Summary
Tension subsides in Chengdu after General Chang takes power and indicates that he is willing to be an agent of reform. Students take this as an opportunity to become even active participants in the New Culture Movement. Chueh-hui, Chueh-min, and several of their classmates create a new-culture magazine called Dawn, which is immensely popular with the youth of Chengdu. The magazine tackles news and publishes articles on cultural and social debates. Chueh-hui writes prolifically for the magazine, but Chueh-min is too absorbed with his studies and tutoring Chin to contribute more than the occasional article. Chueh-hui is stuck between his devotion to social reform and his love for Ming-feng. He reads an article criticizing romantic love as a distraction from social responsibilities, and he is further conflicted.
Chueh-min and Chueh-hui visit Chin and ask her to write an article for Dawn about the benefits of girls cutting their hair short. Chin learns that the war set back women's liberation efforts, and it is unlikely Chin will be able to attend the Foreign Language School. Chin agrees to write the article. It becomes popular, inspiring many girls to send letters to Dawn showing their support.
One day, Hsu Chien-ju comes to school with short hair, having asked her nursemaid to cut it for her. Chien-ju says that though she endured mockery and dirty looks on her way to school, she was committed to doing what she wanted and supporting the New Culture Movement through her actions. When Chin does not agree to cut her hair short, Hsu Chien-Ju publicly comments that Chin is too corrupted by her family's wealth and high social standing to act with courage.
Later, Chin and Hsu Chien-ju pass notes during class and discuss the issue of Chin's courage. Hsu Chien-ju challenges Chin to stand up for herself despite her family's expectations, and Chin expresses that she loves her mother so much that she is willing to sacrifice her happiness to spare her mother pain. Chien-Ju then asks Chin if Chin will marry whomever her mother chooses, regardless of compatibility, to please Mrs. Chang, and Chin cannot answer the question.
Chien-Ju walks Chin back to her house after school. Once Chien-Ju leaves, Mrs. Chang laments that Chien-Ju has no sense of decorum or shame, seeing as she cut her hair short. Mrs. Chang blames Chien-ju's shortcomings on her mother's death. Chin then admits she wants to cut her hair as well. Mrs. Chang is angered by this, as she has indulged Chin's every whim. Mrs. Chang also mentions that she received a marriage proposal for Chin from a wealthy young man who had not completed his studies. Mrs. Chang rejected the proposal outright, believing Chin was too young and would not be happy in such a marriage. However, seeing that Chin's revolutionary spirit has only gotten stronger and her beliefs more radical, Mrs. Chang reconsiders the prudence of postponing Chin's eventual marriage. Chin suddenly sees that women have been sacrificing themselves in marriage for the sake of others for centuries and refuses to take part in that tradition. Chin vows to marry for love.
Madame Chou informs Ming-feng that she will be sold as a concubine to Feng, one of the Venerable Master Kao's wealthy friends. Feng is sixty years old and by all accounts, a lecher. Ming-feng weeps and begs Madame Chou not to give her as a concubine. Though moved by maternal pity, Madame Chou says she cannot go against what the Venerable Master Kao has ordered. She gives Ming-feng four days off of work, and at the end, she will be married to Feng. Ming-feng goes to Chueh-hui to ask for his help in changing her fate, but Chueh-hui is busy writing an article for Dawn and does not notice Ming-feng's presence.
Ming-feng spends the next four days weeping alone in her room, listening to reproachful and pitying remarks from the other servants, and trying to get Chueh-hui's attention. The servants and Kao family disagree with the Venerable Master Kao's choice to give Ming-feng as a concubine, but no one does anything to help Ming-feng. Chueh-hui and Chueh-ming are so busy with school and Dawn that Ming-feng is unable to speak to Chueh-hui until the fourth, final night. When Chueh-ming leaves the room, Ming-feng bursts into Chueh-hui's room in a last-ditch effort to get his help. Chueh-hui says he is busy, but that in two days he will be available to speak with Ming-feng. He kisses her for the first and only time, and Ming-feng leaves.
Chueh-min returns to the room and remarks to Chueh-hui that it is a pity that Ming-feng will become a concubine. Chueh-hui is shocked and realizes Ming-feng had come to beg his help. Chueh-hui chases after Ming-feng, calling her name and searching for her throughout the compound. He does not enter the women's room because it would not be proper. Eventually, Chueh-hui gives up his search and returns to his room.
