Respond to one of the following questions by commenting on this post. You may also feel free to respond to comments posted by your classmates!
-What’s the connection between the broad historical material about the Ming Dynasty that begins the story and the narrative about Du Tenth and Li Jia’s relationship that follows?
-What kind of person is Li Jia? Does his behavior at the end of the story come as a surprise? Why or why not?
-How are courtesans represented in the story? Why do you think Feng Menglong chooses to depict them this way?
-Money plays a central role in the story. What does “Du Tenth Sinks the Jewel Box in Anger” seem to be saying about the relationship between money and love?
-Feng Menglong was interested in using literature to teach morality. What lesson is being imparted by this text?
-What kind of person is Li Jia? Does his behavior at the end of the story come as a surprise? Why or why not?
Li Jia, amongst other things, is a man who wasn’t willing to earn the things he wanted in life. His family bought him his academy scholar status, he spent all of the money his father gave him and he spent his friend’s and lovers money to buy her freedom. The reading doesn’t indicate is wanting to do any work for himself. He even wanted others to face his father for him. It’s no surprise that he tried to sell Mei Du in the end.
What kind of person is Li Jia? Does his behavior at the end of the story come as a surprise? Why or why not?
Li Jia is someone who lacks morality, and believes that money can buy happiness. When he was first introduced, we became aware that he had spending issues. After all, he did end up “falling in love” with someone at a Brothel. The fact that money had to be spent comes to show where he thinks that he can find happiness, because if you think about it, how many other women hadn’t he met? I think the idea that he had to spend money on Du Tenth drove his infatuation crazier. Initially, I thought that maybe Du Tenth had really changed him, but I should have known better about his behavior. His actions from the very beginning all previewed the end.
What kind of person is Li Jia? Does his behavior at the end of the story come as a surprise? Why or why not?
Lia Jia is someone who is not only greedy but a person who lacks sincerity and also who is irresponsible. Throughout the reading, lia Jia has constantly shown his greed throughout different occasions and circumstances.For one spending all his money on traveling, spending his money at brothels etc, whilst he had a dying father and would not take proper measures to take care of him. Furthermore, it didn’t come as to a surprised that lia Jia would sell du tenth towards the end of the story, his constant behavior indicated what it was expected of him.
What kind of person is Li Jia? Does his behavior at the end of the story come as a surprise? Why or why not?
In my opinion, Li Jia is a very greedy and ignorant man who is very unsure of himself and what he truly desires. Master Jia is very loose with his priorities which seem to shift throughout the story. Throwing away his wealth on a prostitute at a brothel in itself is an ill advised decision, and makes one generally question a mans character. When Lia Jia ran off and fell in love a broke man, it seemed his real intention was true love. I was surprised to find out that Jia would completely falter to what was important to him and in the end pick money over the girl he through away his life for. This proves that Master Jia is completely self absorbed and only thinks of what he wants in that exact moment, completely ignores all others around him.
What’s the connection between the broad historical material about the Ming Dynasty that begins the story and the narrative about Du Tenth and Li Jia’s relationship that follows?
We learned that Ming dynasty was in a war that time and was fully short of money from the beginning. As a result, the government even traded position in the academy to raise fund, which also implied that the commercial culture was fully developed at that time. As the book has mentioned, the commercial culture creeps into the story and spells out the economic debts of the relationship between Du and Li, which leads to a tragedy.
More importantly, i do realize the beginning mentioned that all of it happened in Wanli period. It’s a fully interesting period among the whole Chinese history. To be more specific, before this period, the value of propriety actually suppressed humanity to a extreme level. people can’t even choose whom to marry. However, things changed a little period around wanli, many scholars proposed that we should liberate humanity and stop (a bit similar with renaissance). In a conclusion, the value of propriety conflicts with liberating humanity fiercely during wanli period, and that’s when the story happened. This fierce conflict also presented in the story. Li cares more about the value of propriety. He values inheriting
fortune, his farther and the reputation more than love. However, Du is much braver than li , since she tried her vest to break he propriety and to pursue her love. Eventually, this conflict leads to the tragedy. What’s more, i don’t think the tragedy can’t be avoided, since the conflict between the 2 values will keep existing in the whole ancient time of china, which make the whole story even more tragic.
