Summary
Chueh-hui brings Chueh-min the news about Mei. Chueh-min weeps and asks Chueh-hui to stay a while. Chueh-min is lonely and only has Chin and Chueh-hui on his side. Eventually, Tsun-jen takes Chueh-min back inside. Chueh-hui then visits Chin, who is in the midst of writing a letter to Chueh-min, explaining the news of what happened to Mei. The letter also explains that Mrs. Chang, seeing how Mei was so devastated by her lost love affair, decided to support Chin's potential marriage to Chueh-min. Chueh-hui delivers this message to Chueh-min, who is overjoyed and newly encouraged.
When Chueh-hui returns to the family compound, he overhears a ruckus coming from the Venerable Master Kao's room. Shu-hua explains that Uncle Ke-ting pawned a significant amount of his wife's silver jewelry to pay for many scandalous deeds. Ke-ting accrued a great deal of gambling debt, began smoking opium, and started seeing and providing for a sex worker named Monday. The entire family gathers to watch as the Venerable Master Kao upbraids Ke-ting, forcing him to kneel down and slap his own face while recounting all the salacious details of his story in front of the entire family. The younger generation watches Ke-ting's punishment with a mixture of disgust and glee; Chueh-chun laughs at the absurdity of "a big man like Uncle Ke-ting getting a beating."
Ke-ting implicates his brother, Ke-an. The Venerable Master Kao summons Ke-an, but Ke-an cannot be found. The Venerable Master Kao works himself into such a fervor over his sons' unfilial behavior that he succumbs to a fit of coughing. The Venerable Master Kao dismisses everyone, including Mistress Chen, and lays down. The Venerable Master Kao sees the faces of his family swimming before him, all sneering at him with no affection.
The Venerable Master Kao becomes debilitatingly ill. The family calls in famous doctors to heal the patriarch, but his condition worsens. Initially, none of the extended family cares that the Venerable Master Kao is ill; they go about their daily lives without doing more than paying the family patriarch the daily formal visits he is due. When his condition continues to worsen, Mistress Chen, with support from the women family members, turns to superstition and witchcraft to try and heal the Venerable Master Kao.
First, they call in a group of Taoist priests to perform a drumming ceremony, and mistress Chen holds her own nightly prayer rituals. When none of these work, Ke-ting, Ke-ming, and Ke-an perform a ritual sacrifice, saying they wish to die in their father's place. Chueh-hui regards this performance as pure hypocrisy since his Uncles came to the sacrifice from various places of debauchery, such as gambling houses and "love nests."
The family calls in a witch doctor to "drive out the devils" in the Kao family compound as a last resort. The witch doctor begins in the Venerable Master Kao's room with a loud, violent performance that shocks and upsets the barely lucid Venerable Master Kao. Still, the witch doctor returns to cleanse the entire family compound. Chueh-hui, angered by this display, locks his room and refuses to allow the witch doctor entry. When Chueh-hsin, Ke-ming, and Mistress Chen practically beat down the door to try and gain entrance, Chueh-hui confronts them, accusing them of hastening the Venerable Master Kao's death by inviting in the witch doctor. Chueh-hui threatens that if anyone enters his room, he will hit them. Ke-ming, who only supported the witch doctor to look like a filial son, leaves the scene with his head hung low. Chueh-hsin, humiliated, leaves as well. Though Mistress Chen genuinely believes in the witch doctor's magic, she has no courage and leaves as well. Chueh-hui feels he won a small victory, and the witch doctor does not cleanse his room.
Chueh-hui is called into the Venerable Master Kao's room, expecting a scolding for his behavior during the witch doctor's visit. The Venerable Master Kao is incredibly frail, bald, and pitiful-looking. He greets Chueh-hui warmly, giving him affectionate smiles and calling him a "good boy." Yeh-yeh also says he is beginning to understand his grandsons and admits he was wrong to force Chueh-min into a marriage. Yeh-yeh tearfully asks Chueh-hui to bring Chueh-min to see him before he passes and promises that he will break off the betrothal to Feng's grandniece.
