Banished!

HAN DONG

Banished! a novel T R AN S L AT ED BY N I CKY H ARMAN

Banished'

Woodcut by Zhou Yi'j ing

Banishedl Han Dong

Trans/cued by N jd~y H(lnllltlJ

Un i versi ty of Hawai'j Prcss HO NOLU L U

© 2009 University ofHawai'i Press

All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America 14 1312 11 1009654321 An early version of chapt er 4 appeared in The Liremry Review (Fall 2006), and abridgemenlS of chapters II - I) in Rwiliri otls 67 (Spring 2007), 70-125. The novel was th en titled Srrikirl g Roo/.

Library of Congress Cata loging-in-Publica tio n Oata Han, Dong_ (Zha gen_ English] Banished! IHan Dong; translated by Nicky I-Iannan_ p_ Clll_ Incl ud cs bibliographical reference.'> ISBN 978-0-8248-3262-9 (hardcover: alk. paper) ISBN 978-0-8248-3340-4 (pbk : alk. paper) I. Harman, Nicky. II. Title. PL2861.A6643Z45132009 895. 1'352-
2008032544

Uni versi ty of Hawai'i Pre.<;.'> books are printl-d o n acid-f rcc pa per and meet the guidel ine..'> for Fermanence and durabilit y of the Counc il o n library Reso urccs _ Designed by University of Hawai'i Press production staff Prillled by The Maple-Vail Book Manufacturing Gro up

Contents

I

Translato r's Preface

\'ii

No tes o n Translation

l. Banishment

I

I

20

44

I

4. Primary School

5_ Animals

ix

I

2_ Th e Enclosure 3 _ Yo ung Tao

I

63

I 77

6_ Th e Farm Tools Factory 7. Zhao Ningsheng

I

9 _ "S16

129

142

/

to. Rich Peasants

I

166

11 Striking Root

I

181

12_ Th e Author

I

198

D . Conclusion

I

227

Glossary I

100

117

8. Th e Cleaning Bug I n

I

241

Han Dong and Ihe World of Chinese Literature I

247

Translator's Preface

IN 1966, Mao Zedong, declaring thai economic and politi cal stability was corrupting th e Communist Parly's revol u tionary spirit and increasing bourgeois elitism, o rganized a mass

youth militia, the Red Guards, to seize control of the stale and party apparat us. Thus began the Cultural Revolution, o r "CuhRcv."1 The Commu nist Parly Ce ntral Committee was replaced with the Cultural Revoluti on Com miltcc, and local governments with Revoluti onary Commiltces. Throughout China, political and social institmi ons we re disrupted or closed down and the lives of its citizens thrown into turm oiL Those most affected were cadres, the educated men and women (many of whom, though no t all, were party members) wh o held posts in central and local governments, state-ru n enterprises, educati o nal, and cultural inst itutions , They were persecuted by the Red Guards and then banished in huge numbers, along with mid dle-schoo[ s tudents from the cities (the "urb[ings n of this story), to be reed ucated in the true nature of the revolut ion by the peasants o f the rural communes , Into this maelstrom the Tao famil y of Banished! is thrown: Tao, a writer and cadre; his wife, Su Qun, also a cadre; the grandparents; and the son , young Tao As the hook begins, Tao and Su Qun are finally released from th e May 7 Cadre School farm s to which they have been consigned after the "struggle sessionsn led by the Red Guard s, and they arc in vited to sign up for a new life in a poor and rem ote country area. Thi s is the Glorious Banishment. Moving to the cou ntryside cert ainly means materia l hardsh ip for the fam ily. But more than that , it means a loss o f status. In the upside-(Iown world of the CuhRev, because the Taos arc urban an d I The Cultural Revolution (or CuitR ev) is now mo re us ually interpreted as an attempt by Mao to wrest power from hi s ene mi es within the part)' and conso lidate his political pos ition. However, for th e purposes of thi s novel , the ideological interpretatio n is the one that counts.

vii

educated, they are placed lowe r than the most ignorant and ind igent peasants in the new political pecking o rdcr. And this is not just a temporary setback: th e Taos are given no hope that they will be allowed to go back ho me. Their books and other treasures have been confiscated o r burned during th e campaign to smash the Four Old s (old customs, old culture , old habits , and old ideas) . The process o f Striking Root req uires them to assume a new identity, to crase the famil y's past from th eir memory, and to put down new and permanent roots in Sanyu ...i llage. (To the young generation of Chinese tod ay, the decade is alm ost unim aginably strange; hence the need for a glossary, which was actually written by Han Dong for the Ch inese edition. Excerpts appear at the end o f this volume.) How do the banished feel about their fate? [n the sto ry, Tao incu lcates in his son the need to embrace their reeducat io n who leheartedly. [s this simpl e pragmatism, an attempt to protect yo ung Tao and ensure a safe future for him? O r do the banished cadres genuinely cl ing to a faith in their leaders and the beliefs that made them dedicate th ei r li ves to th e revolution? The question of political faith rem ains tantalizingly unanswered in Banished! In spite of all the privations, the Cult Rev was not a n experience o f unmitigated misel)' and violence for everyone in China. We can see (li ffe rent perspectives in the many books that have drawn their inspiration from that decade-from the charm and romance of Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress to the high adventu re , J ack Lo ndon-style, of Wolf Totem. Banished! tells us about the pain of shattered hopes a nd beliefs, the frus trations of a writer forb idden to write, the fears of parents for their child. But there is affection, too, in the portrayal of the village and its inhabitants, just as there is dignity in the Tao famil y's struggles to adapt , survive, and protect their youngest member. For young Tao--asymbol o f th e future no t just for his famil y but because h is is the generation that will re build China in the post-Cu[tRev years- the Glorio us Banishment proves ultimately, and iron ically, to be a formative, life-affirming experi ence.

viii

Tmnslato r's PrdHCC

Notes on Translation

CULTURAL REVO LUTION ca tch p hrases : Special

catch phrases were, as Han Dong reminds us, an integral feature of the strange world of Cu ltural Revoluti on Ch ina, permeallng people's lives and coloring their perceptions of what was happening aro und them_ In order 10 mark th ese terms and phrases in English in th e sam e way as th ey were marked ill th e original Chinese, I h ave in some cases capitalized ordinary words and phrases to underline their special character; in oth er cases I have invented abbreviati ons_ (There is an analogy here to th e way th e Chinese abbreviate a multi-character phrase 10 IWO characters _ For example , the Great C ult ural Revolution X{{.:;k:1fiii'l1 is abbreviated \ 0 )ct(!., the first

and the fo urth characters.) So I have capitalized Glorio us Banishment and adopted the tnms "urbli ng" and "CultRO'.~ The use of Mbani shment " for r 1$ dt.'ServC$ some discussion . The r indicates (Iownward motion, in this case from town to countrys id e. The 1$ is mo re compli cated ; it ca n mean "to rel ease o r Mto let go" and , in another coll ocation Mi1$, to "send into exile." The term "send/sent to the countryside" is th e usual translation. but it docs not easily produce a noun form , so after experim enting with a number of possibiliti es, I se ttl ed on banishment. Names: all the male villagers d Sanyu who are mentioned by nam e have the surnam e Yu . The personal name that occurs most frequently is You (have), and the attributes thai complete these pe rsonal nam es indicate that they carry a degree of mean ing. Exam ples: Youfu (have abundancclwealth) and Youcai (have wealth). While such names indicate something of what the villagers desire from life, I reluctantly decided that I co uld not find appro priat e English names that wo uld not make lhe villagers sou nd overly exo tic or even faintl y ridiculous_ I have th erefo re transliterated the names, following the Chinese nam ing conven tion : famil y name fol lowed by personal nam e, o r just personal name. Whe re different

fami lies surnamed Yu are referred to, I have distinguished one from another by calling the family by the personal name of the head of the family. (Example: the Gengyus are the family of Yu Gengyu.) Where the woman of the famil}' is not givcn a personal name, but is refcrred to in the Chinese as, for cxample, ~Youfu's wife," she becomes in English, Mrs. Youfu Childrcn werc a diffcrcnt matter. Thc (nick)namcs of some of the childrcn in the book- Sparrow Eyes, September, and little Dick among others---seemed to ask fo r translations and got them Weights and measures: There arc a number of weights and measures throughout the book. Han Dong mixes metric with traditional Chinese measures, so where he uses metric measures, I have done the sam e, and where he uses tr"ditional Chinese measures, I have substituted U.s. measures. The weights of ounce and pound and linear foot more or less correspond to a Chinese equivalent. Two measures required conversion: a Ii (about half a kilometer or onefourth of a mile) and a Inn (aboUi one-sixth of an acre).

Notes on Tmns la tion

ONE

Banishment I In November 1969 the Tao fam il y was banished, and Tao took them all to Sanyu vi ll age _ Before their departure, Tao had drawn a circle Oil a map in red craYOIl. The place he had circled was a rag+sha ped lake_ "This is Hongze Lake, the third largest freshw ater lake in Ch in a. That's where we're going,~ Tao said _

Half of Hongzc Lake belonged

\0

Ho ngzc Cou nty, whi ch was

divi(lcd inlO a waler-based commune and a dry-land comm une.

The Taos were to go to the dry-land com mune, which, despite its name, was not really dry since it was crisscrossed wit h canals fed by the abundant wains of Hongzc Lake. Where you had waler, you had fish, and Tao an nou nced \0 his family, "We're going to Hongzc Lake to cal fish!" And not just fish either The good thing about going to the dry-land commune was that there would be plenty of padd y ri ce and other food. In Tao's im agination, Hongze was a land overflowing with good things--or at least it had the potential to become such . Banishment to th e coun tryside meant th e chance of fre ed om ~ the two things went together. Huge numbers of cad res had been swept from their posts by the CultRev, and now they were all eager to sign up for the Glorious Banishment. Tao did not want to miss ou t, so there was little time to ponder the choices available. In any case, there were j ust two: Xuzhou and Huai)'in, the poorest parts of no rthern Jiangsu. O f the cadres who had signed up, so me had chosen no rthern Jiangsu because thai was where their families were from, so the)' were effectively going back to thei r place of origin. O thers had rela~ tives th ere wh om they could move in with. Some had worked in the region and had fri ends 11 was different for Tao: he had not come

from Jiangsu, nor had he worked there, so hejust had to rely on a map, try and work out the best spot, and put a circle around it. So it was that two days later, a group of drum-beating, sloganshouting people in green outfits with imitation leather belts around their waists turned up at the Taos' door. The Taos recognized them as the ones who had come the previous year. This time, however, they were here not to take Tao off to a struggle session but to set him free. Tao was glad that he was being liberated by the same people who had come for him the previous year. Had it not been the same group, he would still have been liberated, but the results woul(] not have been nearly so complete, nor so definitive. They punched the air and shouted unlil the whole building echoed, but this time the slogans were quite different from the time before. They tore off the faded red posters on either side of the Taos' door, brushed on some glue, and stuck on a brand new pair of posters. And this pair was completely different from the previous oncs, not just in appearance (the ink still damp on the bright red paper) but also in content. Instead of saying, ~Down with Tao, " ~Bomb him," "Burn him," or ~Fry him," the new ones read, "Give the Taos a warm send-off!" and ~The Taos are doing the Glorious Banishment. " The good-news troupe chanted a while longer and then marched off. Soon the faint sound of drumming was heard in the block behind the Taos---obviously they were not the only ones doing the Glorious Banishment. About ten minutes later, Grandpa Tao came oul. He was holding a bottle of glue and a small brush, and he addressed himself to the slogans pasted to the door frame The good-news troupe had been in a hurry, and its work had been careless. The posters were askew and there were air bubbles. Very carefully Grandpa Tao pulled them off, straightened them out, added more glue, and brushed them flat onto the door frame Finally he brought a half-full basin of clean water and wiped off the excess glue with a wet cloth. It took him nearly an hour. Taosaid to him a few limes, "Dad, don't bother; we're being banished soon." Grandpa just grunted and did not answer, so eventually Tao sent young Tao to give his granddad a hand. "This is absurd," thought Tao, not just because they would soon be gone. A year before , when Tao was being struggled against, the same group had come to stick posters on the Taos' door frame , and

1

Ha n Dong

after it had gone, Grandpa Tao had bustled happily out to paste on more glue and smoot h out the air bubbles. Thanks to his efforLS , their posters were the straightest, smartest, and longcst lasting of all the people beingslruggl ed against Today's group had had to put considerable effo rt into trying to remove the old posters a nd in the end had just stuck the new o nes o n top. This made Grandpa Tao's task more difficult, but he was a patient man and his face bore a smile as he worked away~So long as Dad's happy," thought Tao to himself.

2 The Taos had a two-room fl at on the third fl oor. Tao and Su Q un slept in one room, Grandpa and Granny Tao in the ot her. Yo ung Tao had a sm all bed in his grandparents' roo m. The kitchen and toilet were opposi te the flat and were shared with the neighbors. The block of flats dated from th e fifti es, and the flats and corrid ors had wooden floo rboards pai nted mauve, Th e stairs were wooden too. The Taos' nat had changed in recent days, not because of the brand new posters pasted on th eir door fram e, but because all the furn iture insi de had been moved around Only the beds were in their us ual place. Wardrobe, chest of drawers, and bookcases were all piled in the middle of the room , revealing whitish marks on the walls against which they had stood. The furniture was now unrecognizabl e as it was paeked in grass mailing and reed sacking and tied tightly with twine. The fl oor was covered in bits of dried grass, stri ng, and cardboard , as well as the mailing and bags. Small er items like the camphor chest, a bedside table , a writing dcsk, and a washstand were bund led up in th e sa me material and stacked anywhere space could be found ~in the corners, by the door, and o utside in th e corridor. And of cou rse there were endless neatly tied packages of hooks All th e furniture a nd other belongings, packed up as th ey were in the sa me material, bega n to look remarkably simil ar: bristly yell ow objects outlined with stra nds of gray wire of varying thi ckm.'Sscs. Fro m the wire hung loops of thinner wire to which were an ached scraps of white cloth . Eve ry cloth label had the same wo rds wrin en o n it: Tao and his wife's name and their de st in a ti o n~Tao Pei yi, Su Qun; Sa nyu, Wangj i, Hongze.

Ba ni sh ment

J

The packing took two days, and the whole family took parI. When they moved the wardrobe, the neighbo rs came to help. Then it was alm ost done, and Tao took a break. He sat on the bed and smoked a cigare\le. Now that each packaged item of furniture had a cloth label attached, he could relax. At noon, a comrade from th e work unit arrived with some paperwork. Su Qun brought in tea, but th ere was no room to put down even a cup. Tao gave up his seat on the edge of the bed to the com rade and stood while talking to him Su Qu n was in attendance, clasping the cup of tea in both hands; the man accepted the cup , took a sip, and returned it. Su Qun waited fo r him to take ano ther mo uthful , but he did not drink anymore. He gave them their instructions, stood up, and said goodbye . As he was going ou t, he told Tao that the furniture removal truck would come that afternoon. At 2 p.m. th e truck, with two young helpers standing in the back, arrived and parked downstairs in the courtyard The Taos were delighted sin ce th ey had thought th ey would have to move their furniture themse lves. No doubt this special treatment could be attributed to th e success of Su Qun's tea offeri ngs. At least it meant that they did not need to bother th e neighbors. All their belongings were ca rri ed down three flighLS of stairs and loaded onto the truck. The two helpers knew what they were about and packed the items lightly together, large heavy objects at the boltom, lighter things and odds and ends on top. The wardrobe was the heaviest of th e lot, as it was not j ust big but also had a large mirror mounted on the front. Su Qun had gone to th e trouble of lying IWO extra layers of colton wadding to the fron l and Ihe back, and th e gigantic object took fo ur people 10 load onto the truck: th e youths al the fron t , Tao and Su Qun al th e back; Grandpa Tao lenl a hand too Once on board , Ihe wardrobe lowered above its owners and th e neighbors who had gathered aro und to watch. A bil of mirro r, just visibl e between the mats and the sacking, gl eamed like an eye. Finally, the lruck drove o ut of th e courtyard. The Taos went back inside, where now nothing remained except bits of sacking and twine Slrewn all over the mauve noorboards. Looking around , Tao remarked, "It's a hell of a lot lighter than before!"

