讀書筆記
讀書心得
I read chapter 15 to19 of the book “The Good Earth.”
1）(A) Cp.15 Before a handful of days had passed it seemed to Wang Lung that he had never been away from his land. With five gold pieces he bought good seed from south. With five gold pieces he bought an ox from a farmer.
When they reached the house they found the door torn away and their hoes and rakes were gone. Wang Lung went away to the town and he bought a good new plow and two hoes. Then Ching(秦），his neighbor, came to see Wang Lung and said, “Through the winter a band of robbers lived in your house and preyed upon the village.”
Wang Lung started at him awhile and then in a compassion he said, “Now you have fared worse than we and what have you eaten?” And the man sighed forth in a whisper, “When we begged in the town and dead dog we ate. My woman died, and after she died I gave the girl to a soldier because I could not see her starve and die also. If I had a little seeds I would plant once again, but no seeds have I.” “Come here!” cried Wang Lung and dragged him into the house. Wheat he gave him and rice seeds. Then Ching weep and Wang Lung cried out, “Do you think I have forgotten that you gave me that handful of beans?”
Wang Lung’s uncle was no longer in the village. The girls were sold.
Then Wang Lung set himself to the soil. And O-Lan in the house was not idle. She mended the walls of the house, and she built again the oven. Then she went into the town with Wang Lung, they bought beds and a table a great iron cauldron and two／ red candles to burn before the god.
When the house was itself again, and in his fields the young rice sprouted as green as Jade and more beautiful. Looking at the blue heaven above him, Wang Lung muttered, “I must stick a little incense before those two in the small temple.”
(B) Cp.16. One night as Wang lay with his wife he felt a hard lump between her breasts. He put his hand to it. It was wrapped in a bit of rag and he tore this away. There were such a mass of jewels. He whispered to her, “ Where—where—?” And she whispered back softly, “In the rich man’s house.” They fell silent. Then after a long time Wang Lung said resolutely, “Treasure cannot keep. It must be sold and put into safety—into land.” “I wish I could keep two for myself,” she said, “I could hold them in my hand sometime,” she added. And he was moved by something he did not understand, and he handed them to her in silence, she found the two smooth white pearls. As for the other jewels, he decided he would go to the great house and see if there were more land to buy.
To the great house now he went, the great gates were locked and Wang Lung pounded them and no one come. At last he heard slow footsteps coming, and a cracked voice whispered, “Who is it?” And Wang Lung perceived that it was the Old Lord himself. “I came about a little money,” he said hesitatingly. “ There is no money in the house,” the Old Lord said. “The robber took all that I had. No debts can be paid.” “ No” called Wang Lung, “ I came to pay out, not to collect debt.” At this a woman thrust her face suddenly out of the gates. “Come in” she said briskly. and she open the gates wide to admit him. The woman was clean enough. But from her speech one could perceive she was not of the lord’s family, but a slave. There was not another person in the court. “Now about money,” said the woman sharply. But Wang Lung hesitated. “No,” said Wang Lung with caution. “I cannot speak with a woman.” “Well, and why not?” retorted the woman with anger. “Have you not heard that there is no one here?” “Have you not heard how bandits swept into the house, and they beat the Old Lord and Old Mistress and everyone run. But I stayed. The Old Mistress sat dead in her chair.” Wang Lung said with contempt, “Seeing that you are only a slave, how can I do business with you?” At that she cried out, “ He will do anything I tell him.” “How much land is there left?” Wang Lung asked her unwillingly. She said quickly, “He has a hundred acres to the west and to the south two hundred that he will sell.” He would not talk further with her, but turned away saying, “ Another day—”
He went down to the street. He went to the small tea shop and ordered tea, Wang Lung fell to musing. The great and rich family were now fallen and scattered. “It comes from their leaving the land,” he thought regretful, and he thought of his own two sons, he would set them to tasks in the field, where they would feel of the hoe hard in their hands. He call to the shopkeeper and said, “ Come and drink a bowl at my cost, and tell me the news of the town.” The shopkeeper sat down and began at once, “Well, the greatest news was the robbery at the House of Hwang.” The man went on to tell him of it. that now none cared to lived in that house. “None,”the man finished, “ except the Old Lord, who is now wholly the creature of a slave called Cuckoo.” “And the land? Is it for sale?” asked Wang Lung. “Oh, the land! I have heard it for sale,” answered the man.
