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?
How are courtesans represented in the story? Why do you think Feng Menglong chooses to depict them this way?
I think there is a conflicting view of prostitutes in the story, but it is much more positive depiction than most other stories. Sex workers are usually shown as dirty, immoral, undesirable, and messed-up, but Du Tenth was a like a model of perfection. She wasn’t an exceptions either. Though she was the best courtesan there, her “sisters” of the pleasure district were definitely not shown in a negative light. In fact they were very kind and loving. However on the other side, the business of prostitution itself is not shown to be a desirable one. Prostitutes seem to be kept under bondage and generally want to escape. So the view of the prostitutes themselves is positive but the industry is not. It is mentioned in Menglong’s biography that he fell in love with a courtesan, but could not afford to pay for her hand. It therefore would make sense that he saw the business as greedy and immoral while the women working within it to be victims of pimps and madams.
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?
In my opinion, I think the historical background of Ming Dynasty plays the significant role in Du Tenth and Li Jia’s relationship. After reading the whole novel, I am actually not very surprise that Li Jia made the decision of selling Du Tenth to other person who he just met for once. In Li Jia’s point of view, the relationship between he and his father is way more important than the relationship between he and Du Tenth. That is the reason that he mentioned several time about his concerns that his father would be upset about him. Born in Ming Dynasty, especially in an official family, Li was getting a high expectation from his father. He also believes that he is the hope family and suppose to bring the honor to the family instead of shame. He dose have any social experience and always listen to whatever his father said. He is definitely bring the shame to his family by marrying a prostitute. Prostitute in Ming Dynasty is the lowest class that Li’s father would never accept. In contract, Du, in my opinion, she is an intelligent woman who is able to find a way to ” free” herself from her madame. I still believe she loves Li in some way despite the fact that she used Li as a mean to escape. However, she was not smart enough to know that her relationship with Li, as the product of this broken and traditional society, would never last long. In the end, i believe their relationship was destined to be broken because of her class and status was not matched with Li’s class and status.
-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 the beginning of the story, Li spent all his limit money in order to meet Du, Du was touching by his act, she believed a man who would spend all his money for her was definitely a true love, but she forgot that money can not buy true love. To her, the money Li spent on Du can be represent as his love to her. At the end of the story, when Li sold her to a man for a thousand taels, she threw the jewelry box into the river. she said” I meant to use this to set you up in such style that you could return to see your parents without shame” She was planned to use these money she had to help Li to restore his position in his family, but Li had failed her trust. The jewelry box is represent her love to Li, when she threw the jewelry into the river, her heart was died.
Money can bring one couple together, but it can also make the love story becomes tragedy. The power of money is so huge that it can change a relationship and destroy love.
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 a person who refuses to grow up despite how gifted he is in terms of education, monetary status, and family who wants the best for him. After today’s class discussion, it really is not a surprise to see Li Jia crumble in the face of conflict he put himself in. In the very beginning of the story, he is shown as a man who takes the easy route when buying his way into scholar status with his father’s money. Li Jia was also a naive man because he fell in love with the first woman who crossed his path. He clearly was irresponsible with any amount of money he was in possession of. In the end, Li Jia deservedly lost the woman who put up with all his worries and constant weeping and is left looking like a child who didn’t get his 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?
The story, “Du Tenth Sinks the Jewel Box in Anger” , shows us that money is more important than everything. When Sun Fu occurs at the end of the story, he reminds Li that it is shameful to go home with a prostitute and no money left in his pocket. Li Jia is the type of guy that afraid of his father. In his heart, he looks down at Du Tenth. He believes that his father will never accept this prostitute to be his son’s wife. Therefore, when Sun asks to use one thousand tiles to “buy” tenth, Li agrees to it. This shows that Li chooses money instead of love. In addition, Du Tenth is rich. But she never tells Li about it. She wants to give herself an “in case”; in case Li will leave her. In the other hand, Tenth may not really fall in love with Li. She uses him as a tool to free herself, since she cannot be free without another owner to buy her from her madam.
