Summary
The Kao family gathers for their New Year's banquet. Twenty-four guests, representing four generations of the Kao family, are seated according to their station in the family. The first table comprises the older generation, and the second table the younger. The Venerable Master Kao is uncharacteristically pleased and merry to see his family assembled. He reflects on how, as a scholar and later an official, he built the family's wealth from nothing. In the faces of the younger generation, the Venerable Master Kao sees the potential for the Kao family to grow even larger and more affluent.
The table of the younger generation is vibrant; they laugh loudly, eat and drink excessively. The Venerable Master Kao notices his own table is far more reserved; the guests only eat and drink when the Venerable Master Kao does, and they hardly speak or laugh at all. Slightly tipsy, the Venerable Master Kao encourages the table to shed formalities, if only for the night, and drink more. The older generation relaxes significantly but still does not match the exuberance of the younger generation.
After the guests leave, Chueh-hui is drunk and restless, so he takes a walk despite the cold. He notices the remnants of the New Year's celebration; used firecrackers lay on the ground, and smoke fills the air. He hears the sound of weeping and finds the source is a young beggar boy leaning over the stone vat outside the Kao family compound. The boy's hair is wet from the water in the vat. Moved to pity, Chueh-hui offers the boy two silver half-dollars and encourages him to find somewhere warm to stay for the night. Chueh-hui quickly leaves, feeling almost ashamed, and does not even wait around to see if the boy accepted the money. As he returns home, Chueh-hui scolds himself. Despite being considered a humanitarian by his family, Chueh-hui knows that simple acts of charity and immediate assistance will not substantially change the world. Chueh-hui shakes off his self-reprimand, dismissing his feelings as drunkenness.
Chueh-hui and Chueh-min awaken on the final day of the lunar year. Having drunk so much wine, Chueh-hui went to bed in his day clothes, about which Chueh-min and Mama Huang tease him. Mama Huang attends to Chueh-min and Chueh-hui and expresses affection for them. Mama Huang says she has worked for the Kao family for over a decade, is about to turn fifty years old, and that the family is not as good as it was in the old days. Nevertheless, she cannot bear to leave Chueh-min and Chueh-hui because she feels maternal affection toward them. She believes Chueh-min and Chueh-hui will grow up to become scholars and government officials, making her as proud and happy as if they were her own children. Only then would Mama Huang feel comfortable leaving.
Once Mama Huang departs, Chueh-hui and Chueh-min go on a walk through the family compound. The gardens are opulent and refined. Artificial structures, like hills and bridges, coexist alongside natural, but still cultivated elements, like peonies, plum trees, and brooks. Chueh-hui and Chueh-min stop to throw stones into a clear brook, but despite their close distance to the water, the stones always stop short. Chueh-hui and Chueh-min then climb a hill and stop to rest.
Chueh-hui goes to explore a vermillion building called "Fragrance at Eventide." In the building, Chueh-hui finds Chueh-hsin resting on a brick bed. Chueh-hui confronts his older brother, asking why he is hiding and why he drank so much the night before. Chueh-min explains that his responsibilities have been greater than ever with the New Year celebrations, and he is not sleeping well. In addition, a few days before, Chueh-hsin had seen Mei outside of a department store. Though neither Chueh-hsin nor Mei could bring themself to speak, knowing Mei had returned stirred up old emotions in Chueh-hsin. Chueh-hsin admits to Chueh-hui that he is a "weakling," and when things get difficult, he drinks excessively because a "hazy" world is easier to deal with than reality. Chueh-hui does not understand Chueh-min's situation but feels pity and sympathy for him, despite believing that Chueh-hsin's fate is somewhat Chueh-hsin's fault because he did not fight back when he married Jui-chueh.
Chueh-hui then goes to watch the younger children playing a game of hackysack. Chueh-hui calls out, distracting Shu Hua and ruining her high score. She blames Chueh-hui for her loss. Chueh-hui then returns to where Chueh-hsin was lying but finds his brother gone. Chueh-hui then sees Chueh-hsin playing hackysack with the children, making them laugh and enjoying himself immensely. Chueh-hui is both moved and alarmed by his brother's ability to quickly forget his tragedies, going from a dismal conversation about Chueh-hsin's hopelessness to a fun game with seemingly no difficulty. On the evening of the last day of the lunar year, the entire Kao family gathers to pay respects to their ancestors in an elaborate ceremony. The family gathers in the brightly lit main hall, and they all wear new clothes and stand arranged by gender and age. The family then takes turns, again ordered by their rank in the family, bowing to their elders and one another. The servants also take part in bowing to their masters. Ming-feng and Chueh-hui share a moment of greeting and smile at one another openly.
