he heard that his daughter was again “violating all virtue and morality,” he rushed over to lecture her. Moreover, he issued an order:

“Tf she doesn’t admit she was wrong and won’t change, don’t let her out!”

Then, the morning he returned home, he learned that, as if to spite him, Chun-mei’s mother had tried to hang herself the night before!

“That cheap baggage! Don’t cover the dung pot and it’ll stink up the whole place!”

After he cooled down a bit, he thought the case over. This relative had created a “disgraceful incident,” but she had also remained a model widow for many years. He didn’t know quite how to treat her. He had his breakfast, then took up his hookah and set out to find “Bigot” Yang Pen-yuan, a narrow, pedantic, Confucian dogmatist. The two had crown up together. The Bigot had been a tutor to children of the wealthy. Now, although his family had received land under the land reform, he devoted himself to fortune telling. He and the Elder got along very well. They saw eye to eye on a great many matters. They discussed the case of Chun-mei’s mother for about half an hour and reached a unanimous conclusion:

“Family linen must not be washed in public. The best thing would be to pass the blame on to Chun-mei!” :

After leaving the Bigot, Yang the Elder went looking for Chun-mei, but she was not at home. He ran into a group of youngsters who infuriated him by addressing him “with no sense of rank or fitness.” He angrily berated them for several minutes.

But what was really to make him rage was yet to come.

The next day was a village market day. It was the Elder’s custom, after setting up his fireworks stall, to order a big cup of wine. This he would leisurely sip while sitting beside his stall. After drinking a

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