4

Ha n Dong

3 That night, the Taos stayed in the local afmy unit guest house. They were not alone, of cou rse. There were fo rty o r nft y families who would be doing the Glorious Banishment the next day, and the guesl house courtyard was ali ve with people and noisc. They all ate dinner together and were then divided up according to gender and age. There were dorm itories for the men and others for the women and ch ildren. Every room contained about ten beds, each covered in snow while sheets. Until lights-oUI, peoplc could drop into cach other's donn ito· rics, and Tao and Grandpa Tao wenl \0 Su Qun and Granny Tao's room. This looked like something oul of a matriarchal sociely: an old lady sat on the edge of a bed wi th a daughter or daughter-in-law in aucndance, holding a bowl of water for her to wash her fcc\. A you ng woman had pulled up her blouse and was breast-feeding her baby. The older ch ildren fought and played and chased each other noisily around the beds. Mothers shouted at their children, grandmothers sighed, and babies wailed There was continuous coughing, belching, muttering, and chatter Tao and his father sat down on the single bed that this evening belonged to the Taos. $u Qun and young Tao were to sleep there. Granny Tao had been given the next bed to share with an elderl y lady from an other family. The Taos could cla im only half of this bcd, the side nearest to $u Qun and her son. Tao and Grand pa Tao sat for a while and then left and wen t back to their own room . It had the same number of beds but was deserte(l and had none of the lively atmosphere of $u Qun's dormitory. It was still ten minutes to lights-out, ~nd the rest of the men were out visiti ng. One by one they returned . had a quick wash, and climbed into bed . Tao lay in the darkness, unable to sleep. It was thirty years since he had shared a bed with his father Now they were squeezed in together, separated by just their pajamas and the quilt th rough whi ch they could feci each other's body warmth Reveille sounded before daybreak, and the dormitory lights went on in the guest house. The banished families hurriedly got up an d packe(1 bags and su itcases. Then there was washing in the cou rtyard- the half dozen taps were all turned on, and icy water gushed out, splash ing onto the concrete under the communal sinks. There

Bani shmen t

5

was shouti ng in the darkness as people tried to find each other, and then, carrying babies and with the elderly in tOW, fam ili es made their way to the dining room fo r breakfast. Half a dozen buses were drawn up in a neat row, ready for th e fami lies to board. In the dim dawn light, the great !lowers that hung from the buses' hoods turned from gray to red and then, when it was fully light , a brilliant scarlet People were divided into groups according to the number of fam· ily members and where th ey were going, and they got on the !lowerand flag-bede cked buses. The fi ve Taos boarded with six other fam ilies, all bound for different production brigades and teams in the Wangji area of Hongze County The brigades and teams were apparently not far apart , JUSt a couple of miles. From now on they would be alm ost neighbors. They began to chat and exchange addresses as the Taos' bus pull ed out of the courtyard and onto th e highway. They came to Nan jing's main artery, Zhongshan Road, and a never-ending stream of buses joined th em until , by th e time they arri ved at the Yangtze Bridge, the convoy stretched for several miles and its end was out of sigh t. The buses were followed by an even longer stream of baggage trucks, hidden from view by trees and buildings. Crowds of people had come to see them off and stood at th e roadside, shouting and waving. In response, the travelers wound down th e bus windows, lea ned out, and waved back. At the Yangtze Bridge the se nd-off reached its climax: the air was fi lled with the sound of drumming and the expl osion of firecrackers, and th e ranks of bystanders stood in some degree of o rder am id a sea of !lags and hanners. Groups of young people in green uniforms with red badges perform ed the revolutionary ~ I oyalty dance. ~ Tao had never seen anything like this since Nanjing had welcomed the PLA in 1949. Then he had s tood by the roadside,almost delirious with exci tement . Now he was in the bus, a blank look on his fa ce. In 1949 th e army was entering th e city; now he and his fami ly were leaving it---or ralher being swept out of it. Why such fan fare fo r people who were being banished? But there were no answers to Tao's many questions. The bus crawled along at a pace scarcely faster than walking. It took hal f a day to cover the seven kilometers through the city and up to and over the bridge.

6

Han Dong

4 O n ce it had passed th e no rthern bridgehead, the bus gathered speed . There were no morc crowds by th e roadside, and the drums on the o ther side of Ihe river could be heard only indisti nctly_They seemed to be driving into silence . They began to sec st raw stacks, calli e, and peasant sma l1ho ldings. As they went around a big bend, the trucks al the back of the column allasl ca me into view bu t, cycca tching th ough the Taos' wardrobe was, they could not sec it. The passengers began to cat their lunches, munch ingon biscuits and buns and drinking waler from tlasks. Some swapped other food like apples, salted eggs, pickles, and dried bean curd. What with the lunch es they had eaten and th e bouncing of the bus, a drowsiness came over them. Time passed and suddenly the bus pulled up for a toilet stop_ The h il ls had disappeared, and now the plains of no rthern J iangsu stretched before th em, rounded like th e lid of a wok The socalled toilets were a nearby s traw s tack, behind whi ch they were to take tu rns relieving themselves. The women got first go. O ne by o ne they crossed a ditch and lIl~dc their w~y tu the guluell yell uw !> tr~w !>tack. The yu ung Irdpcd the el derl y ove r the ditch and up the bank O ne old woman-sh e must have been about ninety-had to be carri ed by a young wo man, who,judging by h er age, was her granddaughter_ The old lady's hair was of s uch wi spy whiteness that it merged into the pale gold o f the stack The men waited their turn at the roadside They craned thei r necks in an attempt to see the end of the con voy or, better still, the truck that carri ed th eir famil y's furniture_ But the line was too long an d the bend in the road was not s harp enough, so they gave up. Finally it was th e men's turn , and they crossed the ditch and hurried toward the stack, greeting the wo men who were on their way back Beh ind the stack was one huge puddle, as if it had j ust rai ned . Ho1cs were brim full o f urine , with bubbles still noaling on the surface. Some of th e women had had a crap. Toil et paper was scattered everywh ere, and as th e wind blew scraps toward the pale green paddy fiel d nearby, th ey looked like so many white doves_ As the stink o f urine wafted around them, th e men relieved themselves and, doing up th ei r trousers, emerged from behind the stack Back

Banishmen t

7

at the bus, the d river counted everyone in, and they were on their way again. Grandpa Tao got out his radio and began to fiddl e with the dials. Th e radi o cheeped and chirped as the bus veered around bends. Th e broad caster's voice cam e and went, dear and fuzzy in turn. Grandpa Tao kept adjus ting the dials. He had tuned into a Nanjing radio stati on that he knew well, and th ey heard a blow-by-blow description of t heir banish ment to th e countryside. The drums and slogan chanting fill ed th e bus, this tim e not from outside but from the radio. Finally even the drums could no longer be heard . Then Grandpa got a local radio station, and they heard the strange local (lial ect with its harsh, abrupt intonati on. They realized they must be nearly there. Tao looked at his watch. 11 was after fo ur in th e afternoon. Outs ide the bus, the landscape looked differenl. There were thatched houses and great fields of ro ugh grass. The sky had darkened too, and cold air crept in through gaps in the windows. By now th ey had reached Hongze County Town In front of them a canal was being dug, and the convoy was diverted around the edge of the town and straight to th e commune. Peasant laborers lin ed up on the banks to watch the buses drive slowl y past. They were no organized welcome pany. In fact they just stared at the passengers in the bus with dull, solemn expressions. The passengers looked back (th e bus windows had all been wound down). It occurred to Tao that that mo rning's send-off, lively tho ugh it was, had made him feel uneasy because the s ingers and dan cers had been so engrossed in their performances that they had no t o nce looked into the eyes of the departing families. Was it reassuring now to be s tared at so fixedly by these peasants? Of course not, but his current un easin ess was at least of a different nature. The laborers were dressed in thin , shabby garments, and some were bare-chested. Most were young and strong and stood holding shovels or shoulder poles, completely silent. Behind them was th e wide, deep water course they had dug, as yet without water. Freshly dug yellowish-gray clay was everywhere. The rays of th e evening s un lit up the scene so vividly that eve rything before their eyes, including the motionless laborers, appeared transformed into a tableau. Then the canal works were behind them . They drove along a bumpy, unsurfaced road in a convoy that had now sh runk in size.

S

Ha n Dong

Buses and baggage trucks turned down side roads toward their destinations, almost without being noticed Tao was s impl y aware that therc were fewer and fewer buses. By the time it began to get dark, only their bus was left , foll owed by four or fi ve baggage trucks. The one with the Taos' wardrobe towering above it was easy to spot.

5 By now it was quite dark o utsid e, and they could only vaguely makc o ut their su rro undi ngs since th ere were no st reet lamps and on ly the starlight to see by. They were driving through an a rea crisscrossc([ wit h waterways, whi ch glittered on either s id e of the track. The roadway was so narrow it could not be seen; they seemed to be traveling o n water, and it was o nl y the violent bumping up and (lown that told them they were on land. The headlight beams were so fain t they could not tell how wide or deep the ca nals were. The bus bounced so much it seemed it might fall into the water. The passengers grew anxious. Finally th e bus stopped, and a man in a bl ue ove rcoat got on and shouted Tao's and Su Qu n's names in the local dialect. They had arri ved . The man was ML Yu, th e head of the Sanyu village Number I Production Team, and they were at Xiaodu nkou. The Taos gathered their things, said goodbye to the famili es still o n board, and got off the bus. The river that ran alongside the potholed track was narrow and gl eamed silver in the moonlight 11 was then they realized that Grandpa Tao had van ished. Grandpa Tao had gone behind the bus, looking fo r a place to relieve himself. But th e land was completel y flat , providing no toilet, not even a straw stack Nearby he saw a pale ~road~ that he took to be tarmac snaking into the distance and out of sight. He saw ho uses on th e opposit e side. Maybe there were toilets there. He tried to cross over and stepped into the ri ver Luckil y it was shall ow, and Grandpa Tao regained his footing in time. But his tro use r legs were soaking weI. When he pulled his rubber boots from the mud , they were full of water and sq uelched as he walked. The water was penetratingly cold . That was lucky too: for the time being it made the old man forget his need to urinate. Tao decided th at he and Su Qun would wait at Xiaodunkou and unload the truck with their furni ture. The village women would

Ba ni sh ment

9

take his parents and young Tao to Sanyu. It was st ill a quarter of a mile o r more from Xiaodunkou to Sanyu along what was reall y just an uneven riverbank, not even a dirt road. It was impassable to traffic (otherwise the bus would have taken th em right to the village). Once news of th ei r arrival had sp read, men and wo men, yo ung and old, from th e production team turned out to meet them Xiaodunkou was quite special as far as th e villagers were concerned: it was not only o n the highway, but there were also some shops--modern buildings, brick-bUilt, with tiled roofs-by the roadsid e (t he o nes Grandpa Tao had seen across the "tarmac road"). These were now barred and shuttered for the night, but it was no t th e shops that had brought the villagers o ut in force , but ra ther the new arrivals. When the Taos got off the bus, they were surrou nde(1 by eighty or ninety people. The men had carrying poles a nd baskets to load the furniture into; the women, th e ch ildren, and the elderly had just come 10 see Ih e fun They had brought along a drum player, who now struck up, but sin ce th ere was only one instrument , it sound ed nothing like Ih e bands that had given Ihe Taos Iheir sendoff. II did not sound like a prcper drum or indeed like a nythi ng much at all , bUI even so, Tao felt somehow reassured. In o ne day they had passed Ihlee kinds of crowds Illassed along Ihe roadside, but it was these villagers who see med to Tao the friendliest. There was no need for anxiety.

6 A crowd of wome n bore th e grandparents and yo ung Tao off to the village. Granny Tao had had bound feet, and although she had unbound th em, she was not very agile Added 10 Ihat , Ihe fright thai Grandpa's we lling had given her meant she could hardly walk at all. Two young Sanyu women, o ne on each side, took her a rms, or rather it would be more accurale to say they carried her along, feet scarcel y touching the ground, in the direction of the Village. The women made good speed . Grandpa Tao, leading young Tao by the hand, did his best to keep up. The moon sho ne down o n th e riverbank path, casting the potholes into deep shadow and making it strangel y diffi cul t to judge where to put one's feet. The old man st umbled along, sevcral tim es almost falling . It would be truer to

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Han Dong

say that young Tao, rather than being lcd, was his grandfather's crutch. A chorus of barking dogs greeted them as they got near the village. Dark clumps of trees and buildings could be seen. Here and there lights appeared, though they were so faint that they were scarcely noticeable in the brilliant moon light They came to a bridge, two feet wide and made of sticks and branches bound together Below it flowed the glitteri ng waters of the Yanma River. Granny Tao absolutely refused to go any further and remained immovable, no mailer how hard the girls urged and pulled her. The whole party was stuck. One of the women, surefooted and swift, crossed over. But far from encouraging Granny Tao, this example made her more fearful than ever. In her eyes, the woman was nothing less than a tightrope walker. Grandpa Tao and young Tao gathered their courage and crossed, along with most of the other women . That left just Granny Tao and her two helpers on th e other side_Young Tao wailed for his granny, who became so frantic that she burst into tears_ Finall y one of the women cam e to a decision, pulled off her coat, put it over Granny Tao's head, and in this way got her across the river. They had arrived in Sanyu_ They were taken to the cO\vshed next to the threshing noor, where the old cowherd lit a fire so that Grandpa Tao could dry his trousers. They sat around the fire, hands outstretched toward the names, huge shadows wavering on the cowshed walls. The underside of the cowshed roof was covered with a mailing of plaited bulrushes from which hung hundreds of dark objects, like so many bunches of grapes bobbing up and down_ They were formed of the ash and dust that had accumulated on the leaves of the bulrushes; in Sanyu they were called ~ash streamers_~ As the cowherd built up the fire, the flames leapt higher until they seemed about to meet the streamers Granny Tao cried out in alarm, but there was a chorus of ~It's all right! It's all right!" from the villagers. More straw was added to the leaping names, and finally some of the stream ers caught fire. The tongues of name quickly went out, leaving a few sparks dancing in the ai r until they too disappeared without trace. Granny Tao became even more agitated . She did not understand what the villagers were saying or dOing, so she turned

Banis hment

II

on her husband: "Horrible old man! What arc you laughing at!n But Grand pa Tao just bared his lips in a gap-toothed laugh. He sat dose to the fire, turning the wet legs of his eOllon-padded trousers th is way and that until wisps of steam rose from them When th e trousers were dry, the three of them were taken to eat at the house of one of the peasants By now, Tao and Su Qun had arrived, along with the young men who were bringing the furniture. This was deposited in front of lhe Taos' new home, and they then joined the grandparents and young Tao At the table they were encircled by a watching crowd {the villagers had had their dinner earlier and did not cat with them} . The house belonged to Lu Suying, a woman in her forties who was busy cooking their dinner in a tiny kitchen. Then she put four dishes brimming with some dark-colored food, none of which they recognized, o n the small table. An old ink bOllle served as an oil lamp, and its tiny name lit up the dishes and the Taos' rice bowls, which were filled with some sort of gruel that they also did not recognize. In the silence all that could be heard was a slurping as they ate. When they had finished, they set off for their new home, with Mr. Yu in the lead and the reSl of the villagers following behind. They crossed a bridge, and their home, or rather a building, appeared before them. It was an odd building, not because it was built of mud bricks and thatch {all Sanyu's houses were}, but because the roof sloped steeply down from west to east at a sharp angle. At the eastern end it tilted up again, seemingly because the crossbeam was warped. The next morning, when they walked around the village in the daylight, they saw that there was no other house like it. In the moonlight they could see that all four walls of the house had almost completely sunk into the earth . The thatch on the slanting roof hung down like a mop of gray hair, covering the doors and windows. The ward robe rested by the front door, tied in its mat wrappings and casting a dark shadow It seemed taller than their new house- an illusion of course. All around it lay the rest of the packaged furniture. Yu pushed the door, and it squeaked open . There was a strange smell in the room. They later found ou t that this had been the production team's old eowshed. A new cowshed {where Grandpa Tao had dried his trousers} had been built, and the cows had been moved. Although they had been gone a year, the sme ll persisted.

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Han Dong

"How many cows docs the production team have?» asked Tao. "Five,» said Yu. This, funnily enough, was the same number as the Tao family. Insi de, mud bricks lay around on the 1100r. There was an unfinished object rather like a sink, also of bricks. The team had been building them a s tove, but they had arrived earlier than expected, and it was not yet finished. In the corner of the room, at the west end , the villagers had built a bed, also of bricks, and this was covered in rice straw. The bed was big enough for the whole family to sleep on . 11 was dark, they had no lamp, and it was too much trouble to unpack the beds they had brought from Nanjing. They simply opened a trunk, dug out some cOllon-wadd ing mallresses and quilts, and lay down to sleep en the brick bed.

7 The Taos were up the next day as soon as it was properly light; they pushed open the creaking wooden door and went out into a brand-new world The early morning sun shone down on the northern Jiangsu plains, and the mist hung over the stream Nearby, through the bare twigs of the trees, they could see the uneven rool1inc of Sanyu's thatched dwellings. The ground was stil l s li ppery from the night's hoarfrost. In front of the door someone had left a mound of sweet potato stalks, and young Tao, bundled up in four sweaters, began to practice assaults on it. Tao, too, cou ld not help being infected by his son's excitement as he did his chestexpanding exercises in the chill morning air. The Taos spent the day introducing themselves to the villagers. Each fami ly in Sanyu lived in a house within its own enclosure, bounded by a stream on all four sides On the south side was a bridge that led to the village street. The bridge was actuall y an earth en embankment in which a concrete pipe had been buried. The pipe allowed the water to Ilow through and on around the other cnclosures. The houses were all built of mud brick and thatch; in front of each was the family's allotment, on which they grew crops and vegetables, and most of the ho uses had a lush bamboo grovc behind them . Thc Taos' cowshed dwelling was also built within an enclosure, but this one had no bamboo grove, and no crops had been plantcd.

