Hsia's Story Essay

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Hsia's Story

Seventeenth-century China as depicted by C.T Hsia and in its works of fiction was a feudal, authoritarian society dominated by Confusion values of duty, honor, obedience and fidelity to parents, siblings and spouses. At the same time, clearly there were many young men and women who defy this authoritarian, Confucian culture and express their desires for more personal freedom and happiness, although Hsia has overlooked the main reason for this. Opposition to the old feudal order already existed in the cities and towns by the 17th Century, at least among the younger members of the merchant and student middle classes. No matter that the lower classes hardly appear in the stories at all, except for mostly anonymous servants, laborers and peasants, the middle class young seem to be attempting their own Romeo and Juliet Revolution of the type that had begun in the West around the same time. Among these were the prostitute Du Tenth and her student lover Li Jia in "Du Tenth Sinks the Jewel Box in Anger," Fortune and her young merchant lover Ch'en in "The Pearl-sewn Shirt," and Miss Ts'ui and the student Chang in "The Story of Ying-Yang."

Money and middle-class capitalist values seem to dominate the life of Du Tenth, since the story centers around money, first to buy her freedom from prostitution and then when her lover sells her to Sun Fu for 1,000 pieces of silver.

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Li Jia's father has bought his way into the Imperial Academy, in fact, and his money will also ensure that he passes the state examinations, but like the Prodigal Son in the Bible, he spends most of his funds on drinking and debauchery. Then he falls in love with Du Tenth, and spends all his money on her, even pawning his clothes, to the point where the madam intends to throw him out as a "bum." She treats Du Tenth like a commodity and compares her unfavorably to other girls who are "money trees" to the madams and procurers. Finally she gives Li 150 taels of silver from her savings and he scrambles to borrow the other half from his relative Liu, even though most of the family no longer trusts him. His father is infuriated with Li for wasting all his hard earned money and he is reluctant to return home to face his wrath, yet Du Tenth wants him to accept traditional values and the "Heaven-ordained relation of father and son." As it turns out, she was far more devoted to him than he was to her, since he has an opportunity to make a profit by selling her. Du Tenth commits suicide rather than be disgraced in this way, especially by the man she loved, and in the end it turns out that she had saved a fortune worth far more….....

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