In “Du Tenth Sinks the Jewel Box in Anger”, the author Feng Menglong shared a short story with us. In Ming dynasty, the courtesan Du Mei fell in love with the young stylish master, Li Jia. With the help of Li Jia’s friend, Liu Yuchun, they successfully get rid of madam’s control and became a real couple. But Li Jia was afraid of his traditional stubborn father not accepting them and wanted to maintain his great fortune and status in his family. In the same time, his new friend Sun Fu offered him a “great” deal: Using Du Tenth in exchange for one thousand taels of silver. Then Li Jia can fix the relationship between him and his father. So Li decided to betray Du Mei. But at the end of the story, Du Mei sank her Jewel Box and herself to Refuse Li and Sun.
Among this short novel, we can clearly figure out the different characteristics of these three main roles. Li Jia, in the story, was described as a young stylish master, whom was gentle, well educated, successful, full of passion and came from a respectable elegant family. His father was even a leader of a prosperous region in the south china. Li seems could be the ideal perfect husband for Du Mei. The most precious part is that he has the courage to pursue Du Mei, ignoring her prostitute background. Unfortunately, the fact is Li Jia is just a spineless man. His love to Du tenth may be true. But whenever he had to stand out to make a decision, he becomes a worthless coward. Among the story, none of the decision nor ideas were made by himself. To marry Du tenth is Du’s proposal. Do not believe or trust Du is also strongly affected by his friend Liu Yuchun’s comments. When Sun Fu suggested Li Jia to trade his wife, he did not even have a second thought.
Sun Fu, he came from a salt trade family, which were super rich. He is also well-educated and gentle. But it is not difficult for us to realize that he had a strong discrimination towards female “woman’s nature is water, devoid of constancy” (512). “This singer is certainly not of respectable background.” (509) This is how he judged Du at the first time when hearing her voice. Even after Li Jia told him that Du married him, Sun still described her as an “unchaste woman” (511). The worst part is, in Sun’s opinion, the woman is some kind of “stuff”, “property” belonging to man which can be traded. That’s why he would offer Li that “one thousand taels of silver” deal.
On the contrast of these two men, Du tenth is just a prostitute with super low status in the society, even she is a courtesan with a heavenly beautiful face. She did not have a respectable background, no further talking about an elegant family. But she was straight, brave, intelligent and had an undoubtedly woo for love. At the end, Du would rather suicide than go to Sun’s boat, become a courtesan again.
We can see the dramatic contrast between these three characters, their status, and their personalities. On the one hand, Li and Sun came from upper class, they are wealthy, well-educated and elegant, they have high status in the society. But in the same time they are selfish, useless and withhold a strong discrimination. On the other hand, Du came from lower class, uneducated, do not have family and have a shameful job. But she had the true love, intelligence and brave. The author Feng Menglong may settle the roles like these on purpose, which maximizes the dramatic effect of this story.