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 the beginning of the book, I did not have any strong particular feelings towards Li Jia. He seemed to be a naive young man who fell in, what he defined as, love. Reading through, he exhibited some child like behaviors and came across as a very dependent person, first depending on his dad, then on Du Tenth. With these developments, his actions at the end of the book did not come as a surprise. He was easily influenced by Sun Fu which is almost a typical behavior of an ingenuous person. He showed us clearly what his priority was, and it was to go back home with money to impress his father. He did not really care about Du even though his original words showed the contrary but the latter did not meet with his behavior anytime through the book. All we saw was him depending on her and being careless with the little money he thought they had. His personality justified his behavior at the end of 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 was a person with no guidance to his life. He seemed to not have anything planned and sort of just went with the flow of events that he would encounter in his life. He was a free rider. His admission in the academy through his father’s money, his spending habits and his borrowing needs make him a person who was not useful or helpful to anyone he had contact with but a burden. He was in fact someone who characters in the story manipulated to get things from him or hope to get things from him. He was careless, a coward and a lost person that caused pain to Du Tenth, his fellow friend who lent him money for Du Tenth and quite obviously a disappointment to his father. The end of the story did not come as a surprise to me once Sun Fu had offered to buy Du Tenth. He saw money as his way out of bringing Du Tenth along with her. I believe he came to a realization that bringing Du Tenth was a mistake and he did not have a backbone to come to terms with himself and gave up the only character in the story who had some sort of affection for him. It was not a surprise when he accepted Sun Fu’s terms and asked Du Tenth to go with Sun because his character never loyal.
What kind of person is Li Jia? Does his behavior at the end of the story come as a surprise? Why or why not?
Initially I was led on to believe that Li Jia was a well educated and wealthy man who had a stroke of bad luck by falling in love with someone in such a situation. After re-reading the story it became clear to me that he was lacking of the qualities that you would apply to the word “man”. It was shown that he had no real life experience, never left to fend for himself in the real world or actually work for all that he had; which was his education, money, and title. His first encounter with a woman and he became immediately attached, blinded by lust. He fell short of both the words man and scholar. At first, yes I was surprised at his behavior because of his desperation to keep Du Tenth, and the sadness he felt when the thought of losing her arose. Although I was surprised many other moments in the story surprised me as well, such as how he easy he was to manipulate. The ease of manipulating him confused me, but that was the moment in the story that made it clear to me that he was just a child. A child with no idea what he was doing and why.
-What kind of person is Li Jia? Does his behavior at the end of the story come as a surprise? Why or why not?
From my point of view, Li Jia is a very immature man. His immaturity causes him to make decisions based on ephemeral emotions. His behavior at the end of the text does not come as a surprise because from the beginning of the story there are already red flags standing out. For example, he wastes all of his fortune in pleasure houses, to the point where he even pawns his clothing. This shows a lack of reasoning. He comes from a wealthy family and has received an education, however, he lets his passion govern his decisions. This is a sign of instability, he is not able to control his spending when he is excited. One can automatically assume that when he is troubled, he is incapable of making rational decisions either. This assumption is proven by his actions at the end of the text. Li sells Du Tenth because Sun Fu, a stranger, manipulates him by making him think in all the negative things that were likely to happen upon their arrival at Li’s family’s house. Not only is this very immature, to let a stranger tell you how to act, it also shows how gullible Li truly is.
-How are courtesans represented in the story? Why do you think Feng Menglong chooses to depict them this way?
Du Tenth is a courtesan living in a century where Chinese women had no independence. They had no choice but to rely on the support of a man, whether it be a father or husband. Du Tenth seemed to have neither kind of male figure in her life but was searching for a husband to get her out of prostitution. Courtesans like Du Tenth create a reputation for themselves, and gain wealth through their lively hood. They don’t have the freedom to “buy” themselves independence, but Du Tenth’s madam was willing to sell her off to Li Jia, her potential husband. Du Tenth wasn’t alone in her career path, she had a handful of supportive friends who wanted nothing but the best for her. They showered Du Tenth with gifts and hosted an impromptu wedding for the happy couple. Courtesans are looked down upon in urban cities, so it’s safe to assume that courtesans stick together and create close knit communities. Feng Menglong chose to represent women like Du Tenth because most readers during that time only had an assumption of what whore houses were like, or why women chose to work in such places. Feng Menglong was showing a different side to what most people thought they already knew about the life of a common courtesan.
What kind of person is Li Jia? Does his behavior at the end of the story come as a surprise? Why or why not?