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13

Instead, in front of it was an area of hard-packed earth, the pro(]uction team's old threshing ground . About a year before, a new threshing ground to the west of the village had been built, and the old one was no longer in usc. The cowshed and the five cows had moved away at the same time. Both old and new threshing grounds were at the end of the village, the old to the east, the new to the west, each about a hundred meters from the village itself. So the Taos lived all on their own, and by November their enclosure, bare even of a bamboo grove, looked desolate The furniture and other belongings scallered in front of their house now began to emerge from their wrappings and reveal their true nature. A large number ot" Villagers stood around, although most had not come to help. Every lime something was unwrappe(l, it caused a commotion among the bystanders. They stood arguing in an incomprehensible di alect, hand to mouth or spilling in a display of amazement that the Taos had never encountered before. The women and children crept close and had a good feel of every new article. They were intrigued by everything, especially, to the Taos' surprise, a basket of coal briquettes. The Sanyu villagers burned only straw and other dried vegetation, and coal was a rarity. They had nevel seen anyt hing like these evenly sized, jet-black shiny balls. It was unimaginable that you could usc these finely crafted objects for fuel and for cooking food. The Sanyu Villagers were so astonished that the Taos began to look at the coal briquelles with new eyes. They certainly did stand out in their current surroundings, not because they could be used to cook food, but because of their color. There was nothing anywhere near as black as those coal briquettes in all the gray-brown countryside around them A child picked one up and threw it at a bare-branched sapling nearby. The coal briquette hit the trunk Granny Tao shouted at him to stop. Young Tao retrieved the broken ball, but a distinct black mark remained on the trunk The second object that amazed the Villagers, as it emerged from its four or five layers of wrapping, was the wardrobe. They gasped as each layer was removed and there was still another one underneath. It was a mystery to them why the Taos should have wrapped something with such care. Finally the wardrobe was completely relieved of its layers, and far from being disappointed, the villagers

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were perhaps even more amazed than before. It was not its large size or fine craftsmanship or the fact that they had never seen one before that astonished them but the mirror mounted on the front. Reflected in it, the fields, so familiar to the people of Sanyu, took on a whole new aspect, and neighbors whom they met every day looked like completely different people They crowded in from all sides, craning their necks and peering into it as if it were a well The ones at the back began to protest and push and shove their way forward The ones at the front swayed in front of the mirror, pulled to and fro by the people beh ind them. There were even more standing behind the wardrobe, but there was no mirror there. Gradually they sellled down and began to assume (lignified poscs. But this did not stop them from jeering at each other: MAren't you dark! You're as blaek as the Taos' coal br iquellcs! n MYou're so pale, you look like their aluminum wok! We can see our faces in you! n It was as if they had never seen anything like it bcforenot surprisi ng since coal briquettes and alumi num woks had previously been un known in Sanyu. Nevertheless Tao was impressed that these ord inary people could take to new things so quickly. The wardrobe remained on display at the Taos' front door for a couple of homs before being moved inside at nightfall. Thereafter and for a month or more, the vil lagers were always dropping by so that they cou ld look at the wardrobe----or rather the mirror on the front of il. The visitors were mainly women, nicely gOt up in bright blue jackeLS fastened diagonally across the front, their hai r stil l wet from combing and sometimcs fastened with a plastiC hair slide bought from the shop at Xiaodunkou . They arrived in groups of up to five at a time, sometimes even more, and stood in front of the mirror, pushing and shoving and roaring with laughter. Tao had never imagined that the wardrobe, bought when he and Su Qun had married, would become such a handy way of getting to know their neighbors He and Su Qun talked about it and decided to move the wardrobe from the bedroom to the front room. (Their house had by now been divided into three rooms: their bed room, the be(lroom where the grandparenLS and young Tao slept, and the main room.) Moving the wardrobe made it easier for visiting villagers 10 get a good look. A lad of sixteen or seventeen called September began to hang around as soon as they moved in, helping out in a variety of ways.

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He appointed himself as th e Taos' particular fri end and began to guard the entrance to their house. The women who came visiting cou ld get in only with September's say-so. Tao was not happy about th is, hut he did not feel he could say anything. The women were Sanyu people whom th ey needed to get on their side; September was also a Sanyu neighbor (although on ly a child). He did not want to offend eith er party.

8 They were still cold at night; the), just could not get warm , even tho ugh the bed had a thick layer of ri ce straw covered by two cotton-wadding mattresses, and they lay under a quil t weighing eight pounds. The walls of the cowshed were cr isscrossed with c racks, both sm all , fine oncs and large, wide ones. The biggest was so big that young Tao could put his hand illlo it After they had put out the oil lam p, a ri bbon of moonlight wavered over their bed, and when the moon had sunk below the hill , an invisible icy draft stirred against th eir ears and necks Because the roof was covered in streamers, Grann y Tao resol utel y refused to allow them to light a fire. The first few nigh ts were spent with the Taos half exposed to the night sky; then the whole family set to wallpapering the home. This was a task they were good at, as Grand pa Tao's obsession with getting the sloga ns pasted perfectly flat onto the door frame of their Nanjing home had showed. But he would work too slowly o n a big area like the cowshed . So most of the work was do ne by Su Qu n. Mr. Yu, the team leader, selll them a sho ulder pole's load of rice straw, and Su Qun kn otted small sheaves a nd stuffed them into the cracks. Young Tao had an essenu al role to play here; his hands were sm all enough to fit right into the wall cracks, so he could stuff the rice straw in good and deep Sometimes he overdid it a nd pushed th e straw so far in that it almost weill right through and was visible o n the o uts ide wall. Then Su Qun pasted a layer of newspaper over the walls, then another layer. Then s he added a layer of magaZines, making it three laye rs all toget her. When she had finished, the cowshed looked li ke new and did not even look like a cowshed a nymo re . The mud brown walls were completely hidden beneath the paper, a nd th e

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Han Dong

room looked cons iderably brighter. Grandpa Tao took a bam boo cane, allached a feather duster to the end , and cleared the st reamers from the matting covering the underside of the roof. The "ra t tai ls n of those that were left were much sho rter now, and in some places you could actuall y make out th e dark brown bulrushcs_ They spent a whole day papering and cleaning and used almost two loads of ri ce straw, plus nearly a year's worth of Ncw China Ncws, which they had brought from Nanjing_ They also used two years' worth of the PLA PiC/oriai magazine_ By this tim e it was dark They had dinner, washed their feet. and climbed into bed. Squeezed up against the magazine-covered walls, icy cold and st ill damp from the glue , they fel t peace of mind . Outs id e the no rth wind howled , and the magazine pagcs stuck to the uneven walls bulged ou t and were s ucked back in with a hushing sou nd rather like a lullaby.

9 Thus th e Taos settl ed into Sanyu, and work assumed a regular rhythm_ They bought some rush matting from the shop in Xiaodu nkou and divided the cowshed into three rooms . They made a small hole in the mud-brick si ll below th e door frame and bought a puppy from a villager. The lillIe dog was black and white , more white than black, and they called him P~tch. The hole was fo r Patch to go in and oul. They put down some wooden boards to make what the Sanyu villagers called a jelly at the edge of the stream o n the east sid e of their enclosure. They stood on this to wash ri ce and vegetables and scrub th e toil et bucket. They used a plastic bucket to draw drinking water, which was th en tipped into a large water contai ner that stood in th e fro nt room The conta iner took five o r six bucketfuls_ They added alum to the water and stirred it with a stick kepi for the purpose, and the impuritics in the water sank with Ihe alum to the bOllom of the con tainer. The container was rinsed ou t with water once a week. For bOiling rice they used the cooking stove they had brought from Nanjing (they st ill had two baskets of the coal briquettes). They got rid of the mud-brick stove by the front door. Tao reckoned that they would build themselves a new house the next year and it would includ e a special cookhouse, so they could build a new stove base then.

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Going to the toilet was a problem Sanyu villagers buried a large cylindrical crock in their garden and surrounded it on three si(lcs with a fence , about waist high, of rush matting or maize stalks bound together_ when they went to the toilet, they squatted inside it. The fourth side was open to the world, and you could look out as you did your business Young and old, men and women, used this arrangement, winter and summer, even during the night. When the Taos went visiting, there would often be someone squatting behind the fence_ Peering out, he or she would greet them with a ~Had your dinner yet?" Small children who did not know any beller sometimes pooped outside the family enclosure and were scolded for it. A Sanyu family's night soil should not go on other people's fields, as the Taos gradually learned. However, even though they understood perfectly well the reasons why things were done as they were, they still could not bring themselves to behave in exactly the same way The Taos buried a crock in the garden too and fenced it in, but they did not actually usc it as a toilet. Instead they emptied their toilet bucket into it. At night, each bed had a spittoon placed under illo serve as a chamber pOl. The urine was emptied into the toilet bucket 01 dilcctly into thc Clock outside in the morning_ When they nee([ed to crap, they used the toilet bucket. They were quite embarrassed at being seen by one of the villagers emptying their bucket or pots, but eventually the secret got out. The villagers thought this was very unhygienic. "They crap in the house!~ they said . So the Taos kept their toilet bucket well covered up in a corner of the grandparents' room and hung a curtain in front of it. Anyone using Ihe loilet bucket could not be seen by visitors, but the smell gave them away, so the Taos used the toilet furtively, as if they were doingsomelhing to be ashamed of Every third day, when the bucket was full to the brim, it was emptied into the crock outside_ While we're on the subject, I should tell you about the paper the Taos used to wipe Iheir bottoms They had pink or bleached white toilet paper, something incomprehensible to the Villagers. The latter used anything they could find to wipe themselves, like a handful of leaves or rice straw. In the depths of winter, when there were no leaves, they used lumps of earth. The children were even more uninhibited. When they had pooped, they would stick out their bOlloms and call over one of the dogs to lick them nice and clean.

IS

Ha n Dong

Babies too small to deal with this themselves just had their bottoms wiped clean by a grown-up with a bunch of grass or the sole of a shoe. Once young Tao stuck out his boltom too and called Patch. but he was caugh t by Granny Tao an d given a thorough telling-off. II was a very dirty habit in the Taos' view The only thing lhey and lhe villagers disagreed on was the mOSl hygienic way of going to lhe tOilel , and on Ihis poillllhey were irreconcilable.

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19

TWO

The Enclosure

I The Taos lived in the cowshcd for nearly a year and began bui lding a new home the next autumn_ The project had been in the planning for some lime. There was to be no skimping since, as Tao put ii, the), were 10 "dig inn here for many generations_ GUI just what kind of a house was this going to be? The Sanyu villagers' houses were built of mud bricks with thatched roofs. There were no buildings of fired bricks_ You had \ 0 go \0 Xiaodunkou, where the stores were of bricks, to sec those. The mud bricks for Sanyu houst.'S were made in a number of different ways. The most common was \0 plough up a patch of groull(l, water it well, and scalier wheat and rice husks and choppc(1 rice straw over it. Then an ox was led back and forth through it o r people got in barefoot to trample it, adding water as they mixed it. The longer you trampled the better, as bricks made from properl y trampled mud did not crack easily The prepared mud was then shoveled into wooden molds and the top smoothed out. The bricks were half completed at that stage; when dried in the sun, they could be used to build house walls or stoves_ In the farming slack season, the villagers sat outside their houses unmolding the bricks and stacking them in a neat pile that was then covered with a thick layer o f rice straw to keep off the rain. There was another way of making the bricks that was less trouble: an ox was used to drag a s tone roller back and forth over a field where the rice had just been harvested unlil the earth was rolbl firm and nat. Beneath the stubble were the paddy rice roots, which held the soil together in the same way as the wheat and rice

20

husks. A knife was then pulled across the field either by an ox o r by a couple of men, cUll ing the earth into squares rather like a chess board. These "bricks" were then dug out and used fo r building. Although this method was less trouble, it was hard work, and digging out a layer of topsoi l necessa ril y removed nutrients so that the next crop would be poor 50 the most co mm only used method of making mud bricks was still the first one. The fram es of the houses were of wood Although 5anyu was on the plain and there was plenty of uncultivated land , trees were scarce, and trees big enough to be the roof beams were the sca rces t of all. Sanyu villagers had to buy wood fo r house building from the cooperat ive. The cO\vshed in which the Taos were lodged was made of wood from the Village, which was why the roof ridge was so hideously lopsided. The house roofs were thatched with ri ce st raw, so new houses were a beautiful bright golden yellow But when it had rained a few times, the thatch began to turn grayer and grayer ulllil it ended up a charred black color. II was a big thing for 5anyu villagers to build a ho use. Although mOSI building malerials could be found locally, the wood for the roof ocams, wh ich had 10 be bought , cost mOllCy. The villagers had lillie cash, and feeding the builders was expensive. so you were lucky if you could build one house during yo ur lifetime. When the bricks, the wood, and th e straw were ready, the actual building took o nl y two or three weeks. Once the house shell had bee n completed , the finishing work began inside and out. The same mud, well kneaded with husks, was used. It was used like lime and pl astered on inside and OUI , th e more layers the beuer. The vill agers compared the number of layers on one another's houses. In every o ther respect, the houses were id en tical. The more layers applied, the sm alle r and closer logether th e cracks in the walls. If you took the trouble to do fo ur o r fi ve layers, then the cracks in the wall would be as finely wrinkled as an old woman's face. Careful finishing could be detected o nl y ins ide the house. O utside, o nce the plaster had been applied a few times ove r, the walls we re wrapped in straw mats to keep the rain off. Four o r five layers of malti ng were stuck on with mud , starting at the boltom and ending at the roof. They worked like a palm-leaf rain cape: when it rained, the water ran down off th e stalks and did not damage

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21

the bricks underneath. The malting was usually woven rrom wheat straw. Like the thatch, it started off golden yellow and turned gray and then black. But never mind that A newly built house sho ne a brilliant gold from top to bottom. This is how most houses were built in Sanyu. Of course. poor families might skip some stages-for instance, the outside walls might not have s traw matting

2 The Taos had two advantages when they built their house. The first was money: it was official policy that the department in c harge of banished cadre families in the cou ntryside should provide them with hom es. Each family member got YSO, and there were five Taos, meaning that they had YiDD to spend o n building their ho use. Second, they did not have to pay the builders They were paid in wo rk points, and the costs were borne by the production team as a wh ole. That was official policy too The only thing the Taos had to decide was whether to have a mud brick and thatched cottage, like the locals, or a modern brick and tile house, like th e store at Xiaodunkou. If they had a traditional house , it would be the best in the village; if they had a tiled o ne, it would be beller st ill. They finally decided to co mbine th e two: the walls would be of mud briCks, but the roo r would be tiled. That way, their house would not st ick out too much but would last long enough to enable the Taos to dig in fo r generations. lr they used all local materials, their house would be an obvious contrast to the o thers, whi ch would not be a good thing. After careful consideration , Tao came to the concl usion that mud bricks had their good points. They were warm in winter and cool in summ er, and if you wrapped the walls in st raw matti ng, it kept the rain off and gave you asolid building. Thatched roofs were no good. Apart from the way th ey turned dark gray, they had to be renewed every few yea rs. The most noteworthy thing about the Taos' house was that th e frame and purlins would not be made of wood but of precast reinforced concrete. That way, Tao's ambition that they should dig in woul(] be realized. Even if the walls crumbl ed and the tiles rell o rf with tim e, the concrete frame would go on forever. Tucked away