Ming-feng goes alone through the garden to the lake. As she stands at its edge, she reflects on the unfairness of her fate; though Ming-feng has been obedient her entire life, worked hard without complaint, and never caused anyone harm, she will be the first to die. Ming-feng laments that the only beautiful thing in her life, Chueh-hui's love, is what causes her death, as she cannot bear to be with another man. Ming-feng hears Chueh-hui calling her name, and waits for him to come to her. When he does not call again, Ming-feng plunges into the lake and drowns herself.
Chueh-hui is greatly bothered by Ming-feng's visit and is very distracted at school, where he is learning Resurrection. Chueh-hui decides that he is willing to give up Ming-feng, because he must devote himself entirely to his ideologies and because his "petty bourgeoise pride" could not handle marrying a bondmaid. When Chueh-hui and Chueh-min return home, they see the Feng wedding party leave the compound and hear weeping, which they presume to be Ming-feng. Chien-yun tells Chueh-hui and Chueh-min that the family physically forced Wan-erh to marry Feng despite her protests. Chien-yun speculates that Wan-erh would have committed suicide like Ming-feng if she had the opportunity.
Chueh-hui, beside himself with grief at the news of Ming-feng's death, rushes out of the room. Seeing how compassionately Chueh-min responded to Ming-feng's death and Wan-erh's forced marriage, Chien-yun decides to confide in Chueh-min. Chien-yun admits that he is desperately in love with Chin, but Chien-yun thinks of himself as so far beneath Chin that he could never hope to attain her love. Additionally, Chien-yun is so awkward around Chin that it distresses him. Chien-yun says he knows Chin and Chueh-min are in love and asks that Chueh-min take care of Chin. Chien-Yun also makes Chueh-min promise that, after Chien-yun's inevitable death, Chueh-min and Chin will visit his grave, as he has no one else to truly mourn him.
Chueh-hui searches along the lake for any sign of Ming-feng. Chueh-min joins Chueh-hui and encourages Chueh-hui to forget the past and move on. Chueh-hui, angered, says that both he and the Kao family murdered Ming-feng by creating conditions that pushed her to suicide. Chueh-min apologizes for being a bad brother to Chueh-hui; because Chueh-min was so wrapped up in his relationship with Chin, he rarely made time to speak with Chueh-hui seriously. Chueh-min laments that if he hadn't grown so far away from Chueh-hui, the two brothers could have figured out a way to save Ming-feng together.
Chueh-min brings Chueh-hui to the grove of plum trees. Here, Chueh-min reminds Chueh-hui that he is still young and has the opportunity to seize happiness for himself. Chueh-hui and Chueh-min then take a walk and wander to their Uncle Ke-ming's law office. It then begins to rain, and Chueh-hui and Chueh-min race back home. Soaked, Chueh-hui calls for Ming-feng to bring him some hot water before remembering that Ming-feng is gone forever. Chueh-hui then calls for Mama Huang, who, despondent over Ming-feng's situation, reiterates that the "waters here have become muddy" and she would leave the family compound if she did not feel obligated to take care of Chueh-hui and Chueh-min.
Cheuh-hui goes off into the garden by himself once the rain subsides. He seems to hear quotations from the Li Chi, the Confucian book of rites, spoken in the voices of his younger cousins. Then, he hears Chueh-min say, "that's what they call an education!" The two brothers, reconnected, return to their room together.
Analysis
When tensions in Chengdu end, the student protestors quickly forget the violence and seize the opportunity to advance their movement, particularly on the issue of girls cutting their hair short. Girls' short hair symbolizes female liberation from the Confucian ideals of beauty, obedience, and dependence on men.
When Chin learns that the war in Chengdu has likely set back her ability to attend the Foreign Languages School, this disappointment, though validated by the narrative, contrasts with the war in Chengdu. The price of Chin's inability to get a better education is hundreds of human lives, and none of the gentry reflect on the human cost of the change in Chengdu's government.
Hsu Chien-ju is the female equivalent of Chueh-hui. She criticizes others for not matching her level of rebellion without recognizing the class and privilege differences between herself and others. For example, Chien-ju's father shares Chien-ju's revolutionary ideals.
Chien-ju and Chin discuss Chin's inability to rebel by passing notes in class. The form of their conversation affirms that the act of Chin cutting her hair, though it has serious social ramifications, is juvenile to some extent. The fact that Chin and Chien-ju spend their class time discussing the next steps of their rebellion affirms Mrs. Chang's later accusation that Chin will never be happy with whatever rights she achieves for herself. Chin fought hard for her education, and yet she does not pay attention during class.