Then Wang Lung went out and approached again the great gates and the woman came to open to him and he said to her, “Will you sell the land for gold or for jewels?” and she said, “I will sell it for jewels!”
(C) Cp. 17 Now Wang Lung has more land and he built another room and he said to his neighbor Ching, “Sell me the parcel of land that you have and come into my house and help me with my land.” And Ching was glad to do it. The two men planted the young rice in the flooded fields. Then when this harvest came he and Ching alone could not harvest it, and Wang Lung hired two other men as laborers. He bade his two sons sharply each morning to come into the fields with him and he set them at what labor their small hands could do. But O-lan he would not allow to work in the fields for he was no longer a poor man.
Then O-lan worked in the house and made new clothes for each one and new shoes. Then she laid herself down upon her bed and gave birth again. When Wang Lung came home at evening and went into the inner room there was O-lan upon the bed with two new-born children, a boy and a girl.
Wang Lung had at that time no sorrow of any kind unless that his eldest girl child neither spoke nor did things which were right for her age, but only smiled.
He set himself and the gods helped him and for seven years there were harvest. He hired more laborers for his field. He set Ching to be his steward over the men and he paid him well.
By the end of the fifth year Wang Lung worked little in his field himself, have Indeed to spend his whole time upon the business and marketing of his produce. He was greatly hampered by his lack of the knowledge of the meaning of characters, it was a shame to him. He saying to himself, “I will take my elder son from the fields and he shall be go to school.” The young boy when he heard of it came in crying, “ Well, and I shall not work in the field.” And Wang Lung said hastily, “Well, go the both of you.” He send the boys to a small school near the city gate kept by an old man who had gone up for government examinations and failed.
On the first day when he took them there, he carried a blue kerchief filled with fresh eggs gave to the old teacher. Wang Lung bowed before him and said, “Sir, here are my two worthless sons, beat them to make them learn.” But going home again alone, having left the two lads, Wang Lung’s heart was fit to burst with pride. To himself he said, “ It would not surprise me at all the elder one should become a perfect with all this learning.”
The boys were given school names by the old teacher, for the elder, Nung En, and for the second, Nung Wen.
(D) Cp. 18 When the seventh year came, because of excessive rains, two-fifths of Wang Lung’s land was a lake as deep as a man’s shoulder. But Wang Lung was not afraid，His store-rooms were yet filled full with harvests of the last two years.
But since much of the land could not be planted he was more idle. He did not know what to do with himself. Wang Lung was alone and filled with restlessness. Then it was that he looked at O-lan, whose body he knows thoroughly and nothing new which he may expect from her. He saw for the first time that her feature without any sort of beauty. He cried out at her, “ Anyone would say you were the wife of a common fellow.” She answered with a slow painful gaze and she muttered, “Since those two were born together I have not been well.” And he saying fretfully, “Well, and I will go to the tea shop.”
He had money and he began to be careless of it and to think what he could do to enjoy the days of his manhood. Now there was in the town a great tea shop but newly opened, he went toward this place, and he went in. This shop was a great hall and upon the walls there were scrolls hung painted with the figures of women. And the first day he drank his tea quickly and went away. But since there were nothing for him to do on his land, so he might have continued for many days on end.
Thus on this night one touched him on the shoulder. When he looked up it was the face of Cuckoo. She laughed when she saw him. “Well, and Wang the farmer!” she said. And he laughed and said, “l have had good fortune.”
She said softly and insidiously, “ I suppose you have not looked at anything else— No pretty hands, no sweet-smelling cheeks?” Wang Lung said in confusion, “No— I have not—only tea—”. Then the woman laughed and pointed to the painting silken scrolls and said, “ Choose which one you wish to see and put the silver in my hand and I will place her before you.”