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Han Dong

between the mud walls and the tiled roof, the frame would be almost invisible, j ust like Tao's secret desire to dig in . Usi ng purlins and a frame mad e of reinforced co ncrete had ano ther advantage: the roof ridge would come out completclystraight. That meant a lot to the Taos after their year spent in a cowshed with a lopsided roof. Tao was thrilled. Even th e modern brick a nd tile shop at Xiaodunkou had only wooden purlins \ None of the o ther banished cad re families were going to use this method of reinforced concrete beams fixed in place with plywood and bolts when they built their houses because, although ofricially recomm ended, it was worryingly unconventional. Tao was pro ud , even elated, when he discove red this. It then occu rred to him that even the famil y's former home in lhe three-story block in Nanjing had only a wooden frame. Using reinforced concrete was so new to the people of this poor rural backwater that the Taos wo uld be trendsellers. Once he had realized this, it was impossible to dissuade Tao from his plan The new house would be built next to the cowshed within the same enclosure. All the Sanyu houses were surrounded by a stream on all sides so that there was no need for a walled enclosu re as in northern Chin ese villages The stream formed the ~compound wall " and the boundary of the property and separated one family from another, but it also linked them together. The house enclosures sat next to each ot her, with a bridge on their sout h sides that 1c(1 to the village street. The Taos' cowshed, howeve r, was o n the east si de of the village, sou th of the st reet, so that their bridge was o n the north si de of the house-that is, at the back. The Sanyu enclosures were a basic and uni versal geographical concept. The term referred to any piece of land surrou nded on all sides by a s tream, wh ether or not it had a building or anyone living o n it. The threshi ng fl oor had its own enclosu re, and so did the production team office and the primary school In fact, there were more streams that enclosed land than buildings. There was also a big variation in size , from a family-sized enclosu re of one-sixth of an acre to enclosures of two acres or more and even bigger ones of up to five acft.'S. The Taos' cowshed enclosu re was o ne and a half acres, with the shed built on j ust a small part of its northeast corner. Apart from the area occupied by the shed and the former threshi ng noor, most

The End osure

2J

of the enclosure consis ted of fi elds pl anted with crops. Taking a bit to build a house o n was going to be no problem at a ll. The cowshed was o n the east side of the bridge; the Taos decid ed to build their new home on th e west side. like the shed. th e house would face south , but they would build it twenty o r thirty meters fu rther down the enclosure (that is, toward the south). Once it was fin ished, th ere would be quite a big space between it and the stream , whereas the shed was built almost on its bank. In Tao's plans, th e family's enclosure had the st rea m to the west and north . On the cast side of the new house, they would dig a dry (litch and plant acacia bushes o n its banks. Acacias grew fast and were covered in thorns, forming a natural fen ce and separating th e house from the cowshed cast of it. Apart from a piece of land to the south of the house that was given to them as an allotment , the rest was owned colleclively by th e prod uctio n team . The enclosure that Tao planned was not a real enclosure. It was an enclosure within an encl osure, th e private bit apportioned to th e Taos by the team and accessed via th e same bridge they had used when they were in th e cowshed But that could not be helped

3 After the autumn harvest, work started on the Taos' house. Yu, the prod uction team leader, brought a dozen or so laborers, and th e found ations were sunk in deep and solid , in accordance with Tao's requirements for a house that would last fo r generations. The concrete beams and the gray-bl ack roof tiles were brought from the county town and piled up in front of the cowshed, where th ey looked very conspicuous As this was not an ordina ry house, th ere was no one in Sanyu competent to do the skilled building work, so Tao got hold of Dong, once a grade 2 bri ckl ayer in a Nanjing building company and now working nearby in Number 13 Product io n Team. Dong had been a worker, not a cad re , and he had been banished und er a different scheme (of which more later) . In additio n to the beams and til es, two hundred fired black bricks also arrived. Tao wanted to usc them to build a lradit ionalstyle Mgatehouse" at the front of the house. There was no real point

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Han Dong

to this structure except to mark out their home as different from the res\. For Tao, the beams and tiles were not nearly enough; there had to be a much more obvious sign of his good taste and his determination that they should dig in Dong was in charge of building the walls of the ~gatehouse," but his bricklaying was so irregular that the walls threatened to collapse, and even after several attempts he had not managed to make them vertical. In the end, Sanyu's own master bricklayer completed this formidable task Tao was very dissatisfied and complained to his family that Dong was hopeless, and he could not imagine how he had ended up as a grade 2 bricklayer. The Sanyu Villagers were o bviously very bright and learned on the job. As for Dong, he did not understand what the problem was. Laying a few bricks in Nanjing had been prWy easy. He started by saying he did not have the righ t tools; then it was that he had not worked as a bricklayer for a year and had lost the knack He went scarlet with embarrassment at Tao's obvious annoyance and the villagers' jeers and became clumsier than ever. It was only when the beams had to be boarded in that he came into his own. The beams had four holes at each end, and so did the lengths of pl}"vood. When the beams went up, the holes had to be matched with the holes in the plywood; a long bolt was pushed through and the nut screwed on tight. The vil lagers had never seen nuts and bolts and did not know how to handle them . It was not like mud bricks and fired bricks, where the materials were different but the techn ique was the same. Dong knew all about nuts and bolts, and he was young and fit, with strong hands. Deftly he put on the nuts and did them up good and tight. There was no way they would come loose now. Tao's face al laSI wore a gratified smile. II was Dong who did th e tiling 100, kneeling on Ihe roof to nail down the ti les. He CUI a heroic figure, even in Ihis clumsy position, bUI it was a clear day with no hint of rain, so for Ihe moment il was impossible 10 know if Ihe new roof would be watertight. The remaining work and the materials used were typical of Sanyu: three layers of mud were plastered onto the mud-brick walls; then they were wrapped in matling. InSide, four layers of mud were applied, and then it was lime-washed all over. The vi llagers had never used lime, but they knew that it worked the sam e way as mud plastering. The master plasterer mixed the

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lime to the right consistency and painted the whole of the inside of the house white. The house was divided into fou r rooms, partitio ned with screens made from sunnower stalks, plastered and whitewashed. The resulting walls were both smooth and lightweight. Pate-yellow-colored mailing covered the ceiling rafters, and that put an end to the problem of the d usl streamers. On Ihe wesl side of the main house th ey built a separate cookhouse, with ilS door opening east, in the same slyle and of Ihe same materials as other Sanyu houses. II was of mud brick and that ch, and from the roof rose a two-foot-tall chimney. Ins ide Ihey built a mud-bri ck cooke r, filled with small (three-hand s ize) and large (six-h and size) iro n woks. Between these there was a ro und hole in to which fill ed a crude pot that the villagers called a ~ kell le. n When they cooked food in th e woks, any remai ning heat warmed up th e water in Ihe pot-kelli e. There was also a bellows, in a wooden box , allached to th e outsid e of th e cooker. Finally, a sealed corridor, o ne meier long and just wide enough to allow one person to pass along it, led to the main part of the house. The mOSI remarkable thing about th e Taos' house was ilS window-s. They were just ordinary square windows with wooden fntmt.."S, in to which were set pam.'S of glass. But th ere was nothing like them in Sanyu; the village houses had no windows in the walls. The nearest they got to windows were holes about the size of two mud bricks. These were left ope n in su mmer and autumn and were bricked up when winter cam e so that even in daylight the ho uses were pitch (lark insi de. It was extremely rare for someone to have glass set into the holes (only th e slightl y better-off could afford that) and even rarer 10 have proper windows with wooden frames that could be opened and sh ut. These were call ed ~live windows," while th e holes se t with glass panes were known as ~dead windows." Alive or dead, there were numerous windows in the Taos' new house. There were li ve windows in every room, even in the cookhousc . And there was a dead wi ndow in each wall of the passage so you cou ld see your way through. What most upset the villagers was not how many windows th e Taos had but the two windows they had set into the north wall of the house, directly opposite the front door. They felt this was both unlucky and unSightly. In that position they usually had a mud-

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Han Dong

brick cupboard with a wooden shelf on top, which they used to (lisplay things of value to them, like the Little Red Book of Chairman Mao, a small mirror, a hot-water nask, and so on, depending on how well off the family was. On the wall above the shelf, Chairman Mao portraits, old propaganda posters, and faded couplets usually hung_ Gut the Taos put windows in their north wall, so nothing could be slUck there_ The villagers were very puzzled, especially because when the Taos stood at the window, they could see out onto the village street. Passersby said, "Those windows arc just like two big eyes staring out." The Taos also made a hole in the wall, a frameless, glassless win(low. This was a round opening at the base of the gatehouse wall, about the size of two bricks, to let Patch in and out . If this counted as a traditional window opening, then the Taos had just one of these.

4 With the new house finished, the Taos began to move in_ This time, unlike a year ago, they did not need to package up all their furniture, as the new house was just thirty meters away ~our or five young men came to help with the heavy pieces, and it took them only an hour or so. The Taos themselves moved the smaller items and bits and pieces, making endless trips between the cowshed and the new house. As before, they had a considerable audience, but this time the focus of interest was the new house rather than the Taos' belongings. The things the family no longer needed were left in the cowshed and were carried off by the villagers By nightfall absolutely everything had been moved out of the cowshed The villagers tore off the sheets of newspaper 5u Qun had pasted onto the walls, and even took the rice straw used to SlUff the cracks_ The cowshed now looked as it had before the Taos' arrival, with blackened, cracked walls. The family was not in the least sorry to leave it. The dog was, though. With all the merry hustle and bustle, Patch, by now fully grown, had no idea what was going on. Gradually his puzzlement turned to fear. "Do you want the dog?" asked the villagers, as if he was just another thing they might be leaving behind . "of course we do. He's part of the family," said Su Qun.

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"Such a big dog. How much does he cat?" asked the villagers. And, "If you want him, why hasn't he gone with you?" But for the moment, Patch stayed on in thecowshed, along with the other remnants, and the villagers gazed at him, appraising his thick pelt and his body fat. They even began to smell a delectable whiff of dog meat Finally, when it was completely dark, the villagers reluctantly left. Young Tao had been keeping a close eye on Patch's whereabouts. Now the dog lay by the cowshed door, his paws on the threshold and his head on his paws. He looked at the boy fearfully and whimpered. Young Tao brought him a bowl of stewed pork and put it down by his nose. Bit by bit, he persuaded him over to their new home.

5 Aher the move Tao and young Tao tackled the garden, starting by planting some trees. They put in acacias alongside the ditch between their house and the cowshed. Acacias were long.lived and easy to grow Their root system spread underground, and they would be a prom inelll feature of the allotment. Some would spread across the ditch and up to the cowshed They were quite slowgrowing but could still provide useful timber if properly pruned. Tao wanted something invasive. The acacias would grow into an impenetrable thicket, and with the branches covered in thorns, they would become a fearsome barrier. On the west side of the allotment, on the banks of the stream, Tao planted twenty or thirty willows They grew fast, and although their wood was not much use, their slender branches swaying in the wind were a prelly sight. Tao got thick willow branches from the vill age and trimmed ofT the side Sh001S, leaving just the green stems. He then dug the planting holes (three feet deep, until he could see water) and planted the bare stems in them. Young Tao's job was to backfill the holes and water them . Come next s pring, these stems would be covered in shoots. They also planted mulberries. These were slow-growing but produced hard wood and were highly valued in Sanyu. The shoul(ler poles for carrying loads and the handles of farm implements were all made from mulberry wood.

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There was also what the villagers called the "sap-digger tree. n If you dug into its bark with your fingernail or somet hing sharp, a whit e sap oozed out. The sap-digger had big round leaves, and every village house had one by the front door for summer shade. The tree was supposed to grow more quickly the more sap was leached out , so th e trunk of every tree hore the sca rs of innumerable knife and axe cuts. Another tree that gave shade was the chin aberry. Its leaves were sm al l but so bitter in taste that they discouraged bugs, so if you sat under it , there was less danger of a hairy green caterpillar drop ping into your dinner bowl. Its roots could also be used to make a remedy against parasites. The Taos also planted Ch inese Toon trees, Trecs of Heaven, peach and jujube tret.'S, and so on. Then there was the Paulownia tree, hitherto unknown in Sanyu. Tao bough t one from the Hongze Coun ty Forest ry Department Tree Nursery and followed th e instructions in his hook, cutting the roots into three-inch lengths and planting them. The saplings would be transplanted wherever they were needed the following year, when they had grown as tall as a person and thick as your thumb. They grew quickly, tall alld straight , amI produced much broader leavcs than the local sap-digger tree. The timber was lightweight an d flimsy, and the villagers cou ld not see much usc for it. But Tao (lisagreed: the wood would be perfect for making sewing machine stands and radio cases, he said. The villagers had never seen sewing machines or radios before the Taos' arrival, but now that they had seen them, their heads were full of them They got the Taos to give them some Paulownia roots and planted them in their enclosures. The saplings grew tall and straight. and the villagers imagined sewing machines and radios in their own homcs. Tao did not stop at introduci ng new varieties. He also tried grafting one peach varie ty onto the stock of another, for example. He knew nothing ahout grafting techniques, but he could read and gOt all his knowledge out of a book. Books arc a goldmine of knowledge, as they say, and now Tao began to see their new house and its enclosure as golden opportunities too. He immersed himself more than ever in reading: Grafting Fruit Trees, Scientific Cultivation, How To Grow Vegetables, and How To Raise Poultry were some of the books he read. He also ordered

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Scientific Experiments and read it ove r and over, keepi ng it by his pillow, taking it to the field s, and even flicking ove r a rew pages when si tting o n the toilet Tao got hold of some bamboo roots from the villagers and planted th em on th e ri verbank behind the house_ Bamboo being as invasive as th e acacias, th e roots soon put up shoots that would grow int o real plants With tim e, th e new house would nestle in the shad e of a verdant bamboo grove, and th e villagers would no longer fcel th c Taos' hack windows wc rc so ugly_ Between the bridge and the house they built a path bordered wit h su nflowe rs. The flower stems cou ld be used as building materials (partition walls and fences), and the seeds could be eaten . Most o r all, the flower ·'faces seemed to bow in humbl egreeling \0 anyone walking up the garden path to visit the Tao family. By the st ream to the north of the house, they combined plants and trees that were both useful and pl easing to the eye: willows and daylilies_ H

6 Now fo r the allotillellt. On t he west side, by the strealll, the Taos made a vegetable garden. In it they planted just about everyt hing you could imagine: tomatoes, potatoes, ch ili peppers, rad ishes, leeks, spinach, Chi nese spin ach, hearting cabbages, wax gourds, pumpkins, cucu mbers, towel gourds, eggplants, two types of bottle gourds, ginger and garlic, all kinds of beans (black-eyed peas, haricots, broad beans, and kidney beans), and greens like lell uce, rocket, and non-h eaning and tall-stem med cabbages_ It sounds mcssy, hut actually Tao was extremely methodicaL His allotment was cultivated to wi thin an in ch of its life: vegetables were sown and ripened in sequence, and every scrap of land was underplanted and replanted_ That way he ensured that they had fresh vegetables to eat all year round_ Hc also made a poi nt of introducing new variet ies to the village and tryi ng new techniques for cu lli vat io n. As far as greens went, the Sanyu villagers had o nly a kind of lettuce with dar k green leaves; this had a capaci ty to soa k up a great deal of oil , and it had a biller taste . As the villagers wou ld say, it scoured your stomach. Tao got a cousi n in Nanjing to send

30

Han Dong

him some new varieties, like rocket and non-hearting and tallstemmed cabbagt.'S. Rocket was much nicer than Sanyu lclluce, and non-hearting cabbage was nicer still, especiall y after the first frost. Then it turned sweet, just as if someone had added sugar to it, as the vi llagers commented . Tall -stemm ed cabbage was excellent fo r pickling; with its long, fat stalks and small leaves, there was nothing to beat it. The following year, all the villagers grew these new varieties. They grew the bitter, navorless Sanyu lettuce too but gave it to the pigs to cat; after all, it did have the advantage of being easy to grow. Now the Taos' night soil had somewhere to go, and Tao was at pai ns to teach his son th at their n ight soil should not go on other people's fi elds. As soon as it was light, G randpa Tao got up and tipped the urine from the family's three spilloons into the toilet bucket. Young Tao carried the bucket out of the house and pou red it in to the night soil crock When needed , Tao dipped the night soil buck ets into the crock and carri ed th em on a sh oulder pole to the garden, wh ere h e do used the veget.a.bles with the contents . So with the combined effo rts o f grandfather, father, and son, the famil y's night soil finally ended up wh ere it was needed . [!velY evening, Tao wo uld stand 0 11 the ballk of the stream, a gou rd lad le in his hand , and throw water over his sho ulders o nto the vegetable beds. The ladlcfuls spread o ut in the ai r and fell on the vegetable leavt.'S as a shower of Silvery drops. Someti mes a delicate rain bow would appear amid the misty sp ra y as a reward for all Tao's dforts. In the rest o f their allotment, they planted crops. In the first year, they planted peanuts and harvested seventy or eigh ty pounds unshelled Then the villagers ca rne carryi ng mach eles and baskets and dug up a second lot, then another, then another. They could always find peanuts; twenty or thirty pou nds of peanuts were picked from th e soil after harvesting and went to whoever fo und them, mainly the women and children who poked aro und in the soil or squalled down and turned over the clods. To start with, they put their peanuts in baskets, but after the third tim e aro und they found so few that it was not worth pUlling them into baskets; they shelled and ate them o n the spot. By that lime, they appeared to be there to cat rat her than to harvest.