After the ceremony concludes, the family sets off a fireworks display. Then, the family retires into the Venerable Master Kao's room and Jui-chueh's room to play mahjong. Chueh-hui and Chueh-min go to the Chang family compound to visit Chin. They do not notice Kao sheng, a former servant, waiting outside the family compound as they leave. Kao sheng had served the Kao family for over a decade until he became addicted to opium and stole paintings from the Venerable Master Kao. Kao sheng served time in prison and then became a beggar. He visits the Kao family compound to beg for the New Year's gift typically given by masters to their servants. Ashamed of his past and his tattered clothes, Kao Sheng sends another servant inside the compound to act as a messenger. Kao Sheng receives his gift and lingers. He notices Chueh-hui walk by and wants to reach out, as he has a particular fondness for Chueh-hui, who used to listen to Kao sheng's stories as Kao Sheng smoked his opium pipe. Kao Sheng does not approach the brothers.
Chueh-hui and Chueh-min reach the Chang family compound. The Chang family is small, with few men; widows head most households. The compound is notably quieter and less lively than the Kao family compound. The brothers pay their respects to Mrs. Chang and Chin. They go into Chin's room, where Mei is waiting to greet them.
Mei is still beautiful, but she has markedly changed since her disappointment in love with Chueh-hsin, her unhappy marriage, and the death of her husband. She is melancholy and stuck in the past. Mei explains that, with her brother studying for examinations and her mother playing mahjong all day, Mei has nothing to do but read sad poetry and wallow in the past. Mei believes there is no hope for happiness for her. Though Chin and the brothers encourage Mei to bury the past and read new books about hope for the future, Mei believes her memories of the past are all she has left. Mei is also in poor health; she repeatedly coughs into a handkerchief and expresses that she sleeps very little. Mei says that she reads New Youth magazine, but it is difficult for her to listen to new ideas that cannot help her current situation. She compares reading the magazines to being a beggar outside of a wealthy family compound on New Year's, like Kao Sheng. Mei says that she has a tree planted outside of her window that budded when she was to be married, but now that she has returned, hopeless, the tree is entirely barren. She believes it is a symbol of her life.
Mei asks after Chueh-hsin and recounts how she had seen him a few days prior but did not say anything. She also mentions that Chueh-hsin had come to pay respects to Mei's mother, but Mei did not dare to speak with him; she only watched Chueh-hsin through a crack in the door. Mei says that even though it is painful to remember the past, it has done her good to finally speak of it with other people.
Analysis
The electric lights "brilliantly illuminated the pictures on the wall and the portraits of the Ching Dynasty ancestors resting on the altar." The lights burn so brightly that "even the cracks in the coloured-tile floor were made visible." Electric lights, a new technology reserved for the wealthy, symbolize that new ideas can illuminate the flaws in antiquated systems. The portraits of the Ching ancestors are laid bare by the light, and the architectural flaws in the Kao family compound, which represents the Kao family, are exposed.
The Venerable Master Kao delights in his assembled family. The family members are seated according to station; the younger generation sits seperately from their elders. The Venerable Master Kao is confused as to why the elder generation behaves so formally; they are so indoctrinated into the patriarchal system that they can only let loose when the Venerable Master Kao expressly commands it. The patriarch does not understand that he is the cause of the family's emotional distance, as the Confucian system promises a close-knit, harmonious family. In reality, it is the Confucian system that drives the family apart. The younger generation, unburdened by Confucianism, laughs, drinks, and enjoys one another's company, which is what the Venerable Master Kao wants for the entire family. Ironically, the patriarch thinks he can only achieve this ideal family by forcing his will on the entire family.
The Venerable Master Kao is proud that, breaking tradition, he independently established the Kao family and accrued its wealth from nothing. He hopes his descendants will continue to build the family's affluence, but he cannot see that the other members of the family contribute to the family's development and progress by developing their own ideas and following their own paths, just as he did.
Chueh-hui goes for a walk after dinner and sees a pitiful beggar boy outside of the compound. Chueh-hui gives the boy some money and tells the boy what to do with it. Chueh-hui does not even wait around to hear what the boy says or see what he does with the money. Chueh-hui sees himself as a savior of the oppressed, but, as in his relationship with Ming-feng, Chueh-hui is unable or unwilling to listen to what the oppressed need and want. Chueh-hui has the luxury of retreating back into his home after the interaction makes him uncomfortable. Chueh-hui chastises himself, convincing himself that structural change is what the boy needs, not one-off acts of charity. Regardless of the truth of that statement, the fact that Chueh-hui thinks this way demonstrates his internal contradictions. Chueh-hui makes social reform about himself and his place, not about the suffering people he sees before him. Chueh-hui's act of charity is reminiscent of the spirit money; when relatives and friends throughout the text burn spirit money, the gesture is genuinely well-intentioned, but the effects are near-worthless. Chueh-hui's acts of charity do more to ease his conscience than to actually help the beggar boy.