In my opinion, the author focus on this conflict more than the money issue, and through this story, he criticized the propriety and the whole society valuing the propriety and reputation so much.
-Money plays a central role in the story. What does “Du Tenth Sinks the Jewel Box in Anger” seem to be saying about the relationship between money and love?
Throughout history, many people believed that riches can heighten their chances of finding an ideal spouse. Many marriages were arranged solely based on the prestige of a family. Furthermore, many people believe that money can fill the gaps of a relationship. “Du Tenth Sinks the Jewel Box in Anger” portrays a classic case of spouses trying to solve marital problems with money. Du Tenth journeyed with Lia Jia because she fell in love with him and dreamed of a new life with him. However, Lia Jia was worried about how they would set up a new life and how he would return to his family. He feared his father’s rejection and criticism. His encounter with Sun Fu proves his inability to handle pressure and stress. He was naive to believe that Sun Fu’s proposal was genuine and failed to realize that he is trading his love for money. Lia Jia was hopeful that one thousand taels would solve their problems, but instead he betrayed his wife and doubted her. When Du Tenth threw the items of the jewel box into the river it symbolizes her unvalued attitude towards money and possessions. She kept the jewel box a secret to enjoy her journey with Lia Jia, and Lia Jia never noticed her carefreeness. The one thousand taels that Lia Jia sought destroyed his relationship with his wife, and killed the love of his life. Lia Jia valued money more than the strength of his love which resulted in damages impossible to repair.
What kind of person is Li Jia? Does his behavior at the end of the story come as a surprise? Why or why not?
Lia Jian is someone who is very greedy and money hungry. He only looked after himself through the whole read. He hung out at brothels and travelled far way too much to keep himself happy. Even when his father was dying he didnt take care of him and ignored it mostly. It wasnt really surprising at the end when sell Mei Du because you can see what kind of person he was since the beginning. I knew he wasnt going to change with anyone.
Money plays a central role in the story. What does “Du Tenth Sinks the Jewel Box in Anger” seem to be saying about the relationship between money and love?
In this work, a facile love is expressed for those with wealth. The corrupting power of silver, jewels, and the local currencys forges tenuous relationships. Particularly on page 506, several tensions emerge: Tenth and her husbands possession over her wealth, Tenth’s relationship with the madam strengthened by every ounce of silver that is weighed, and the appearance of the taels that threatens the promises of the Madam. The connection between wealth and temporary love becomes apparent in the spurious and expensive gestures of Sun Fu, and the longing that the Young Master feels for the prostitute despite being held apart by the barrier of price.
Of course, the story’s concluding poem implies that the secrets of the “game” of love cannot be purchased, but only discovered through the immaculate gesture. To reduce it to wealth is to create an “epithet” out of love, reduce it to a slur or an insult.
What kind of person is Li Jia? Does his behavior at the end of the story come as a surprise? Why or why not?
Li Jia comes off as very naive and selfish but also lacks confidence to a degree. He is so infatuated by Tenth and we perceive it as love throughout majority of the story. Li gives up very quickly and doesn’t seem to give it his all especially when it came to coming up with the money for the madams proposal. Things just happened to go his way yet takes it with ease as he knows its his only solution to continue with Tenth. He becomes afraid to return home knowing his parents would not approve of Tenth and only bring shame. Li thinks solely of himself and doesn’t give much regard of what Tenth has already done to help to be together. It gets all thrown away because he lacked the confidence to bare any struggle as he loses Tenth to late to realize they were fine the whole time if only he believed. His so called love for her is seen as naive and meaningless after what they’ve been through. At first the behavior he results in does come off as surprising based off where they have ended but after analyzing his actually characteristics it all makes sense. Li was troubled from the beginning he lacked design making and was very unsure with himself, measured money with love and thought only of himself and not as a pair throughout the story.
What kind of person is Li Jia? Does his behavior at the end of the story come as a surprise? Why or why not?’
Li Jia seems to be a person who is naive as he is easily swayed by others words. He is also indecisive; I would call him spineless. Throughout the story the reader is able to see many incidents where he made choices that were influenced by the words of others and his own fears that stem from his angered father and family. As Li Jia spent his time and money in the “pleasure district” he carelessly fell in “love” with someone that he wasn’t sure of from the very beginning. His fear stayed with him till the very end as he seemed to betray Du Tenth. Thus, his behavior in the end did not come to me as a surprise as you can easily see him being swayed away by money and the fear of increasing the anger of his father. He seemed to easily agree with whatever Sun Fu told him.