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So many villagers came that the Taos' garden was badly tram pled. Th e next year, they planted maize instead of peanuts. The Taos were not interested in the size of their maize harvest. They really wanted the young cobs, whi ch they would break off and eat. That was the only way they liked them Pi cking the ripe cobs, rubbing off the grains, and taking them to be ground into fl our fo r porridge o r pancakes was not of great interest to them. The vill agers considered this grossly wasteful, so even though the maize grew o n their own all otment, th e Taos sneaked in like thieves to pick the baby corn . They warned each other that they should be very careful and not allow rumors about their wastefulness to spread about. Among the cadre families, however, baby corn was very popular and made a good gift. They would take along a big bag wh en they went visiting, just like they had taken gifLS of tinned fruit o n family visiLS back in Nanjing. Banished cadre families in the area saw a lot of each other and were very close, so it was no exaggeratio n to describe th ese as family visits. The Taos did not plant any crops other than maize o n their allo tment since basic foodstuffs were not a problem After arriving in 5anyu, Granny Tao and young Tao became registered residenLS of the production team, which provided them with their food rations. Th ey did not cam work points, so they paid for their ralions in cash, but prices were much cheaper than in Nanjing and food rations were generous, nearly four hundred pounds a year each . There was plenty of variety: in addition to the staples of rice and wheat, they got other foodstuffs like maize and yams, several pounds of which cou nted as one ·'ration-pound ." Basic rations for the two of them were mo re than enough to feed the whole family. So it was easy to understand why they grew just green vegetables and snack food s like baby corn and peanuts on their allotment. Tao, 5u Qun, and Grandpa Tao were still registered as Nanjing residenLS and were being paid their salaries, whi ch were enough to pay for Granny Tao and young Tao's food as well. They also got a cooking oil ration; several times a month Su Qun made the tri p to Wangji Market on her bicycle to fetch their rice, fl o ur, and oil and to buy any other necessities that Sanyu co uld not supply. So food was not a problem for lhe Taos. They even ate better than in Nanjing since it was fresher and there was mo re variety.

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7 O n the south side of the cookhouse the Taos made a fe nce of sunnower stalks that curved around to th e stream to the west, and inside this pen ned-off space they built a mud -brick henhouse. They had al most arou nd twenty birds, and these were of all so rts, colors, and sizes. Twice a day Su Qun opened the gale and wenl in to feed them with a mixture of cooked husks and so me rice. This was bright yellow and, as it had just come off the stove. cmillcd douds o f steam . Su Qu n ladled the mixture oul of an aluminum pOI o nto the ground. Most o f the Taos' birds were hens kept for their eggs, not their meal. In addition to th e local vari eties, th ey brought in white leghorns, prolific layers of large, pure white eggs_ The local hens laid an egg every o ther day, altho ugh some would lay two in a row before resting for a day The Leghorns laid fi ve or six in a row before missing a day, and some even managed seven_ The Taos had more eggs than they needed , but that was at least beller than not haVing en ough . When they had finished laying, th e hens would build a nest and uegin Lu ~iL un tln:il' egg~. The ~igh t ufthc hcn~ fluitlt:~~l y ulooding their unfertilized eggs all day long amused the Taos . So the Taos bought eggs from vill agers who kept cockerels and put th em under their broody hens_ That way they got chicks, and some of those chi cks grew int o hens who in turn produced more chicks_ Tao's original id ea had been to keep the pullets to lay eggs but to kill and cat th e young cocke rels before they began to crow, as their meat was supposed to be very nutritious The chicks hatched o ut , fluffy and yellow To start with, cock and hen chicks looked ali ke. Later it was possible to determine the sex: all the you ng cockerels were much livelier than the pullets and had a lot more c haracter. One day Tao had time on his ha nds and had the bright idea of giving them names. O ne was molting a nd had pat ches of thick and thin feathering. Tao called him TalleredJ acket. Another had a great tuft of tail fe athers that swayed as he walke(l, and Tao call ed him Palm-Leaf Fan_ And that was thal. When they had grown enough to be kill ed, the Taos cou ld not bring themselves to do it because they would be killing not just any young

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cockerels but Palm-Leaf Fan and Tattered Jacket. Protected by their names, the cockerels grew up and began to crow and to rape th e hens. Which was how the Taos' henhouse got so prod uctive. The Taos kept ducks too, but only two of them , and they were herded by September. They raised geese to guard the house and a ewe because Tao's id ea was that they could drink its milk. Gut CUl ting grass to feed th e sheep every day was too much bother, and Tao got someone to se ll it As for th e dogs and cat, I won't go into that here because th ei r stori es come later. The Taos did not raise pigs, which was odd, as almost all the villagers kept pigs. Maybe this was in case they got too fond of them o r perhaps because pigs were a nuisance to feed.

8 The Taos' allotment was finally fini shed. In the distance the dark gray roof of their new house could be seen. Later the new house would become th e old house, but the dark gray of the roof would not change The house foundations raised it up, and it stood notably taller than th e squat thatched COllages of the villagers. The cowshed, in the shadow of il.S lofty neighbor, looked more dilapidate(lthan ever. With the trees and vegetables the Taos had plante(l, their poultry, and their dogs, the ho use and its s urroundings prese nted a nourishing, bustling picture. One day, Tao said to his wife, "Why don't you get so me me(lical training, so when o ne of the villagers has something wrong, you can give inject ions and do dressings?" With this 5u Qun reali zed that the second stage of digging in was beginning. They had come from Nanj ing and had no famil y in Sanyu to help them The idea was th at th ey had come here to "learn from the poor and lower middl e peasants," so politically speaki ng they were at the bollo m of the heap Added to that , they had built a new house that, alth ough it had improved their li ving conditions, set them apart from the ord inary villagers and was bound to aro use jealousy. So the second stage of digging in could be termed "getting d ose to the villagers." Before coming to 5anyu, 5u Qu n had worked in the Commu nist Youth League , so she had no formal medical knowledge. On th e o ther hand, she had been in poor hea lth and was always seeing

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doctors. Chro ni c illness makes you a good doctor. That was o ne thing in her favor. Another was that s he was literate and could read. Books had taught Tao how to create a well-organized garden, so surely Su Qun could read up eno ugh to treat the vi llagers' mino r ailments. So she bought the Village Barefool Doctors' Manual and Three Hundred Proven Tradili onal Prescriptions, as well as a suppl y of mercurochrome antisepti c, gentian violet, anti-inflammatory powders, paracetomol, and oxytetracycl in e. Tao and Su Qun had kept up the habit of reading in bcd, and they would sit propped up , books in hand , every night. Tao's book was How To Grow Vegetables, and Su Qu n's was The Classification and Selection of Chinese Herbal Remedi es. Su Q un had one other thing going for he r apart fro m lo ng years of ill health and the abili ty to read medica l books: the Sanyu Villagers hardly ever consulted a doctor or took medicine, so they had no resistan ce to drugs. wh en th ey took medicine, it acted on the ill ness imm ed iately. Su Qun's imm ediate success as a doctor greatly encouraged her. She applied herself even more industriously to the few medical books she had and learned simple techniques such as putting on dressings and giving injections Every eveni ng she went from house to house dispensing rem e(lics, a wooden medicine chest packed with inst ruments and medicines on her back. General inflammatio ns and infectio ns ca used by inj uries fro m farm tools quickly healed after she had cleaned them and appli ed an ti-infl ammatory remedies . She was proud of the fa ct that she had succeeded in curing several people's back boils (what the vi llagers call ed "carbunc1es~) Boils were a serious compl aint because th e si te of infection was near the spinal cord , which made healing difficult. In the worst cases, it co uld even be life-threaten ing. Su Qun was also proud of having cured September of his ri ngworm September was about sixtee n, and in a year or two he should be getting married ; so far there were no takers, both beca use of his bald, suppu rating scalp and because of the withered leg that a c hildh ood attack of polio had left. The production team looked after him by giving him small jobs and paying him a daily six work points (t he women's rate). So September had plenty of spare tim e in which to go and help ou t at the Taos.

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Since September was a good fri end of the family, Su Q un decided to tackle his ringwo rm She obtained griseofulvin fro m Hongze Pharmaceuticals, and after a few doses, September's scalp began 10 grow brand new black hair. His new hair growlh was so black and so luxuriant Ihal il hardly seemed real For a long time after, September could nOI bear to have his hair CUl , and it grew long, cove ring the shiny round bald palch on Ih e crown of his head . September, naunling his new locks around Ihe vi llage, was yet anOlher advert isement fo r Su Q un's medical skills However, she could do no thing abo ut his crippled limb , and he still walked with a twisting li mp when he went to fetch water for them from the st ream . Su Q un did not stop there. She had read in Three Hlind red Proven Traditional Prescriptions that a remedy mad e by bOiling chinaberry root was good for intestinal worms. There were plenty of c hinaberry trees in Sanyu. They had a dozen o r so in their own garden. Su Qun dug up a number of roolS, peeled and boiled them, and admin istered Ihe broth to her neighbors When they crapped after taking it, out came sh iny while roundworms, eno ugh 10 fill a whole buckel in a week Need less 10 say, Ihis gave Su Qun a greal sense of ach ievement. When it was tim e 10 uansplalllihe paddy rice, Ihe Sanytl women wen t barefoot. With their hands and feet immersed in water all day, they eventually developed an unbearably itchy red rash. Su Q un looked it up and found it was called rice paddy itch . 5e/ecLed Folk Remedies suggested bOiling ri ce straw and add ing alu m. There was no shortage o f rice straw in the Village, and the Taos had a s upply o f alum that they used to purify drinking water. Following the inst ructio ns in Ihe book, Su Q un boiled up a mixture of Slraw and al um in th ei r largest wok and tipped il into a wash basin, which she PUI by th e sid e o f Ihe road al Ihe entrance 10 the village for Ihe village women to wash their hands and feet on Iheir way back from Ihe field s. The remedy worked, and the rashes on the women's hands and feel fad ed; ifth e rash did not go away altogethe r, Ihe women alleast got some relief from th e it ching. The women (the Village men di d not do the transplanting) dub bed the rice-alum mixture anti-itch water and exclaimed at how mi raculous it was. Then Su Qun lea rned acupunctu re and mox ibustion . She had a plastic ea r in her med icine box, the same s ize and colo r as a human ca r. The ca r ca me from Hongze Pharmaceuticals

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Han Dong

and was intended for practicing acupuncture . Different areas were shown in red, and black spots the size of sesa me seeds marked the ac upuncture pOints. When she had a spare mo ment , she would practice on it. The ear was supposed to have points correspond ing to all the o rgans of th e body so that applying acupuncture to the ear could cure diseases of th e whole body. In fact , Su Q un did not limit herself to needling the villagers' ears; she also did their arms, legs, hands, and feet. Applying acupuncture to the ear actually required a rather higher level of technical skill. She did not limit her praclicing to the plaslic ear either. She often held the needle in one hand and needled her ot her hand until it tingl ed and bled. She held herself respo nsible for her patients' safe treatment. Somet im es young Tao practiced acupuncture along with his mother. Tao told him to get himself a piece of pigskin and keep sti cking his needle illlo it. Why did Tao walll his son to learn acupuncture? Well , first because young Tao was fascinated by that pink plastic ear, but another reason was Tao's concern for his son's future prospects. That he would have to sellle in Sanyu and be a peasant was not in q uestio n, but if he could learn a skill , he could lead a more comfo rtable li fe . Su Qun's success had inspired Tao, and if in the future yo ung Tao cou ld become Sanyu's "barefoot doctor, n it wou ld be a lot beller than tilling the fields. Young Tao had scarcely started practicing when he lost interest. Nor did he show any natural talent for it. He never rem embered to wash his hands before he start(.-d need ling. O nce, when he was prac ticing on his father's bUllocks, he caused him excrucialing pain. The bUllOCks were swoll en for da}:s afterward Tao nicknamed his son Ch icken Claw Doctor and put a stop to his medical studies. Young Tao did use his acupuncture but on pigs, not on humans (not counting th e tim e he needled his fath er) The standards required were not as high. Su Qun too mostly needled the Sa nyu pigs rather than th e humans Pigs were th e villagers' only cash earners, so in the villagers' view it was much mo re important to treat the pigs than to treat the people. If the famil y had one dose of penicillin and a fam ily member and a pig both fell ill , it would be the pig, not its master, who got the inject io n. 11 was on ly belatedly that Su Qun realized that it was easier to get dose to the villagers as a veterin arian than as a doctor. But by

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this time, her reputation as a doctor had spread to the surrounding villages. I should say a few words aoout penicillin. The Sanyu villagers regarded it with superstitious awe . According to them, one dose would have even a seriously sick pig up and s kipping. So penicillin was precious, and no humans could get hold of it unless they were on the point of death And if penicillin could not cure them at that point, then they were clearly beyond saving. A barefoot doctor in a neighboring production team treated many patients with distilled wa ter, which she passed off as pen ici llin, and many of them got beller. Even though the truth later came out, the villagers' reverential attitude toward the drug had clearly had an effect. of course, this trick did not work on pigs. Su Qun had little opportunity to treat the Villagers with pen ici llin. This was a good thing because one had to do a skin test before injecting it, and that could not be done in Sanyu. Without a skin test, sooner or later there would be an accidenL Whether skin tests should have been done on the pigs, I have no idea.

9 Grandpa Tao was Sixty-nine years old, and in the Villagers' rec koning he was over seventy since they traditionally counted babies as one year old at birth . Such an age was rare in Sanyu, among whose population there was practically no one over seventy. The Sanyu villagers married early, had their children early, and were old at fifty. Although Grandpa Tao was a hale old man, his age meant he was not required to work in the fields He did not go from house to house visiting like Su Qun, but he did not forget the need to get close to the villagers, and he put some effort into Striking RooL The villagers knew that Grandpa Tao was a good-natured man, and from time to time they would come and borrow money off him. ~Grandpa, can we bum a few yuan off you?~ they would say to him. Although "bum off you" meant "borrow" in Sanyu dialect, most of the borrowed money was not paid back, and Grandpa Tao did nOl expect them to return it , so it would be truer to say they had been given the money by him than borrowed it from him . Mostly they borrowed two or three yuan, sometimes even one yuan. Grandpa Tao was reluctant to lend more than five yuan, o n

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his own say-so anyway, and they would havc a family meeting to (lccide. I have said that Grandpa Tao, Tao, and Su Qun all got their sal aries while they were in the country Grandpa's was a relirement pension of about thirty yuan a month. The villagers borrowed only sm all am ounts of money, hut they borrowed often and in large numbers, which used up most of Grandpa Tao's pension. Once that was gone, the loans had to come from his son and daughter-in-Iaw's pay. Grandpa was not miserly: he limited the villagers to no more than five yuan so that he could fund the loans from his own pension and sh are it out evenly. The villagers also went through Grandpa Tao to sell the Taos their all otment produce. They charged more than market prices, but it saved the Taos time and money not to have to go to the market. Before the Taos got their chickens, the villagers often brought baskets of eggs to sell to them Grandpa would get the family's sixteeno unce scal e out to weigh them and buy them all . The result was that everyone in the village came to sell them eggs. Long lines formed at their door until the Taos' house looked like a supply depot. Even after they got their own chickens, the villagers sti ll came to sell eggs, and Grandpa Tao continued to buy them Tao thought this was gelling ridi culous. "We can't even eat our own eggs; why are you buying other people's?" Grandpa Tao replied: "We can salt them ~ For these reasons, even though Grandpa Tao rarely went visiting and was a taciturn sort of man, he was popular in the village. Vill agers would often drop by the house, not to see the furniture or the new house (in which they had lost interest), but to visit the old man. There was a bachelor in the village by the name of Youming who often turned up. He said nothing but simply watched them eat their dinner. In the summer he would sit for hours in the shade outside the house with Grandpa Tao Neither Youming nor Grandpa Tao would say anything. The family knew that it was Grandpa he had come to see, but no one knew what it was about. Finally they discovered that Youming was hoping for a cigarelle . Grandpa Tao himself smoked and always used to offer cigarelles to his visitors. When Youming came , he would silently hand him a dgarelle. When Youming had finished the first, he would wait for a

The End osure

39

second. By evening, Youming could expect to have had three or four cigarettes (that was Grandpa Tao's limit). Finally, when the nigh t (lew got heavy, Tao moved the bamboo bed from the shade back insi de, the family gOI ready for bcd, and Grandpa gave Youming his last cigarette. Youming look ii, stuck il behind his ear, and went away happy. He would probably enjoy thai last cigarelle before going 10 sleep. Laler Tao suggested 10 his father Ihal Ihey switch to smoking a tradilional pipe (he was Irying hard to economize as part of his (Jigging in), but Grandpa Tao still had to have a box of cigarettes o n hand in case any villagers visited. Grandpa Tao certainly succeeded in getting close to the vill agers, but he spent a lot of money doing it. His son had considerable doubts about all this, most especially about the fact that Grand pa Tao had no particular plan in mind; he was just extravagant by nature. 11 was nOllike allhe beginning; their wages might get stopped, so they had to prepare for Ihe worst As head of Ihe fami ly, Tao felt an invisible burden weighing him down.