Wang Lung sat staring at the picture with a new interest. They had all seemed equally beautiful. He chose one most beautiful. He stared at her. “She is like a flower on a quince tree,” he said. He was ashamed and he rose hastily and went out and so to his home. In his body his blood run secret and hot and fast.
(E) Cp.19 At the end of one long day, in the seventh month, Wang Lung stood at the door of his house. And suddenly he put on his new coat, that O-lan made, he came to the new tea shop. There every light was lit, and men drinking and talking. Wang Lung hesitated upon the threshold. There came out a woman and it was Cuckoo. And she laughed and said, “If you have the silver, you may do as they do.” And he brought it out full of silver. She stared at the handful of silver and said, “ Come and say which one you wish.” And Wang Lung whispered , “That little one—.” They were walking up the narrow straight stairway. When they reached the top, the woman cried, “ Now here is the first man of the night! This one is —for Lotus!”
He sat stiffly on the bed beside her, and he saw that she was like the picture. Then she lifted that small curling hands and put it upon his shoulder. And he began to tremble, not knowing how to receive it. Then he heard a little voice like laughter said, “Oh, shall we sit here the night through while you stare?” And he said to her imploringly, “I do not know anything—teach me!” And she taught him.
Then every day Wang Lung went to the tea shop. Filled with a sickened hunger, he followed slavishly, until she was willing that he should grasp her wholly. All during that hot summer Wang Lung loved thus this girl. He knew nothing of her. He had never enough of her, and he went back to his house in the dawn.
The days were endless. And all the time his heart to burst because he could not be satisfied of this girl. When she laughed at the braid of his hair, and said, “Now the men of the south do not have these monkey tails!” he had it cut off. He would have cut off his life if the girl Lotus had commanded it, because she had every beauty which had ever come into his mind to desire in a woman.
He bought sweet-smell soap, and not would he have eaten garlic. He brought also new stuffs of clothes. And he bought the first shoes such as the Old Lord had worn. And beyond this he bought a silver ring for his finger. But O-lan did not know what to make from all this, she said heavily, “You makes me think of lord in the great house.”
Now the money. There was not only he must pay for his hours with the girl, but there was the pretty demanding of her desire. Thus the silver came out of the wall, and O-lan now said nothing, knowing well that he was living some life apart from her, and she was afraid to ask because of his anger. There came a day he said to her roughly, “Where are those pearls you had?” Then she said slowly, “I could have them for the younger girl when she is wed.” He cried out, “Gave them to me.” She gave it to him and when tears dropped from her eyes she did not put up her hand to wipe them away.
2) I think:
(A) Wang Long bought land with the gold he robbed and the jewels O-lan stole. Coupled with several consecutive years of bumper harvests, he became rich. He hired farmers to do the labor and he himself pursued enjoyment. He thought O-lan was ugly and went to the teashop to mix with the Lotus. There is a proverb in China: Wealth and honor lead to lust; hunger and cold give rise to the desire to steal.
When people become prosperous, they often have indulgent and lewd desires. When they are poor and helpless, they tend to have the idea of stealing.
Wang Long is exactly such a person.
Many farmers in China carried out the revolution and joined the Communist Party in order to get rid of poverty. After seizing power and having authority, they becomes corrupt and corrupt. They are also such person.
A person with lofty ideals should be like what Mencius said, "Wealth and honor cannot corrupt him, poverty and lowliness cannot sway him, and might and power cannot subdue him. This is what a true man is called."
(B) Land is very precious to the Chinese people. China has gone through a long period of tight food supply, food coupons are required for meals, so if a household has a plot of land, it will be used to grow food and vegetables. However, the United States uses large tracts of land to grow flowers and grass because it is not short of food.
Private ownership of land will result in some land being concentrated in the hands of the rich, while some farmers have no land and are poor. However, public land ownership, such as the People's communes in China, is not conducive to mobilizing the enthusiasm of farmers.
At present, China implements the land contract responsibility system, while in Taiwan, “land to the tiller”.
(C) Women had a low status in China in the past. Because of poverty, many girls were sold by their parents and many baby girls were abandoned, It was very tragic. No longer the case now.
