In the book The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck, the fall of the House of Hwang and the rise of the
Wang family was shown. The story completed a “circle of life”, with Wang being the center of the
circle. While Wang at first was intimidated, he also looked down on the House of Hwang, he soon
found that when his family became rich, his house fell onto some of the same “curses”. In both
houses, a lack of love for the land was highly noticeable (except for Wang Lung), opium was used,
slaves were bought and sold even though Wang first opposed slaves, and the future heirs wished to
sell the land for money but at the same time lose their support for if the house should fall.
When the House of Hwang was in power, Wang noticed how they had a complete lack of love
for the earth. They had to constantly sell pieces of land to pay their immediate debts, but by doing
this they gave away their support if a dark time should fall upon the house. Wang knew that this
would be the downfall of the house, so he bought the land from the house. After the House of
Hwang fell, the House of Wang came to power. Wang kept in mind his whole life that without the
good earth, he was nothing. Wang worried when he noticed that his sons lacked his love for the
land. Wang was disturbed to think that when he passed away his sons would sell the land, and his
family would succumb to the same fate of the Hwang house; as shown on page 37 when Wang said,
“Sell their land!...Then indeed are they growing poor. Land is one’s flesh and blood”.
Opium usage was a major role in the downfall of the Hwang house. The Old Mistress was
heavily addicted to the drug, and in her desire for the drug, she drove her house “into the ground”.
On page 39, Wang was paying the Gate Keeper for the land he was purchasing and the Gate Keeper
said “Here is enough for a few days of opium for the old lady, at any rate”. For the House of Wang,
opium became almost a relief for Wang when he devised his plan to rid his family of his Uncle and his
wife. He could not cast out his Uncle because he was providing protection from marauders. Keeping
this in mind, Wang then gave his Uncle and the Uncle’s wife some opium hoping that they would
There are little to no direct accounts of how individuals’ lives were a couple thousand years ago in Ancient China. With a wealth of information on the rise, decline, and fall of empires, Michael Loewe, a sinologist who specializes in oriental studies and theology, writes an imaginary story about a hero named Bing set around 70 BCE. Bing: From Farmer’s Son to Magistrate in Han China is Loewe’s fictional portrait of life during the Han Empire. It is by no means a comprehensive historical account of Han times, in fact, it was written with those readers who are not familiar with Chinese in mind, however through the life of Bing we can gage how the lives of laborers, those involved in military service, merchants, and government officials might
Another reason they bought land was to give their children a better future so that he/she could do the same. The sons looked upon their father to inherit them with land, but how much can an average colonist afford if he had more than just one son. An example that Gross provides in his book is of a young man who looked upon his father to give him some land. That young man was Purchase Brown a seventeen year old boy, whose father Captain David brown “lived in a household crammed with thirteen people.”(Gross 83). Purchase had four younger brothers and Purchase could not “take over the family farm… before the youngest child came to age…” (Gross 84). This was a problem to all of Concords residents and as land became scarcer, men of Concord started looking west to the frontiers for more land. Another example that Gross describes in of the struggle of some residents of Concord, is a story of two couples named Lucy and Joseph Hosmer. They got married at a young age and Lucy lived her husband on “her in-laws land that was still owned by Joseph’s father.”(Gross 101). The couples worked hard to sustain a good family living. When the war approached in Concord Lucy Hosmer was scared that what if she loses her husband and he dies without “writing a will, then Lucy would struggle to make a living…”(Gross 103). Then Gross state how the
With the perception of a bright and new beginning they willingly forced themselves to forget about the “colors of the Beijing sky” and “what they no longer could bear hope for” (Chang 33, 29). Sacrificing their past life, they wanted to give their son Charles a life of fulfillment and opportunity in the land of dreams, America. Their Chinese culture and traditions were neglected in the corner of their basement and the American lifestyle was rapidly immersing the Hwangs family. With the pressure to learn and comprehend this new American culture, the relationship between father and son slowly became disconnected. Ming’s demand to forget his past and the pressure to absorb new cultural ways, took a toll on the relationship between him and his son causing it to drift and become almost non-
The title of Ray Huang’s book 1587: A Year of No Significance: The Ming Dynasty Decline suggests that this book is a work based on a single year in which little occurred. But in reality, Huang’s look at the events of 1587 demonstrate the complex workings of the leadership during the decline of the Ming dynasty, giving the reader an insight into the societal structure, the governmental process, and the mistakes that occurred systematically to enhance the progression towards the seemingly inevitable downfall. Though nothing of historical significance occurred during the year 1587, Huang is able to demonstrate the way in which the existing culture and the smaller, more systematic elements of political leadership can be understood within the context of a seemingly unimportant period of time.
also ends up without money left to build anything on the land he has purchased.
He uses the money to buy some seeds, a new ox and he is able to return back home. The greed starts to set in when Wang learns that his wife stole some jewels from when there the looting was happening. They talked it over and agreed to buy some more land leaving O-lan with two pearls. The good thing that has come out of Wang looting another person’s home helped him understand why others did so to him and led him to forgive them. He becomes so wealthy that he is able to buy Ching’s land and build enough rooms for him to live in and to also buy laborers. Wang buying laborers shows what wealth does to a once poor peasant man. He is not the one that cares for his land nor is he compassion about his land anymore. Wang hits the biggest turning point when he disrespects his wife and tells her that she is not fit to be a wife of a wealthy man. “Now anyone looking at you would say you were a wife of a common fellow and never of one who has land which he hires men to plow!” (Buck, 168). Wang then starts to “buy” more wives because that is what wealthy men do. In the end Wang ends up like the rest of the wealthy men the he never thought he would become. He got his own uncle’s family addicted to opium, wouldn’t give other refugees seeds without either having high interest or giving up some of their land. This was one of Buck’s main goal, to show the readers what happened to people when they were consumed by wealth and started to become
The Death of Woman Wang, by Jonathan Spence is an educational historical novel of northeastern China during the seventeenth century. The author's focus was to enlighten a reader on the Chinese people, culture, and traditions. Spence's use of the provoking stories of the Chinese county T'an-ch'eng, in the province of Shantung, brings the reader directly into the course of Chinese history. The use of the sources available to Spence, such as the Local History of T'an-ch'eng, the scholar-official Huang Liu-hung's handbook and stories of the writer P'u Sung-Ling convey the reader directly into the lives of poor farmers, their workers and wives. The intriguing structure of The Death of Woman Wang consists on observing these people working on the land, their family structure, and their local conflicts.