10 The new house was built, the enclosu re more or less in order, and now Tao turned his attention to the Sanyu Number 1 Production Team. This was where their house and enclosure were locate(J; the team also provided Granny Tao and young Tao with fo()(J rations. The team was their family, and its members, young and old , were their relatives. The team's fortunes were their fortunes, and its future, Iheir future They would sink or swim logelher. So Tao transferred Ihe energy thai he had put inlO Iheir house and garden to Ihe team's agricultural production First, he needed to find out what crops were planted where and why. He got a small plastic-cove red notebook, which he took everywhere with him, and made notes while he chatted to cadres and villagers. In a few months Tao knew more about the team than the Sanyu people themselves did It helped that he had had experience working on land reform in villages on the outskirts of Nanjing. He knew something of farming-in fact, he knew a great deal about it. Of course his land reform work had been in southern Jiangsu, where the climate and growing conditions were a bit difTerent. But

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both places were rural, and the one provided useful lessons for the ot her. What is more, now that the Taos had built their house and planted their allotment, Tao knew an awful lot about life in Sanyu. Let me show you a page of Tao's notebook so you can sec that I know what I'm talking about. Ditches Field : 13 acres, of which 2 too poor to cultivate; 2 acres sweet potatoes grown as base fertilizer ; 200 lbs. phosphate applied per acre; japonica rice grown. Best Small Field: 2 acres, fertile; seedlings grow well; indica rice planted. Big Fertile Field: 4 acres, of which 2 of sweet potatoes grown as base fertilizer; phosphate applied to seedling roots, 75 lbs.lacre. South East Spring Field: East Lake fi eld : Small Hall Foundations Field: Village End Wheat Field: More than just containi ng physical in formation about the team's field s, his noteoookshows how Tao analyzed the sit uation and what his plans were. In fact, he had three notebooks: one was a diary in which he jotted down the main farming events, and o ne was a diary of the team's au tumn silkworm rearing. The last was a reco rd of all the village households: names, personal characterist ics, economic situation, state of health , and family relati onsh ips. The rest of the Taos knew the fields on each side of the road. But only Tao could tell you the proper nam e and any nickname of every patch of culti vat ed land belonging to the ir team . He would beam with pride at this achievement. Sanyu Number I Team was a poor one, with a total populati on of around two hundred. The year that the Taos arrived, grain production had just passed the forty-five-ton mark. After all had receive(] their annual grain rations of four hundred pou nds, there we re o nl y a couple of tons of su rplus grain to sell to the state. Littl e surplus grain mean t they could not put much by a nd had littl e to invest in agricultura l materials in o rd er to develop production . It was a vicious ci rcle. Tao's grand plan start ed with increasing grain prod uction-by fi ve tons in th e fi rst yea r, ten tons in the seco nd,

The End osure

.. t

and fifteen tons in the third, so that by the third year, total grai n prod uctio n would reach seventy-five to ns , This figure was beyond the team members' wild est dreams. Yet they did indeed increase production by five Io ns in Ihe firSI year, gelling a 10lal of fifly Ions. On the basis of this increase, they dared 10 imagine reachi ng seve ntyfive Ions. But of course it was as yet jusl a dream. Tao's plan was Ih al after grain production had reached seve ntyfi ve tons, they would put the money Ih ey had made on surplus grain sales, plus income from sidelin cs they could develop (like sil kwo rms and bean fl ou r vermicelli) and a contribution fro m his o wn family, into buying a walking tractor. 11 has to be admitted that there was a selfi sh element to Tao's plans. When you ng Tao grew up, he could learn to operat e th e walking tractor, and being a tractor driver wo uld be much better than laboring in the fields, Since tractors were expensive and th e Taos wo uld need to contribule some of the money, it should not be a problem to get young Tao a position as one of the drivers. Th e villagers were not yel aware of th e advantages and status that would be conferred by a walking tractor; th ey just envisaged the noisy machine parked o n Ih e village threshing ground and then roaring off 10 Ihe fields. The tho ught was extremely exciting nonethdess, and they began to have more and more confidence in Tao. Yu, the team leader, relied heaVily o n Tao and discussed everything with him . Eventually, he hand ed ove r most of the team's work to him so that Tao became the de facto team leader. However, when Yu suggcsted that Tao take ovc r the positio n offici a lly, the latter (lcclined modest ly: "We came to be reed ucated , to learn from you poor peasants. I'll do as much as 1 can for the team, but as an adviser. You should stay as head !" There was more Ihan that to Striking Root in Sanyu, however. Young Tao would have to marry and have children here. Gra ndpa and Granny Tao, Tao himsel f, and Su Qun would need to die and be buried here. The ce metery at the western end of the village would have a family grave, and the Sanyu Taos wo uld gather at the Qi ngming Festival to clean it up and to shed filial tea rs. And indeed the opportunity for the first of these steps arrived soon. One day, the team leader, Yu, came to the house on behalf of the de put y party secretary, another Yu, to sec if Tao wo uld like to engage his son to Yu's eight-year-old daughter. If Tao were wi ll ing,

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it would not only make it possible to strike root, but it would also raise Tao to the status of honored relative of the party secretary and would be a solid guarantee that they could dig themselves in in Sanyu_ But when it came down to it, the Taos could not make up their minds_ Child betrothals were common in Sanyu, but they shocked the Nanjing-born Taos And once a betrothal was agreed upon, there would be no going back on it, nor on their Striking Root in the village_ Tao turn ed it over in his mind and discussed it with the family and finally tactfully declined. '·Young Tao is still young,» he told Yu . ··We still don't know whether he's going to be any good, an d we don't want him to let down the party secretary's little girl. We should talk about it again in a few years, and he should earn this happiness through his own efforts.» The betrothal business caused Tao a degree of anxiety. His reply was most gracefully and circumspectly phrased and allowed him room to maneuver, but there was also a risk of offending the party secretary And of course offense was taken Tao thought, "We'll just have to make it up to them in some other area_» And he threw himself with even more dedication into development work in the villagc_ Tao worked in the fields with the other men, plowing, ditch digging, CUlling the rice and wheat, and dredging the drained waterways in winter. Grasping his wooden shovel, he put on long rubber boots, waded out into the bone-chillingly cold mud, and pitched shovelful after shovelful of inky black sludge up to the top. If one of the family passed by, the person did not get even so much as a "hello" from him At the same time, Su Qun continued her evening rounds of the villagers' homes, treating their ailments_ Grandpa Tao receivcd visitors and handed out cigarettes_Young Tao WCI1l to school and was up carly and back late Granny Tao took care of thc home and cooked their meals_ After one year in thc countryside, this was morc or less the pattern of their lives_

The End osure

0

TH REE

Young Tao

I Young Tao was born during the Three Years of Fam ine, when the Taos had no meat to cal To buy meat you needed coupons _ Each persOIl gal o nt coupon a month, and that would buy two ounces of meal. The Taos were a family of four, so they cou ld buy eight ounces of mea l per month . They saved up their coupons for young Tao's hirth. One day Tao found some o ne-pou nd cans of mcal in a sho p. Each call cost on ly four two-ounce meat coupons, so they cou ld double thei r meal ration by buying it in a call. Overjoyed, Tao rushed home, got Q UI the coupons they had put by that month, and bought a call After thai , th ey did n ot save up their coupons; they exchanged them for cans of meat, which they put by for young Tao's birth By the tim e th e baby arrived, they had five cans of meal. The meat was to feed Su Qun, wh o would be breastfeeding_She would turn Ihe cans of meat into sweet milk for young Tao_ But of cou rse five cans of meal were nowhere near enough. So Tao wenl back 10 the Village o n the o utski rts of Nanjing where he had worked o n land reform in the 1950s a nd managed to get hold of two swa mp eels. Each eel was as thick as a thumb and abou t a foot long. Tao was over the moon at his luck, and these famin e years swamp eels also ended up being converted into breast milk for young Tao to suck in greedily Mee ting Tao again rem ind ed the villagers of all the things he had done fo r Ihem One winter. the mutual aid team's only ox had died Tao had given them his watch to sell so they co uld buy another ox_On leaving, Tao had left behind all his bel ongings, including an ovcrcoal and an ename l washbasin_ Aftcr his return to Na njing,

44

Tao had sponsored a village youth through school and university out of his own wages. Tao and the Villagers had stayed in touch since those days. If any of them came to Nanjing for medical t.reatment, they would stay over at the Taos, unrolling their bed mat on the floor and staying sometimes for as long as a month, depending on the severity of the illncss and the treatment they were having. Tao reckoned he had already been rewarded for all he had done for them He had written a series of short stories based on his brief experience of village life, and these stories had been published. Tao had gained a national reputation and had been able to make a living from writing. So for Tao, a young man from the city, his village experiences had been hugely valuable. It was still vital for him to stay in frequent contact with his village friends so that he could talk to them about farming matters and village affairs. Nevertheless, one day after Tao had come back with the eels, a peasant arrived from the village carrying baskets on a shoulder pole. He walked into number 96 Hongwu Road, climbed to the third floor, and found the Taos' flat. He did not stay long, just put down his load and left. He had brought not just a single cabbage but a shoulder pole's load (about a hundredweight). The Taos were overcome with gratitude. They took out one of the cabbages, cut up half and cooked it, shut their door, and stealthily tucked in. They left the other half on the chopping board in the shared kitchen. About half an hour later, when the Taos had finished eating and went to do the washing up, there was no trace of it. The Taos could hardly make a fuss since they had been carelcss enough to leave such a precious object lying around. The problem now was not half a cabbage but what to do with a whole load of them Unless they handled the situation properly, the consequences could be disastrous They carefully stored the cabbages away Whenever they cooked some, they were extraordinarily careful Sometimes they crept silently into the kitchen at midnight to cook, terrified of making any noise with the cooker, wok, or bowls. There was no mistaking the smell, however, and the next day hungry neighbors would look them up and down suspiciously. For the first year of his life, therefore, it was necessary \0 raise young Tao on five cans of meat, two swamp eels, and a load of cabbage.

Young Tao

n

2 One day, when young Tao was three or four years old, Su Qun lOok him to the cinema. In the depths of the s ilver screen at the fro nl, a globe could be seell revolving, its surface pitted and cracked_

Young Tao bursl into noods of terrified tears He made such a noise that Su Qun had \0 carry him oul halfway through . When they gOi ho me, Tao looked at his son's tcar-stained face and co mm ented, MHopclcss child!H

The celestial body was, of course, OUT Earth. And, in fact, what cou ld be more frightening than that? II whizzed round and ro u nd, making a shrill sou nd and threatening \ 0 come crashing down. II probably reminded young Tao of the instant he carne into the world_ And, as 1 well know, there is no grimmer experience than being born . BUI sin ce he had been born and there was no going back, there was nothing fo r it hut slowly to grow up Gradually his baby fears faded , and the will to live became firmer When he was six, the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution swept likc wild fire across China. This was an even t without precedent in nati o nal history. The boy did not understand much of what was going on, but the CultRev did bring the small details of his world into sharpcr focus and made life more exciting and colorful, at lcast com parcd with the film st udio's fuzzy globe emblem. One baking hot summer eve ning, the Taos had carried the bam· boo bed into the street outside 96 Hongwu Road and were enjoying the cool of the evcning Suddenly a neet of tri cycle. trucks roared up al great speed, packed with people wearing helmets and carrying truncheons whose steel tips glillered under the streetlights. Some were shirtless, and their bare chests had an oily sheen. These stalwarts had come to engage in armed strugglc . When young Tao heard thiS , a ch ill came over him and suddenly thc e"cningdid nOi seem so hot anymore. The next day young Tao and a friend stoIc off with an older boy, the son of a neighbor, to see the armcd st rugglc. They walkcd through o ne street after anothcr; you ng Tao had ncvcr been so far from home. Fi nally, they got to a three·story building with a lawn in fron t. There was nothing there and not a sou nd to be heard. Up· stairs th e windows were half open; young Tao realized that none of

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them had any glass in them The older boy said that the arm ed strugglers had broken all the glass. The gl assless windows were eerily (lark. "Yesterday, th e leader of such-and-such a faction got a hell of a beating here," the older boy told th e two younger oncs . They discovered the lawn was covered with shiny bi ts of glass. Something wh il e and round renected th e afternoon su nlight. Young Tao th oughl al firSI il was a naked human body, but when he got d ose, he saw il was a bathtub The bathtub had broken in two and lay huge and glaringly while on the brilliant green grass. Obviously it had been thrown from the window. The person who had thrown it must have been awfu lly strong, thought young Tao, as st rong as a giant. He did not want to go any furt her and begged the older boy to take them back. But the boy insisted on going inside and dragged the ot her chi ld with him , leaving young Tao wait ing on the grass outside . He did nOI dare look up, afraid that the other two might get Ihrown OUI of Ihe gaping black windows too. BUI aside from fear, the Cult Rev meant fun a nd indcscribable excitemen t. After Tao and Su Qun went to th e May 7 Cadre School, Gra nd pa and Granny Tao, no longer as vigorous as in their younger years, lost control of you ng Tao. The boy spent all day runn ing arou nd the courtyard and the streets outside with the neighbors' child ren, and there they saw a lot of weird and wonderful things. Parades of people passed through the streets wearing tall hats, labels hung around their necks, stand ing high up in the backs of trucks or walking, marshaled by the young generals of the Red Guard s in green uniforms with red armbands, holding bright red copies of th e lillie Red Book in their hands. Every parade was accompan ied by drumming, making it as noisy as Chi nese New Year festivities. The struggl ed-against sometimes ca rried thei r own small drums, wh ich Ihey beal as Ih ey went along If red and green were Ih e most popular colors of those years, then drumming was their most powerful sound . As soon as young Tao saw red and green and heard the din of drums, he was sei zed wi th excitement and rushed outside to see what was going on . Finally the red and the green and the drums forced their way into the courtyard of 96 Hongwu Road , and the names of the Smash the Four aids bonfires leapt into the air, fueled by quantities of books,

Young Tao

H

paintings, accou nt books, silks, and satins . And then there were things th at would not burn, like crockery, figurines, inkstones, teapots, and so on. All that remained aft er the conflagra tio n was a blackened heap of debris Th e Taos contributed their bit to the great fire too: the green-clad, red-arm banded troops collected trunkfuls of th eir books and many of Tao's notebooks and threw them into th e flames . No one was prouder of this than young Tao. Soon afterward , th e red-and-green-dad guards and their drums cam e upstairs, to the third fl oor, to the Taos' fl at. They pasted bright red posters arou nd their door and shouted slogans. From the sho uting, but not from the posters (since young Tao co uld not yet read), the boy learned that his father had been struggled aga inst. The sloganshouters told him this was because his fath er was a ~bad egg." "You shou ld make a clean break from Tao Peiyi. Don't call him 'Dad' an ymore; j ust ca ll him Tao Peiyi!" they told him, and yo ung Tao felt greatly honored The scene at his door excited young Tao, but more thrilling still was being abl e to boast, in grown -up language: ~Our famitys got a bad egg too, and he's been struggled againsl." It was more glory than he had ever dreamed of.