In the story “Du Tenth Sinks the Jewel Box in Anger”, Li Jia comes off as a spineless coward who is exceptionally greedy for money. In other words, he refuses to stand up to his father and refuses to claim the “love of his life”. Despite overlooking the story as a wealthy upper-class man, Li still ends up financially dependent as he establishes to have a spending issue. It’s clearly ironic how Du Tenth (a prostitute) claims to acquire freedom when she ends up paying for Li instead. The story establishes a theme of loyalty. Especially when money was the test to acquire love. Li ends up selling Du Tenth back and it leads to her death and a tragic love story. I personally didn’t find his actions surprising at the end of the story because of the many scenarios seen throughout the story. Some scenarios in specific include confronting his parents about the proposal, financially spending and borrowing money, as well as selling Du Tenth to impress his father. Even though, Li had acquired feelings for Du Tenth throughout the beginning of the story, it ends up being meaningless when all he can consider is about himself. Li Jia has always been a dependent coward from the beginning of the story abusing his wealth and it resulted in losing someone he cared for.
What kind of person is Li Jia? Does his behavior at the end of the story come as a surprise? Why or why not?
What kind of person is Li Jia? Does his behavior at the end of the story come as a surprise? Why or why not?
At first you are inclined to believe that Li is the victim and that he is nothing but a man that is working as hard as possible to get the woman he loves while facing many obstacles along his path. The truth is that he has not earned anything in his life. Getting into the academy was because of his fathers money. He could not even get the money in order to buy Du Tenth from her madam. Even after he is bailed out by having financial help, Li again c0mes up with a plan to use Du Tenth for more money to please his father. Everything for Li revolves around his father and money and treats the woman that he loves as his property. From being uneducated and having no financial stability, no this does not come as a surpise.
What kind of person is Li Jia? Does his behavior at the end of the story come as a surprise? Why or why not?
As I was reading, I kept thinking about how spoiled and self-centered Li Jia was. I don’t blame just Li for his behavior, but feel as though it is a result of people enabling him to act in such a way. His father paid for his spot, which he did not deserve, and others excused his behavior because of his social status. I think the best way to describe Li though would be to say that he is immature. He put himself into situations and was never really able to be accountable for his actions. His behavior does not come as a surprise because of his immaturity. He was not able to stand up to anyone and was just worried about saving himself.
What kind of person is Li Jia? Does his behavior at the end of the story come as a surprise? Why or why not?
Li Jia is the type of person some people may be able to relate to. By the end of the story, we know that Li Jia was trying to impress his father. Li Jia father paid for his placement inside the academy which means that they are in high social class status. However, when I was reading it for the first time, I did think that Li Jia was just a man trying to buy the love of his life freedom. When the ending was revealed, I was greatly disappointed because I was rooting for a happy ending, instead Du Tenth ends up committing suicide.
What kind of person is Li Jia? Does his behavior at the end of the story come as a surprise? Why or why not?
Li Jia appears to be gullible as well as irresponsible. He isn’t dependable which may have given reason as to why du tenth never told him about the money she was saving up to one day start a new life for herself. Li Jia has a lot of growing up to do as this relationship between him and Du tenth appears to be his first sexually driven one. Towards the end of the story we see that Li Jia never really intended to marry Du Tenth which is no surprise considering the fact that he wasn’t dependable to begin with, she was wrong to place so much faith in him and in turn, it resulted in her demise.
-What kind of person is Li Jia? Does his behavior at the end of the story come as a surprise? Why or why not?
Li Jia is someone who is very financially irresponsible. This is made clear when Du Tenth never tells him about the backup plan she had. Du Tenth doubts his responsibility which is why she made this backup plan. Another reason is because Du Tenth wants her to fend for himself. It seems as though he is still a child and does not have to grow up since he has high status and is wealthy. It seems whatever he wants he thinks he should get and it is clear throughout the story. It was almost obvious to me the story would end in tragedy. While reading this story I was slightly reminded of Romeo and Juliet in the first half and I had a feeling it would end in a death.