Since the very beginning of the story, Menglong depicts Li as childish; describing him as a scholar of high standing but bringing notice to the fact that he owes it all to his father’s monetary status as opposed to his own. He also emphasizes the fact that despite Li’s being provided the means to become what would be considered an exemplary man to society, he chooses to spend his time carelessly at a brothel. This alone shows us that Li Jia isn’t prone to making the best decisions, and the fact that Du Tenth, a prostitute, manages to convince him to marry her despite his deadly fear of his father just serves to prove that he is weak-minded. Because Du Tenth was the first woman in his life, Li was misled into believing he was in love. However, as the time to present Du Tenth to his family approached, Li became more and more hesitant to do so. Sun Fu, someone he had met the day prior, managed to read Li and use his fears as a means to manipulate him into distrusting of and selling Du Tenth, the woman he so deeply “loved” the day before. Li being depicted as all these things (childish, weak-minded, predictable, anxious) throughout the story helped us in understanding why he came to the decision that he did, and the reoccurring idea that Li was terrified of his father made it so that it was of no surprise that he sold his wife in hopes that he wouldn’t have to face his father’s judgement.
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 the beginning of the story it was very clear that Li Jia is not very responsible, especially with his money. He spent all his fathers money which shows how immature and chilidish he can be. His behavior at the end of the story doesn’t come as a surprise to me because he showed signs from the beginning what type of man he really was. The Madam referred to Li Jia as a “bum” which is how I thought of him from the beginning. He used all his money to go to all these pleasure houses which shows that he is not very stable and he can’t control himself. Li Jia was afraid of his father and he wouldn’t be able to bring a whore back home which explains why he had no problem selling her. At the end of the story Li made a deal to sell Du Tenth and he did this to impress his father with the money. Li knows what he has been doing is wrong but he is finding the “easy way out” which was selling Du Tenth. Even when Li was crying to Du Tenth, it still didn’t convince me that he is a good person because he is nothing but an irresponsible, careless human being who took advantage of Du Tenth.
What kind of person is Li Jia? Does his behavior at the end of the story come as a surprise? Why or why not?
When Li Jia is first introduced he gave off a bad feeling to the reader. Although he is very wealthy and looks like a great educated man he is a very disturbed person. He has tons of money that he got from his father so he didn’t even have to work a day in his life. He didn’t appreciate what he had and just spent the money to go to a brothel and have sex with woman. In his eyes this was the best way he could spend his money because he was getting satisfaction out of it. Li Jia is a very selfish person and only wanted to do what was best for him with no consideration of other people. Once he had sexual relations with Du Tenth he immediately thought he loved a woman when in reality she was just doing her job. He didn’t know any better and this had been the first woman he was with so he immediately thought it was love he was feeling. Then when a random man passes and throws all these ideas at Li Jia making him skeptical of what will happen with Du Tenth and his family meeting he immediately backs out. So no, his actions did not surprise me because as long as he was satisfied nothing else mattered in the world to him. He is a very immature careless human being and his actions prove that throughout the whole story. In the end his selfish actions affected everyone around him for the worse.
What kind of person is Li Jia? Does his behavior at the end of the story come as a surprise? Why or why not?
The type of person that Li Jia is portrayed in the story is somewhat of a guy that basically has everything that he would want in life except being in love or having someone love him back. He has a lot of money because of his wealthy father and is also receiving the best type of education. At the same time, he’s very afraid of his father because his father is pretty controlling over him, plus he’s the one with really all of the money. When Li saw Du Tenth he felt like he immediately fell in love with her. In my opinion, I feel like the only reason Li wanted to be with Du Tenth so badly is because he doesn’t feel like he was really loved before so being with Du Tenth would definitely change that feeling. At the end of the story when Li sold Du Tenth to his “friend”, I really wasn’t shocked by what he had done. He sold Du Tenth because he was afraid of his father getting upset at him for bringing a prostitute back with him instead of a more worthy woman. Unfortunately for Li, Du Tenth never mentioned to Li that she was actually rich. By committing suicide and drowning all of her fortunes, Li has to spend the rest of his life regretting the decision of selling Du Tenth over to his “friend”.
What kind of person is Li Jia? Does his behavior at the end of the story come as a surprise? Why or why not?