3 After this, yo ung Tao did not ca ll his fath er "Dad" anymore; he called him Tao Peiyi. Every now and then the laller came back fro m cadre school to collect a cha nge of clothes a nd a fresh s upply of pickles. He wore a dejected frown and spoke lillie. This shadowy figure would drop in and then be gone again. When young Tao called him Tao Peiyi, he pretended not to hear o r just grunted in reply. Young Tao fo und this boring. Every even ing, Grandpa Tao would lean out of the third fl oor window to call th e boy, who was playing downstairs, to the evening report back meeting Young Tao would race up the stai rs with more alacrity even than at dinnertime. Later Grandpa Tao gave up cal ling him to dinner, which young Tao ate when he wanted, and just called him to the reportback. Outside their flat, the walkway was swe pt clean, and the neighbo rs assembled with their Mao portraits, which they hung o n the wall. Everyone brought his o r her own lillIe Red Book. Young Tao was keen on the evening repo rtbacks,

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as they included both the red books and the green uniforms (t he neighbors' older boy and girl were Red Guards) . Young Tao had a lillIe Red Book but no un iform He also wanted to go to the morning instructi ons meetings and nagged his grandfather to wake him, but every day Grand pa Tao ignored his req uest, which annoyed the boy greatly. One day, j ust as the evening report back meeting was ending, Tao and $u Qun turn ed up It was th e first tim e they had corne horne together. Previously they had corne at different times because they were at differen t cadre schools. The neighbors wcre stil l standing o n the walkway and Tao and Su Qu n were about to go int o their flat when young Tao sudden ly shouted o n impulse, "'Down with Tao Peiyi! H When he had called his father "Tao PeiyiH before, he had been ignored , which was boring. He wanted to get a react ion from the fami ly's bad egg. Heari ng young Tao's shout , Granny Tao rushed out of the flat, got hold of the boy, and forcibly dragged him back inside, shouting, "You li ttle fool! You're going to get yourself into big trouble! H Inside the nat , she sm acked him- right in front of everyone! Young Tao was utterly humiliated In protest at his father's siknce and his grann y's blows, he gave a howl loud enough to wake the dead. Young Tao carried on crying and ca lling them all the bad names he could think of: his granny was the "'wife of a landlo rd »; his father was a "counterrevolutionary"; his grandpa was a "historical counterrevolu tion ary\ his mother was a "SpyH But no one was paying any allentio n anymore . With you ng Tao sa fel y inside the nat , his granny exclaimed, "Dratted child! " Young Tao was "dralled H for a couple of hours and fi nall y stopped wai li ng. He looked at th e white walls and the motionless furn iture around him and felt bored, even a bit futile. Having failed to get a reaction from his father, he now started to call him "Dad again. Before they were sent to the cadre school, Tao and Su Qun used to read in bed at night. Propped up against the headboard, they each held a book in their hands. Young Tao sat between them. As they read , he would look up, first at o ne, then at the ot her. Arou nd half past eight Grandpa Tao would come in and carry the boy off to his cot in his grandparents' room. Young Tao never wa nted to go. H

Young Tao

'N

This tim e Tao and Su Qun were back for the night and did not have to go back the same day. That evening, they began to read in bed, but young Tao did not climb in with them because he was in th e other room sulking Later he stopped sulking, but his parents still did not call him in , and young Tao felt desolate_ The next day Tao and Su Qun made their sepa rate ways back to cadre schooL As Su Qun left, she squatted down and held her son tight, her eyes wet with tears Then Tao got ready to go_ He stroked his son's head and admonished him , ~Do what Gran ny and Grandpa tell you." Neither he nor young Tao mentioned the events of the previous day. As Tao left , young Tao stood at the head of th e stai rs, where he could sec the handrail all the way down . He saw his father's hand on it , moving downward. Then it turned the co rner and went down some mo re. The hand got smaller and s maller un til it was smaller than young Tao's own hand; then it disappcare(l all togeth er, without young Tao seeing th e rest of his father at aIL

4 The posters aro und their door had faded, and Grandpa Tao had taken his glue pot to th em several tilllt.."S before Tao and Su Qun we re back home again together. By th en, young Tao had lost interes t in the eve ning repo rt backs and had started school. This was a new worl d, one that provided him with many new ex periences, although I will not go into them here. When his parents fin all y returned, they sat up in bed with books in hand once more. That night , for the last time, young Tao sat between them, but it was no t th e sa me as before_ Was it because he had grown up? Not entirely Tao and Su Qun were only making a pretense at reading_ Instead, they were talking, with solem n faces and in grave tones_ Young Tao understood only part of what they were saying; it was something aho ut ~air raids, ~ ~alarms," ~Third F ro nts,~ ~evacu­ at ion,n ·'atom bombs,n and "air raid shclters .n Above the boy's head, the words new back and forth between his pa rents and filled him with terror. Just like when he was lillIe, he gazed up at one, then at th e ot her, but his parents took no not ice of him . Young Tao looked up at the light bulb and at the tungsten filam ent blazing o ut like

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a gold thread. If you looked at it long enough and then looked at the sheets, they looked less white than before, and even the room 100ke(1 darker. Between the light and the shadows, his parents' faces seemed to change shape; their mouths opened and shut, and out came those troubling phrases He thought, ~There's going to be a war, and what will we do then?" He thought and thought, but there was no answer. Fear once more gripped young Tao, but this time it did not last long. Soon the Taos' Glorious Banishment to the countryside was approved. The drum-beating green uniforms came back, stripped off the old posters, and put up new ones. The Taos were as happy as if it were a family wedding. And young Tao basked in the limelight at school. Mrs. Wang, the class teacher, asked, "'Has anyone here been approved for the Glorious Banishment?" Young Tao's hand shot up, and so did that of another classmate. Mrs. Wang told the other child, ~~ot you; your family were runaway landlords, and now you're just being packed off back to the countryside again." The child put her hand down, crestfallen, and only young Tao was left with his hand proudly raised above his head There was a special send-off for the Glorious Banishment children. Young Tao and a dozen or so others sat in a row on the platform, wearing red nowers as big as rice bowls on their chests. Each child was given the Collected Works of Chairman Mao in four volumes, wrapped in red silk. They held the books in both hands and looked down over the assembled teachers and students. Of course one could not have an occasion like this without a good deal of drum beating and slogan shouti ng Young Tao was scarlet with excitemen t. Young Tao did not have to go to school anymore after this, and Tao and Su Qun were released from cadre school and came horne for good. Each of their work units gave them a send-off where they wore red nowers and were presented with the Collected Works in four volumes. The Taos ended up with three sets of the Collected Works, one of which young Tao had brought home. II was young Tao who was the most excited about their departure for the village. He greeted everyone he met with, "'We're going to the countryside, to Hongze Lake, to cat fish!"

Young Tao

5t

of course young Tao had not got to the age he was without eating fish. He had not eaten much immediately after he was born, but then that changed. But these were to be no ordinary fish; they would be Hongze fish How were they different? Well, they were from Hongze. If you probed further, young Tao could not answer, but he was quite sure that there were differences. Young Tao, born in Nanjing, had scarcely seen a village. Once when he was very small,just a toddler, his parents had taken him to a village on the outskirts of Nanjing That was before the Yangtze Bridge was built, and they crossed on a ferry. Once on the northern shore of the river, young Tao saw green crops for the first lime and a water buffalo too. His memories of that visit were pretty hazy because he had been so young. Later, when the Yanglze Bridge was built and had just been opened to traffic, Tao and Su Qun went with young Tao to walk across it. But halfway across, young Tao wanted to do a poop, and there was no toilet on the bridge The boy tugged at his mother's clothes and said timidly, "It's coming out,~ "itn being his big turd. So Tao tucked the boy under his arms and raced back across the bridge to look for a toilet. Young Tao never got to see the villages on the other side He just saw the newly built bridge, bedecked in red and green, and he got a new nickname too, given to him by his father: "Master Coming Out!" A year later, young Tao arrived at the bridge again . The difference was that this time he was riding in a nower-bedecked bus, with other bUSt,"!> in front and behind. Again he saw the wildly exciting reds and greens and heard the ear-splitting drumming. The procession of people seeing them off was so long that it slowed down their progress. However, in spite of the crowd's enthusiasm young Tao could nOI help remembering his embarrassment on the previous occasion. "It's comingoul, ii's com ing out." And to the boy, the endless procession of vehicles was like a long turd extruding from Nanjing.

5 When they ate dinner in Sanyu that first evening, they were surrounded by a large audience. The house was gloomy, with just an oil lamp made out of an ink botlle on the small, square table . Its

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pea-sized name lit up the four dishes in front of them . Young Tao sat on the edge of the bcd, propped up against a quill. Then the quilt moved and coughed, and he rea lized that there was someone undern eath it. The person had drawn his knees up so as to make it more comfortable for the boy to sit. According to th e villagers, this was a Mr. Yu, LQ Suying's husband. He had a chron ic stomach com plaint and had been bedridden for a dozen years. For th ese years he had , as it were, been lying in wait for the boy's arrival, and now he drew up his knees to prop him up while he ate. Young Tao wished he could sec his face, but it was pitch dark on the bed behind him, and he could not sec anything. From beneath the table a dog's head appeared . In the darkness, young Tao cou ld not tell what color it was unlil the lamplight showed it to be black and white, more white than black, so that the black looked rather like a birthmark on a person's face. Young Tao reached out and stroked the dog's head, feeling its dense, slightly damp coal. Its eyes looked beseechingly at the boy. Its head was on a level with the table, within reach of the dishes, but it dearly would not have dared to put its muzzle into them without permission The dog was can lly: it rubbed against th e boy's legs until he took a piece of somet hing dark, probably meat, and threw it under the table, whereupon the dog wolfed it down. This ca used quite a stir among the villagers around them. "What's it called?n asked young Tao. There was a chorus of, "Dog! Dog! 1I's called Dog!n They were obviously annoyed and felt that dogs had no business eating meal. Thanks to young Tao, the dog had had meat for the first time in its life--and choice, cooked meat al that. It looked up at young Tao for a second time, begging for more, and he was about to give it a second piece of meal when there came shouts from around him: "Gimme some! Gimme some!" The voiccs came from the children; their hands st retched out of the darkness and almost poked young Tao's face. (The adults may havc been ravenous, but they would not lower themselves to shouting.) Tao put a stop to his son's behavior forthwith. The dog sud(le nl y (lisappeared from under lhe table, and in a lillIe while young Tao heard it yelping outsid e the room The vill agers had chased

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it out, and no doubt it was being severely punished for its lack of manners. One child shouted louder than all1he others. He stood out for the obvious reason that he had no hair on his head and so appeared to have a very large face The child was wearing a black padded jacket, tied at the waist with string Young Tao excitedly cried, ~Baldie! Baldie! " until his father scolded him iJ1lo silence. Then he shouted, "Big head! Big head! " and Big Head grinned, showing big, yellow teeth When young Tao wanted to go to the tOilet, Tao gOI Big Head to take him, and seven or eight other children tagged along behind. Outside, in the brilliant moonlight, it was billerly cold. Big Head took young Tao to where the night soil crock stood behind the housc. It was enclosed by a fence made of maiZe straw; it was pitch dark inside, and there was a terrible stench. Young Tao was reluctaJ1lto go inside, so Big Head got him to squat on the ground outside. Young Tao hesitated. Big Head set an example by pulling down his own trousers. As the boy still wavered, the other children followed suit, revealing bare white buttocks. Then young Tao pulled down his own trousers and squatted, but he just could not get the poop out. Their bOlloms hurt from the icy wind as they squalled down. The more anxious young Tao became, the less he could go. He ended up with his bOllom numb with cold. Looking up, he saw the moonlight through the fork of a tree and thought thai it was so big and so round that it was like a giant bOllom .

6 They were all up early the next morning, young Tao included. The warmth under the quilt quickly dissipated once they had all gone and there was no one to cuddle him He had not slept well, but getting up was still exciting. He had never been up so early before and in such a novel place. II was chilly, and Su Qun made him put on four sweaters, one on top of the olher; bundled up like this and with his nose running wilh the cold, he went out. In front of the cowshed, Tao was doing his chest-expanding exercises, emilling clouds of white breath . A heap of yam vines had

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been piled up nearby, its top white with frost, whi ch gleamed like salt crystals in the morning sun. The pile, waist high , looked like a small moun tain to the boy. With a shout he charged the heap. It promptly gave way He charged again; it got natter. He went on until he had fl attened it comple tely and strewn the stalks out all over the ground Soon afterward the vi llagers turned up Big Head was the first to arrive, and young Tao learn ed that his name was September. He took September around the outside of the cowshed to have a look at the half-unpacked pile of furn iture, and then September took him over the little bridge and into the Village. They met a dozen ch ildren herding pigs in a field where yams had just been harvested, They had not come to the Taos' house because they could not leave the pigs, so they were delighted that you ng Tao had come to visit them. St retch ing out filthy hands, they felt his clothes, chatteri ng s hrill y in wonder. Their hands were not only black with dirt, but some also had chilblains or cracks in the skin from which oozed blood and pus Young Tao, worried that they we re dirtying his clothes. tried to keep out of their reach. Then September got between them and decreed that they could feel young Tao's dotht>s onl y on his say-so There were no protests: he was a head taller than the ot hers and fierce looking, and besides, he had brought young Tao. Young Tao got a bit of peach candy out of his pocket. It made a squelchy sound as he chewed it. September held out a hand and said , MGimme some!" With thiS, all the other children chorused, MGimme some!n A dozen small hand s reached o ut , and young Tao did not know whi ch one to put the candy into. Behind them sn ufning sounds came from the pig herd With the arrival of young Tao, th e child ren had been ignori ng them and contin ued to do so now On ly young Tao, who had never hea rd pigs before, was aware of them. He saw pigs of all sizes ru nni ng around the field. There was a huge sow with a row of teats drooping so low they almost brushed th e ground and a bunch of piglets scurrying after her. The sows, young boars, and piglets alike were all black. They rooted aro und in the eart h with their s nouts, looking for yams that had not been harvested. They had turned over the earth so many times that it was like a ploughed field, with not a blade of

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grass, not even a stalk, to be seen. The entire field was a gray-brown color and shrouded in dust kicked up by the herd . Normally if a pig found a yam, the children would spot it and give chase. If they could get the yam away from the pig in time, they would rub it on their clothes and chomp it up. The pigs took many a beating in the competition with the children for food. But today the children's attention was not on the pigs. They surrounded young Tao, dirty paws outstretched in eager expectation. Even the pigs stopped running and milled around behind their masters, necks craning up, sniffing through fleshy snouts. Did they want some candy too? Perhaps the smell of it made them forget that they were only pigs. Young Tao emptied his pockets of candy and handed it out to the children. Then he fished out any other tidbits he had on him and handed them out too. After that, every time he stepped out of doors, he had to fill his pockets with snacks . This was the only way he could get to play with the pig-herder children. After a couple of weeks, the Taos were out of almost all the snacks, candies, and cookies they had brought from Nanjing. The only thing young Tao could find after a long search was an enamel pot with a bag of red and green candied strips used for decorating t:!ight Treasure Rice. He produced the sugary strips for the amazed children, who demanded "Gimme some! Gimme some!" with can(lied strips still stuck to the corners of their mouths. The cry was by now automatic whenever they saw young Tao, irrespective of whether he had already given them some. They stopped only for the second it took them to shovel the food into their mouths and took up the cry again before they had even swallowed it. The first sentence that young Tao learned in the Sanyu dialect was "Cimme some!"

7 Young Tao's first friend in Sanyu was September. He was fifteen or sixteen years old and thus hardly a child, but because his family was poor and he had ringworm of the scalp, he was not yet betrothed, so the villagers tended to look down on him. Although September was no longer a child, he did not qualify to work with the men or earn their daily ten work points either. He would hang around with the women and girls and work in the

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fields with them. But that could not go on . He was old cnough to und erstand their women's talk by now, and it was not proper. Yu, the head of the production team, took him away from the wom en and set him to work on his own doingsmall jobs, though still at the women's rate of s ix work poillls a day So September had p1cllly of time on his hands and did odd jobs in people's homes too. Everyone in the village could order him around II goes without saying that when the Taos arrived, September gOI busy helping th em unpack Ihe furniture and carry the wardrobe, supplying them with rice straw to stuff the cracks in the walls and fetching water from the river, as well as taking young Tao around with him . He built up a special relati o nsh ip with the Taos and was as happy as cou ld be. There was of cou rse quite a lot in it for him: peach candies and red and green cand ied slrips aside, there were the cast-off clothes they often gavc him and the bits of cash that Grandpa Tao would sometimes reward him with. And best of all, th ere was the griseofulvin that Su Qun bought him at Hongze Pharmaceuticals to cure his ringworm. Septembe r, sporting a brand-new head of black hair and wearing a fad ed Sun Vat-sen jacket that had belonged to Tao, st rolled around the village, his hands clasped behind his back. He could have been mistaken for o ne of the co mmune cad res, and looking the way he did, it would not be long before some matchmaking took place. But September did not want things donc in a hurry; the choice had to be made carefu lly. The team wanted village famil ies to develop sideline activit ies and encouraged the keeping of ducks. The ducklings were bought by th e team and distributed according to th e number of household members. Someone was needed to herd th e ducks, and September was th e obvious choice. Armed with a long cane, he gathered all the ducks together every day and herded them along th e village streams. Depending on where he was working, the ducks spen t the day in the st ream that bordered that particular allotment. of course, given the amoun t of time that September was helping the Taos, they turned up most often in the stream alongside the Taos' allotment. For some lime now, the Taos' st ream had been alive with the quacking of ducks. And it was common knowledge that whe re the ducks were, there too was Sept ember.

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Every evening September herded the ducks back along the village st reet. The ducks knew where they lived, and they waddled over the bridge to thei r homes. The next mo rning, the owners wo uld let them oUi of thei r pens, and th ey would make their way to their own stream until September appeared, wielding his long cane. Mostly the ducks laid their eggs in th e morn ing, in the pens of th eir owners. If September chased them OUI before they had had tim e to lay, th en they laid in the stream . Every day September took off his Sun Vat-sen jacket, rolled up his trousers, and got into th e water to feel around for eggs. Every day he fo und two o r three. These mis-laid eggs belonged to September, and he co uld give them to whomever he wanted Naturally he gave most of them to th e Taos, and Grandpa Tao would pay him a few cents fo r them . September got more and more enthusiastic about his duck herding. He came to fetch the ducks and drive them to the stream earlier and earlier each day. More and more eggs were mis-laid and retrieved by him from the watcr, Grandpa Tao bought morc and more eggs, and young Tao got more and more eggs to eat. On every occasion, his grandfather said to him, ~T h ese a re Septembers duck eggs, you know! " Too man y duck eggs can spoil the appetite, and young Tao started to turn up his nose at them. Grandpa Tao kept remi nding him, ~ T hese are September's duck eggs, you know!" And of course it was difficult for young Tao to refuse the eggs that his best friend had supplied. Tao fcl t that the whole business was turning into a fi asco. Keeping ducks had been his idea, and he had put up the money to buy the village ducklings. By now all the eggs-not just those September coll ected for free, but also every o ther family's su rplus eggs- were taken to the Taos, and Grandpa Tao bought each and everyone. On th e other hand, the Taos had led the villagers by taking two ducks of thei r own, which September herded along with the others, and th is made it ditTicult for Tao to complain, annoyed though he was.