Since his time as a young man, Wang Lung dreams of earning the power and wealth that the House of Hwang possesses, and with his dedicated work towards caring for his land, he is able to reach their level of power after returning from the South, all while retaining to traditional values regarding the land. In his older years, his name becomes associated with the concept of the House of Hwang, even before purchasing the residence, and is regarded as “Wang The Rich Man” or “Wang The Big Man” (Page 309) once he rises to the status of a wealthy
...In the end of the book Kim, Chou, and Loung met up. They decide to look for Meng and Khouy. Meanwhile they find their aunt and uncle. After living with them for a while they find Meng and Khouy. That really shine a light to their drake world. Later on, after settling in with the little family they had left, they decided they had enough money to send two people to America. So Meng, his wife, and Loung go to a refugee camp to get deporter to the states. After a long plane ride they arrive in Vermont. There, Loung becomes a strong motivational speaker, she writes her book and shares her story with millions.
The Daoguang Emperor himself was an addict, as were most of his court. In 1838, the opium addict in China had grown to between four and twelve million. It was rumored that the viceroy of Canton was also involved in the opium trade himself, Carton located in the west of China, was the biggest port at the time. Along with many other members of imperial court profited from the trade in the form of bribes or as smugglers themselves. The opium trade had thoroughly corrupted the Chinese government as much as it had destroyed its citizens’ health. Lin first wrote a letter to Queen Victoria, he said, China offered its finest goods to British, such as tea, silk, and silver but got nothing but poison in return. He queried the Queen, Opium smoking is strictly forbidden in England because the harm caused by it is clearly understood. He demanded England to stop the exporting and planting of opium right way. Unfortunately, England’s foreign and commonwealth office thought the letter was arrogant and blind pride, turned down his request and refused to write
Smoking opium was a custom for the Chinese workers after a day of work, comparable to workers today that go out for a drink after a day of work. With opium smoking came opium dens; this was where people would culminate to smoke opium, gamble, and prostitution took place there as well. Opium was now considered to be a harmful drug by the public, and they began to associate opium with the Chinese, “Public opinion toward opium was primarily based on ‘racial hatred’ by mainstream society toward Chinese immigrants. Newspapers of the time carried lurid tales of crime and debauchery in opium dens. All these accounts portrayed the Chinese in a negative light” (Hogan 40). The public became fearful of the effects of opium and the Chinese, “In 1875, the San Francisco municipal authority passed a city ordinance forbidding the smoking of opium. However, the actual importing and selling of the drug were not included in the ordinance as criminal acts” (Hogan 41). They prohibited individuals to not smoke opium but did nothing to the individuals producing and importing the drug. This clearly did not end the problem, opium was still allowed to be produced and imported wherever. This only
Abortion is defined as a procedure that is done to remove an embryo or fetus from the uterus of its mother in order to prevent its birth (Roth, 2005). Abortion is categorized as a bioethical issue because it relates to the morals of biomedical advances, policies and research. Abortion is a difficult subject that can involve personal morals and beliefs, legality and religious values. The issue is often viewed from either the side of pro-life, which places emphasis on the fetus and its right to life or pro-choice, which emphasizes the rights of the mother to decide the appropriate action (Roth, 2005). This brings the ethical question of should the government have the right to outlaw abortion into debate. The two viewpoints of pro-life and pro-choice explore the two main moral issues concerning abortion (Roth, 2005).
There is a social exchange between these two groups of individuals, where not only a sharing of food is evident, but also a sharing of thoughts. The couple pertains to be free in life, but in fact places restrictions upon not only themselves but also other people. Fangfang asks if the young boy is the man’s son, and then continues, “What about your wife?” A projection of how things are supposed to be is happening within this conversation, upholding to the image of perfect, and a perfect world with father and son, husband and wife relationships. The man and boy show that even though their lives aren’t perfect as this young couple may think they have enough love to be happy and content. The little boy has the cage with grasshoppers symbolizes people of China, who are locked in their thoughts and who have no idea how the world lives. When the man gets up and leaves the conversation being held by them, life intervenes and suddenly the control that they tried to have gets taken away, and “We felt the chill of the mountain air.” (p15) Their perfect ideology of what perfect is, gets a concept of reality placed upon it, and changes the entire illusion that they live in, as life starts to breathe in over them.
... a different perspective but also might add some opinionated portions of the blog post. This post is useful, however because it includes a lot of information about Ching-ling and Mei-ling’s husbands, which is an influence that made them so significant during the time.
rules and laws that applied only to those who were peasants. The laws sort of boosted their lives; he kept the land tax low, and the granaries stocked to guard against famine. During his reign he also attempted and succeeded in building up the class of those of the peasant and working class. Hongwu’s new government did not cause any change for those in other social classes.