Chin and Chien-ju's strife over short hair immediately contrasts with the Venerable Master Kao selling Ming-feng as a concubine. While Chin and Chien-ju, members of the gentry, ignore their education and figure out how to gain more agency in spite of the Confucian system, the Confucian system denies Ming-feng's agency and personhood. Mrs. Chang rejected the marriage proposal of a young, handsome, wealthy man, because he was not educated enough for Chin, but Ming-feng, by contrast, is being sold to a lecherous man old enough to be her grandfather.
Ming-feng goes to Chueh-hui's room to beg for his help, but notices that Chueh-hui is busy writing for Dawn magazine. She peeks in at him through a hole in the paper screen. This scene recalls when Chueh-hui eavesdropped on Ming-feng and Wan-erh discussing who the patriarch would sell as a concubine. Ming-feng does not believe her horrible fate is as important as Chueh-hui's work, and she does not bother him. When Chueh-hui ignores Ming-feng and dismisses her, he agrees that his work is more important than Ming-feng's life.
Chueh-hui searches for Ming-feng after he realizes she came to him for help, but propriety stops him from looking too hard. For example, Chueh-hui does not even try to enter the women's quarters, though he knows Ming-feng's life is in jeopardy, and he only calls Ming-feng's name once before worrying about waking up the compound.
Ming-feng takes decisive action while simultaneously accepting fate by drowning herself. She jumps into the lake, whose still waters churn for a moment before stilling. The lake's quick absorption of Ming-feng's body symbolizes how the Kao family took everything from Ming-feng; her life, love, and freedom, while her death creates only a momentary disruption. Except for a few servants, the entire compound forgets Ming-feng soon after she dies. Ming-feng is also replaced by Wan-erh, who becomes Feng's concubine. To the gentry, the members of the serving class are interchangeable and expendable.
Chueh-hui, though he is bothered by Ming-feng's fate, decides that he can "let her go," a revelatory moment about Chueh-hui's character. He considers Ming-feng a distraction from his loftier goals. By condemning Ming-feng to a fate she explicitly stated she would rather die than accept, Chueh-hui affirms that it is worth sacrificing Ming-feng for Chueh-hui's participation in the student movement. Chueh-hui also admits to himself that he could never have saved Ming-feng, as his "bourgeoisie pride" could not handle marrying a bondmaid. In this admission, Chueh-hui reveals that he is not so different from the other members of the Kao family; he cares about status and image. Though he considers himself a savior of the oppressed, he does not see those of a lower class as equal to him.
Chien-yun, who did not know Ming-feng, appears to be the most distraught over the two women's fates. Chien-yun is the only one who explicitly acknowledges that Ming-feng and Wan-erh are human beings, a statement recalling Chin's reading from Ibsen's A Doll's House.
Chien-yun notices Chueh-min's apparent compassion and unloads his story onto Chueh-min. Chien-yun delivers his story in a fast-paced, erratic rant. This passage's form simulates Chien-yun's nerves and Chueh-min's discomfort in the situation. The melodrama of Chien-yun's story provides a short segment of comedic relief when contrasted with the intense tragedy of Ming-feng's suicide. Like Ming-feng, Chien-yun believes that his life will have no impact and that no one will mourn his inevitable, untimely death.
Chueh-min brings Chueh-hui to the grove of plum trees to encourage him that he is still young and still has hope. The setting of this exchange is ironic, because Mei and Chueh-hsin discussed their hopeless future and bemoaned the loss of their youth in that very grove.
Chueh-hui calls for Ming-feng to bring him hot water before realizing she is dead. The fact that Chueh-hui's first impulse is to give Ming-feng an order demonstrates that despite his love for her, Chueh-hui never thought of Ming-feng as anything other than a servant. Mama Huang brings the hot water and reiterates her observation that the Kao family's "waters here have become muddy." This time, Mama Huang's words take on a new meaning, as Ming-feng's death in the Kao family compound's waters resulted from the Venerable Master Kao's tyrannical grip on the family and the family's refusal to treat Ming-feng as a person.
Chueh-hui goes to the garden by himself, and he seems to hear passages from the Confucian Book of Rites narrated by his younger cousins. Chueh-hui realizes that his cousins will soon become victims of the Confucian system. Or, in the case of Shu-chen and her bound feet, they already have become victims. The Li Chi is a book of ethics and instructions on right behavior; when Chueh-min exclaims "That's what they call an education!" about the Li Chi, he draws a parallel between the books that give him and Chueh-hui their ideas and the book that gave the Venerable Master Kao his ideas.
