- Explain the significance of the story about reburying Weifu’s little brother?
The significance of reburying Weifu’s little brother is the display of filial piety, one of Confucius’s great virtues. Weifu reburied his little brother out of respect for his mother because she cannot sleep knowing his brother’s remains may slip into a river. Despite the action being pointless, for the remains had already decomposed, he went forth and buried an empty coffin. This act is significant because he yielded to tradition, the very thing he sought to bring down. Weifu had displayed resistance to traditional norms at an early age when he states “how all day long we used to discuss methods of revolutionizing China.” The act of reburying his brother, despite knowing it was pointless, contradicts this belief. It signifies that Weifu had abandoned his revolutionary ideas and yielded to tradition.
- Weifu recalls when he and the narrator used to pull the beards off religious statues in the Temple when they were younger. What is the significance of this memory?
The significance of pulling the beards off religious statues is to portray defiance. It’s Chinese tradition to pay respect to religious figures; pulling off the beard of religious statues is a display of disrespect and resistance to traditional norms. The memory of pulling the beard off religious statues during their youth implies their rejection of tradition. The memory is significant for it emphasizes Weifu’s change, during which he states “But now I am like this, willing to let things slide and to compromise.” Weifu lacks the ambition and recklessness he possesses in his youth, life had taught him to yield to the very thing he seeks to overthrow.
These two questions really go together. We need to understand what Weifu was like as a young man in order to comprehend fully what it means for him to go through the motions of burying an empty coffin.