Menglong depicts Li Jia as a child basically. At the beginning of the story we can infer that he gets what he wants and is unappreciative because his father is rich. This is shown when we read that Li Jia spends his money careless on anything he feels such as prostitutes. Li Jia has never been in love and when he saw Du Tenth he instantly fell in love. In my opinion, I feel like that is something someone at a young age do, automatically “fall in love” with the first person you meet. The only reason he felt like this was because Du Tenth probably gave him the attention he had never gotten before. Because he was afraid of his father, Li Jia couldn’t bring home Du Tenth because she wasn’t classed as a worthy woman. At the end of this story, when he sold her to Sun Fu, it was no surprise to me. From the beginning we can see that Li Jia was ungrateful and he just proved himself at the end because he sold the woman he “loved” for money. Like a child would do, they would look for the easy way out of things and that’s what Li Jia did for more money. Unfortunately, it didn’t work out for him because Du Tenth ended up being rich.
-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 a person that has never worked hard for what he wants. He comes from a wealthy family so he has probably had a lot of things just handed to him. The fact that he cried a lot through out the story means his hasn’t been in in any hard situations before in his life. His an immature guy that doesn’t have a lot of life experience and always looks for the easy way out. This is why the end of the story does not come to a surprise to me. He tried to look for the easy way out in trying to give tenth away to another guy because he was scared of what his dad would think. In the story he liked to depend on money to solve his problems he did so when he got into the academy and he wanted to depend on money to please his dad.
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?
Du had a treasure chest , she could redeem herself and start the new life with a huge treasure. But she chose to jump into the river. Why?
Du didn’t pursue the short joyous of love or the formal marriage. She wanted a love with respect and truth. In the long life of the prostitute, she suffered bullying. She turned herself from a prostitute to a normal person. But the wrong man ruined her new life. Li Jia sold Du from the money! Du was sad by fraud. The ideal of the truth love she pursued which was shattered. Therefore Du chose the death to fight the bad society.
In conclusion, the love cannot base on the money. What we know about the true love in this world is the life to a life promise only!
What kind of person is Li Jia? Does his behavior at the end of the story come as a surprise? Why or why not?
The character of Li Jia is kind of immature person in the Du Tenth Sinks the Jewel Box in Anger. Li Jia lives a life of affluence because of his father is rich. I think that if someone has a lot of money and political power in Ming Dynasty era, which is the moment that the story came out, he/she is very sure of him/herself. Li Jia is not a different another persons who are rich. Through the whole this story, we could catch up Li Jia’s immature and careless behaviors. Li Jia falls in love with first woman, Du Tenth. However, at the end of the story, Li Jia objectify Du Tenth, which is Du Tenth feels. It was not a surprise at the end of the story because the weighted money and power are more important than ‘love’.
-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 a spoiled child of a rich father. He has the title of a scholar even though he is certainly not qualified to be one. It is obvious from the beginning of the story that Li Jia is very immature and spends money like it grows on trees. Based on his interactions with Du Tenth and others, he shows himself to be unreliable and easily rattled. He cries numerous times throughout the story and does so again at the end of the story. He is a static character who never changed. In the beginning, he was a spoiled crybaby and in the end he was still a spoiled crybaby.
what kind of person of Li Jia? Does his behavior at the end of the story come as a suprise? why or why not?
In my opinion that Li Jia is a coward of love. When he got to choose love or his statue in his family, he chose himself over Du Tenth. He’s selfish in their relationship. Also, he’s a man with high esteem. When he couldn’t collect three hundred tales, he was afraid of telling to DU Tenth. In some way , I think he is preety brave and even a true love follower. In a period when people believe that people with same and equal background should be together, he chose Du Tenth, a prostitue. This kind of action is most likely to be gossiped between people and harms a family reputation. LI Jia doesn’t care Du Tenth’s background but choose to take her on a journey, even betray his family. His behavior at the end of the story kind of surprise me. It’s hard to imagine he would give up Du Tenth just for 1000 tales, as they have gone through a lot. I guess some part of his personality hiding behind that period is revealed at the end that he respects and is afraid of his family. He was taught to be obedient to what family arranges him to do.
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 the beginning of the story, Li Jia was this man did not look as a though person. At first he acted like a child and was reckless. He was a dependent on his dad. He seemed to not be very irresponsible because he wasted all his money on the prostitute Du Tenth. He was portrayed as a weak character. He was being used by Du Tenth as an excused to leave. He did not really learned his lesson because once he got Du Tenth to leave with he was trick by Sun Fu. He was not really a dynamic character. He was used influence by the power of money and the approval of his dad. Li Jia took the wrong direction.