Chueh-hui goes to break the good news to Chueh-min and Chin. When Chueh-hui and Chueh-min return home, they see the entire family gathered around the Venerable Master Kao's deathbed. Yeh-yeh breathes laboriously and seems not to be lucid. Chueh-hui fights to get close to Yeh-yeh and grabs his hand. Yeh-yeh has a brief moment of awareness and tells Chueh-min to forget the match with the Feng family. The Venerable Master Kao then asks both Chueh-min and Chueh-hui to "study diligently" and "bring honor to the family name" before taking his last breath.
The family begins funeral preparations, informing relatives and acquaintances of the patriarch's passing, filling Yeh-yeh's casket with his most loved items, and calling Taoist and Buddhist monks to perform ceremonies. After three days after the casket is sealed and the mourning period commences. The family patriarchs dress in mourning garments that Chueh-hui and Chueh-min find comical, almost like costumes in a farce. When Chueh-hui returns after escaping from the funeral celebrations, he overhears Chueh-hsin, Ke-an, Ke-ming, and Ke-ting arguing over how to distribute Yeh-yeh's property. Chueh-hsin was left generous stock options in Yeh-yeh's will, but his uncles do not want to honor the request. Chueh-hsin's stepmother received hardly anything, though Mistress Chen was left an entire compound and house. Chueh-hsin wants to stand up for Mrs. Chang and give her something, though the rest of the family does not care about her wellbeing.
Analysis
Uncle Ke-ting's humiliation exemplifies the theme of moral hypocrisy. Ke-ting's salacious behavior mirrors the story of Kao Sheng, yet Kao Sheng suffered severe consequences, while Ke-ting—until now—has escaped punishment. Being forced to humiliate himself in front of the family is a severe consequence for Ke-ting, whose entire identity revolves around having his family's respect and submission. Ke-ting slapping his own face instead of receiving blows by the Venerable Master Kao demonstrates that, because of his position in the family, Ke-ting has the duty and responsibility to punish himself. The Venerable Master Kao also indulges in lewd behavior, but the patriarch once again fails to see his hypocrisy as he chastises his son.
The children watch Uncle Ke-ting's punishment and laugh. This reaction demonstrates that though the children go through the motions of treating their Uncle with respectful deference, they do not really respect him.
After the Venerable Master Kao dismisses the family, he sees the truth that his family does not love him. The Venerable Master Kao, corrupted by his power, cannot fathom why his ruthless control did not yield affection from his descendants. The patriarch has a brief moment of self-awareness that he made mistakes, and as a consequence, he slips into a semi-conscious state. The Venerable Master Kao's body and health represent the old values, so the immediate physical aftermath of the Venerable Master Kao's epiphany shows that the Confucian patriarchal system can only be destroyed by its leaders realizing the error of their ways.
The family's reaction to the Venerable Master Kao's illness represents the relationship between the older generation and the Confucian System. Initially, the family does not care that the Venerable Master Kao is ill. This reaction parallels how the older generation did not sense that the New Culture Movement posed a threat. When the patriarch's condition becomes violent, the family turns to any far-fetched treatment, primarily superstitions and empty gestures. This reaction parallels the authority's weak attempts to stop the New Culture Movement, like shutting down the magazine and banning girls from cutting their hair. The Kao Uncles half-heartedly participate in their rituals; they do not change their lewd behaviors even as their father dies.
The Venerable Master Kao only greets Chueh-hui with affection on his deathbed. He hopes Chueh-hui will bring Chueh-min home so that the Venerable Master Kao can see him once more before he dies. Chueh-hui obliges. Near death, the Venerable Master Kao's true feelings, uncorrupted by his position as head of the family, are revealed. He is also a victim of the patriarchal family because, in his attempt to keep the family in order, he never formed genuine relationships with his family members. The Venerable Master Kao dies, and his funeral symbolically represents the death of the Confucian family structure. His casket is filled with objects; the obsession with material wealth dies with him.
In his will, the Venerable Master Kao disrupts the patriarchal structure by leaving the entire compound to Mistress Chang, a non-biological relative who gave him no sons, effectively failing her role as a concubine. Yet, because the Venerable Master Kao genuinely loved her, she is rewarded outside of the patriarchal system.