Mama Huang takes on more than her fair share of responsibilities as a servant of the Kao family. Not only does she provide for the Chuehmin and Chueh-hui's physical needs, she also bears their emotional burdens. She watches over the brothers' development into upstanding members of society worrying over them, parenting them, and taking pride in them where their family members do not. Affection blurs the class difference between the Kao brothers and Mama Huang.
Mama Huang, though she suffers under the Confucian system, romanticizes the patriarchal family's past. She glorifies the days before the New Culture Movement "muddied" the "clearwater" of the Kao family. Still, Mama Huang believes the Chueh-hui and Chueh-min can vindicate her by becoming successful. Mama Huang pinning her hopes on the Kao brothers recalls how Chueh-hsin's mother pinning her hopes on him. The younger generation is pressured to use their lives and success to give meaning to the older generation's sacrifices.
When Chueh-hui and Chueh-min walk through the garden, they encounter several artificial obstacles, like manufactured hills, bridges, and curated groves, all within the confines of the Kao family compound. Like the hills Chueh-hui and Chueh-min struggle to climb, the Kao family creates its own problems. The garden symbolizes the Kao family. The relationships between friends, family members, and lovers are like blossoms. The relationships occur naturally, like flowers, but are then sheared, designed, and curated to appease the Venerable Master Kao. Within the insular world of their compound, the Kao family creates problems as they attempt to foster beauty and harmony.
Chueh-hui and Chueh-min attempt to throw stones into the brook, but every time, they miss. Disrupting water is a motif used throughout the book, symbolizing how individual actions and choices can upset the status quo. When Chueh-hui and Chueh-min are not able to disrupt the brook with their stones, the narrative suggests that their progressive ideas, up until that point, have made no impact on their family or society at large.
When Chueh-hui confronts Chueh-hsin about his drinking, Chueh-hsin admits that he numbs himself with alcohol. Chueh-hsin convinced himself that indifference and contentment were the same, but seeing Mei rekindles Chueh-hsin's longing and makes it clear to him that he is actually unhappy. When Chueh-hsin plays hackeysack with the children, it is another example of how distractions, like drinking and mahjong, are used throughout the narrative to simulate the process of willful forgetting.
Kao Sheng is a former servant of the Kao family. The beggar's life contrasts with Ke-tings. The two men make similar choices, smoking opium and stealing to finance their addiction. However, Kao Sheng goes to prison and then becomes a beggar, but Ke-ting retains his position and authority.
Kao Sheng wants to speak to Chueh-hui, but his shame wins out and the former servant does not speak. Chueh-hui sees Kao Sheng, but does not recognize him. Though Chueh-hui does not intentionally ignore Kao Sheng, Chueh-hui's inability to recognize the servant with whom he once had a friendship demonstrates Chueh-hui's limited view of society's ills.
The Chang family compound is quiet and deserted because widows run the households, and few men, other than the morose Chien-yun, live there. The atmosphere of the Chang compound demonstrates another flaw in the patriarchal order; men are irreplaceable in the patriarchal system, but women are disposable. Not only do the female members of the Chang family lose order and leadership when their male relatives die, but the women also lose the ability to partake in festive, celebratory activities.
Under the Confucian system, the narrative suggests, a man's death is also the death of a woman's spirit. The patriarchal order forces women to tie up nearly every aspect of their practical life and personhood in the figure of the patriarch. Mei is an example of this; her happiness and identity are tied up in the person of Chueh-hsin, the patriarchal figure. When she loses him, Mei also loses her will to live, and she can only find joy in memories of Chueh-hsin.
Mei's tree is a symbol of her life. The tree that once bloomed outside her window is now barren upon her return to Chengdu. The tree is barren because Mei has no hope for her future, and she is unwilling and unable to move on from Chueh-hsin. In an instance of verbal irony, Mei compares herself to a beggar waiting outside of a wealthy family compound, unable to reach the feast inside. Mei is like this with new ideas beyond her comprehension; hearing about the New Culture Movement heightens her depression. Mei's statement is ironic because Kao Sheng was begging outside the compound that same night. Mei's poverty is of the mind and spirit, Kao Sheng's poverty is literal.