8 Su mm er was soon upon them. O ne day September and a fr iend ca ll ed lillie Dick came \ 0 th e house to arrange to go hunting swa mp eels with young Tao that evening. Lillie Dick was the same age as September but a good deal

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shorter. He was hunchbacked and as ski nny as a beanpole. He was not st rong enough to work for the production team, so he stayed at home all day, un like September, who was to be seen around the village showing off his new growth of hair and new outfit. Even if Su Qun had had advanced medical skills, she could not have cured little Dick of his hump, so he was not especially close to the Taos. They had come to in vi te young Tao to hunt swamp eels with them because they had their eye on th e family's electric flashlight. When the wheat field s were flooded, swam p eels would emerge from thei r holes in the dykes, and transfixed by the light of the fl ashl ight, they could JUSt be picked ou t of the water. Before the Taos' arrival , villagers going out to catch swamp eels at this time of year had to make do with s mall oil lamps . Eve n inside the house, these lamps, made of ink bOllles, barely threw their light a couple of feet in front of them, so they were not much use in the open fi eld s and not nearly as good as a flashlight for terrifying swamp eels. September of course was the only boy lucky enough to have easy access to the Taos' flashlight because of his friendship with them . The two older boys each carri ed a big, round, narrow-necked fish basket , and young Tao had the fl ashlight, and in its flickering beam th e three of them made their way out of the Vi ll age. Before they arrived , they could hear people slosh ing th rough the water. Eve rywhere their oil lamps flickered like firenies . The three boys gOt to th e edge of the fi elds, took off thei r shoes, a nd waded in . You ng Tao gave the flash light to September and found himself holdi ng September's smelly shoes, as well as his own. He followed the others. His feet had not yet developed calluses, and the wheat stubble und er foot jabbed his tender soles painfully. He walked with great care, not daring to lift his legs too high Sometimes his feet touched sludge left by the ri ver, and its coarse grains massaged his insteps pleasantly Hobbling slowly and gingerl y along, he soon got left behind. He asked September and lillIe Dick to walk more slowly, but they paid no allention. In the end, the bright nashlight beam moved so far ahead that he was lcftto feel his way through the dark padd y fields . September and lillIe Dick soon fill ed their fi sh baskets with eels, but instead of comi ng back for you ng Tao, they made for the

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(lyke o n the opposite side , where they could take a rest while they waited fo r him to catch up. September was messing around with the Ilashlight, shining it here, there, and everywhere. Young Tao had no idea how long he had been wading through the water. but the Ilashlight seemed to him to be getting dimmer and dimmer until it looked just like one of the oil lam ps. Finally, he reached the dyke himself. September gave young Tao the Ilashlight , whose battery was by now run down, and took back his shoes. Young Tao was annoyed and wanted to go home, but the o ther two were engrossed in conversatio n and had no intention of going just yel. He sa id he wo uld go alone, but they scared him by tdling him that all along the dykes and at the water's edge there were ghosts who particularly liked c hil(!ren, especially city kids like young Tao, soft- skinned and tenderfles hed , whom they considered such a delicacy that they wou ld greedily wolf them down, yummy, yummy. The topic of th e youths' lively discussion was a girl. Guilan was from the fir st house on th e west s ide of the village, where Yu Gengqing and his family lived. At eighteen, she still wet the bed. so every day there was a quilt draped over the straw stack at the frOIll door, drying in the sun , When the Gengqings burned the straw in thei r cooke r, it gave off a smell of pee. This problem meant that Guilan had reached the age of eighteen without finding a husband. Rumor had it that she had been engaged once to a man whose fam ily Hve(l in the Dazhang production brigade, a mile o r so from Sanyu, but th at when they discovered about the bed-welling, they broke it off. Once back home, s he was there for good. September and Littl e Dick were arguing about whether Guilan had actually married o r not. One said yes and the other said no, and neither of them would give way. Accord ing to September, on hot su mmer evenings Guilan liked 10 lie on a "lattice bed" in the cool of the Yanma River banks and would sleep there overnight. A Sanyu lattice bed was a frame made of branches through the middl e of which was woven grass ro pe. She lay on the lattice bed with no mailing under her, so when she peed, the urine trickled through the latlice onto the river bank, and the smell was blown dean away by th e mo rning breeze. All Guilan had to do was wash a few grass ropes. She could do this o nly in su mm er. In cold weather, she had to move back indoors, and every

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morning Ihcre wo uld bc a quill sprcad o ul 10 dry o n Ihc Sl raw slack outsi de Ihc Gcngqing ho usc hold . According 10 Scplcmbcr, o nce in Ihe carl y ho urs of Ihe morning on his way back from catching swamp ccls, hc had sccn Guilan aslecp o n thc ri vc rbank Hc WCIll up to hcr and pullcd down hcr tro uscrs. Shc turn cd ovc r and scared the lifc out of him He duckcd down, and Guilan's big bOllom was right in frOIll of his nosc. "Guilan hasn't got any pubes!" he told lillie Dick ~No pubes?» said his friend. ~No wonder she still wets thc bed!" They guffawed . Young Tao racked his brains bUI could nOI work ou l whal "pubes" werc. "She's bad luck, shc is! Bad luck!" Thc older boys spal nOiSily. Wh en hc had fini shcd spil ling, SepIcmbcr lold Ihem Ihal afterward hc had pushed Gu ilan inlO Ihc rivcr. It was comm on knowledge in Ihc villagc Ihal Guilan had fallcn illlo the river and drowned Then the two boys started talking aboul what a prclly gi rl GuiIan had been Hcr white skin was prellier even than Su Qu n's according to Septembcr, who said that if she had fallcn into thc fl our tub , you would not have bcen able to tcll whcre she was. As fo r hcr bOllom (only Scptember was allowed to say anything ahout her bOllom, wilh lillie Dick jusl playing Ihc audience), il was likc a mirror in which you could sce your face. Whcn Su Qun came up in Ihe convcrsal ion, young Tao did nOI wan I 10 hear any more. Hc s larlcd making a fuss aga in aboul going home, bUI Scplcmbcr and lillie Dick lold him Ihal Guilan had lurned inlO a waler ghosl, and she climbcd o ul of Ihc rivcr every night with out a stitch of clothing o n and a tonguc a foot long hanging out of hcr mouth. That just made young Tao cvcn morc anxious to get home.

9 Evenlually you ng Tao made his way homc alone , Iho ugh with considerabl e diffi cu lly. (The flashl ighl was dcad, and hc had 10 go along Ihe haunled banks of Ihe Yanma Rivcr.) Thai nighl, he ran a high fevcr. When Scplcmbcr lurncd up Ihe ncxl morning, yo ung Tao refused 10 speak 10 him. Evenl ually Su Qun managed 10 gel o ul of him Scplcmbcr's slory Ihal he had pushed Guil an inlO the river.

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But Tao knew everything there was to know about the history of th e village, an d after doing a quick calculation o n his fingers, he told his son, "September's talking poppycock. He was on ly nine years old when Yu Guilan died" The real reason that young Tao and September stopped being friends was something else, however_ One day young Tao saw September talking to a group of boys und er a tree in th e village_ Spotting him, th eir chatter and laughter grew louder, and they s neaked glances at him o ut of the corners of their eyes. September was telling them a sto ry about Su Q un . One day she had said to him, "It's so hot today!" To which he had said, ~Not during the day, but it gelS hot at n ight" And Su Qun had responde(l , ~ lt 's hot at night and hot by day too!" In the Sanyu dialect, "hot" and "fuck" so unded the same , and th e boys all burst o ut laughing Looking at young Tao, they said, ~F uck at night , and fuck by day too!" Very pleased with themselves, they repeated this, laughing spitefull y_September was mOSI pleased of all sin ce he had made it up_ They kept telling young Tao that Su Qun had said, "Fuck at night, and fuck by day too!" Wh en he got home, young Tao told them September was a bad egg and that they should not buy any more duck eggs from him o r lend him the fl ashlight. Su Qun spent a long time trying to get o ut of him what had happened, but the boy refused to say, a nd the fam ily never did get to the boltom of it.

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FOUR

Primary S(hool

I Young Tao had reached the third year of primary school before the family's banishment to the countryside, but $anyu's primary school only had two classes, the first and second years. So it was no\ really a primary school, only half of one, or rather less than half of olle since primary school then consisted of rive years. After the second year students had to go \0 Gczhuang Primary, just over a mile away. Because of the distance and the fact thallhc family had only just arrived in the vill age, Tao decided that his son should go to Sanyu Primary- So young Tao dropped back a year. Sanyu Primary had only one teacher, a Mr. Jill, who also doubled as ilS head. There was just the one schoolroom in a mud-brick building with a thatched roof. It was fairly dilapidated, although still in much better condition than the Taos' temporary home in the cowshed _ Mr. Jin was not daunted by the apparent difficulty of teaching two grades in one classroom . He put the two groups on opposite sides of the classroom, with a passage down the middle. Behind the dais was a patchily painted blackboard. While the first group was copying, the second group listened to the teacher, and vice versa. 50 the two groups ran smoothly side by side. Mr. Jin, hands behind his back clasping the textbook, walked complacently back and forth down the aisle_ The dais, the school desks, and the benches on which the pupils sat were made, like many objects in common use in 5anyu, of mud bricks_ Village cookers were of sun -dried mud bricks; the household cupboards where food was stored were also made of clay (and

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were known as clay cupboards), The braziers used for keeping warm were pressed from clay, and of course so were the houses themselves. The schoolroom, made of mud inside and out, was no exception. Apart from the blackboard, which was knocked together out of a bit of coffin wood, it contained not a single piece of wood or other material. The mud·brick schoolhouse had been built from community funds and was similar to the other Sanyu buildings in every respect. The desks and benches were all made by the students themselves without any outside help, from their kneading the clay \0 laying the bricks to final plastering, Instead of making proper sun-dried mud bricks, the students saved time by digging wet clay directly from the river. The clay had grass and weed stalks in it, so there was no need \0 add rice and wheat husks to the mixture, They gave the clay a good kneading, just like kneading dough; beat it; and finally formed mud bricks out of il. In fine weather you often saw children squatting on the river banks, lifting mud bricks high above their heads and smashing them down with all their might, over and over again. The riverbanks presented a lively scene: the loud thuds of clay being thrown and thlOwn again mingled with the cheerful shou\!> of the children. The compacted mud bricks were the basic material from which the (Iesks and benches were built. On top of this went a layer of thin clay mixed with rice straw, Once one layer had dried, another was added until eventually the cracks became finer and were hardly noticeable. As the students bent over their desks, the cuffs of their padded jackets rubbed the table tops so smooth that before long they shone like coal Since the desks and benches were made of only clay, they did not last long. They frequently had to be renewed, so clay kneading and bricklaying were regular ongoing activities. Gradually young Tao began to find them enjoyable. Collecting dung was the st udents' other daily task. In fac t it was an even more regular one than kneading clay. A child going to school without a satchel was not an uncommon sight, but one without a manure bag was not a proper student. On a trip to the market in Wangji, Tao bought his son a manure bag made of woven willow so that young Tao could carry it to

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school. It rubbed his shoulder raw to start with, even empty, but he got used to it. It was much heavier when full, but he did not mind the weight. The heavier it was, the happier it made him since one of the tasks set by Mr. Jin was to hand over to him thirty pounds of dung per month. Every day after school, young Tao took his manure bag an d roamed around the edge of the village, but where was he to find anything worth collecting? First, the villagers held firmly to the belief that their own night soil should not go on other people's fields (so they never crapped outside their own enclosures), and the same held true for their animals. Second, none of the Villagers ever went around without their manurc bags, and they were extremely sharp-eyed and nimble-ringcred. They had had ycars of practice. There was no way that young Tao's cfforts could comparc. The most young Tao could hope to find was a scrap of dog turd or a bit of sheep droppings, usually so dried out by the wind that it did not stink anymore. The villagers did not bother with bits like that as they had no value as fertilizer. Young Tao carried on collecting dried dog turds, even though he could see they had no substance, just the form of a dog turd Actually there were so few to be found and they wele so dried up that they had no weight at all, it was like carrying wood shavings. So he walked around with his bag banging emptily against his bottom , which caused him a certain amount of anxicty. Young Tao had heard tell of the existcnce of mounds of cow (lung. These came not from the usual yellow callIe, but from water buffaloes. Sanyu had five head of callIe, of which two were water buffalo. Just seeing them poop was an event in itself, let alone being lucky enough to shovel the results into one's manure bag. Finally one day young Tao saw a water buffalo pooping, a small mountain of dung plopping down behind it. Every time one pooped, there was ten or twenty pounds of the stuff, and sometimes there might be an enticing forty pounds of just-dropped manure steaming gently on the ground. One poop was enough, morc than enough, to fill a manure bag, although young Tao would not be able to pick such a bag up once it was full, let alone carry it to school with him . Young Tao dared not imagine such a stroke of luck. But very early one morning, before the mist had dispersed, it did happen, and young Tao found his mound of water buffalo manurc.

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He half filled his bag and raced t o the school with it, em ptied it, and raced back again. Before anyone else realized, he had made three trips and cleared the lot He was delighted. Aherward, young Tao could scarcel y believe it had happened . He almost felt he had been dreaming, and maybe he had.

2 All the dung the stud ents collected was handed over to Mr. Jin and used fo r his allotment. The students did all the cult ivat ing of his allotment too. Mr. Jin did not do any of it. He was not a loca l; he had been a soldier before. Apparently he was qualified enough to have found ajob at least at commun e cad re level, but because of his Mloose morals,H he had ended up in Sanyu and had married a local woman . O f course all this had happened many years before. He now had a son who was as tall as he was . Young Tao had hardly ever seen the hoy, who was at midd le school in Hongze Cou nty Town and was Sanyu's on ly upper.m iddle·school student. He hardly ever cam e home; he would turn up o nce in a while a nd be gone the nex t day. Most of the tim e it was Mr Jill alld his wife at home. There were two buildings on the Jins' land: the schoolho use and the J ins' house, which stood behind it. Both had been bu il t by the brigade , and both were of mud bricks and thatch, but thei r home was in much beller conditi on. A dozen meters separated th e two buildings, the schoolroom's back window facing the Jins' front door. As th e s tudents went into class, they usually saw Mrs. Ji n si tting on a s tool outsid e her dc-or, stitchi ng a shoe sole , knitting a scarf, or doing some oth er chore Mrs. Jin was ugly and looked old enough to be Jin's mother. She never looked up from her work or talked to the students or indeed to any of the oth er vi llagers J in himself cut a Bohemian sort of figure with his pall or and hi s hair parted far down one side. In winter he always wore a long sca rf wound several times around his neck, with the end hangi ng down below his jacket hem . His student son (h essed like his father, with a sca rf that hung far down his back. Like the s tudents with their kneading and dung-collect ing chores, Mrs. Jin's daily du ty was knilling sca rves.

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TheJinsdid not do any farm work. The fact that their allotment thrived was due to the efforts of his studenLS. Although young Tao had drop ped back a year and was in the second year in Sanyu, he was still the youngest in the school The village children started school late_Their average age was thirteen, and fourteen - or fifteen -year·olds were not unheard of. They often had to repeat a year, some of them three or four times . They might not have been any good at their books, but they were old enough to be good farm workers And if they were strong and good dung collectors and worked theJins' allotment willingly, then they were the teacher's pets. Both class monitors were excellent farm laborers. During school breaks Mr. Jin li ked nothing beller than to sit in the schoolyard with the students, playing copper coins and kicking a shulllecock around. To play coins you chalked a circle on the ground and put a copper coin in the center. You had to stand outside the circle and hit the coin inside with another coin. If you hit the coin and they both stayed inside the circle and did not fly out, then they were both yours. Mr, Jin sometimes lost, but only occasionally. Watching Mr. Jin throw his coin was a rare pleasure. He stood far behind the line and lifted one leg behind him, at the same time leaning forward and stretching his ann out so that his scarf hung (Iown, almost brushing the ground. His coin flew straight as a die and landed with a ping on the coin in the circle . He was not only extremely accurate, but he also performed with flair. No one could beat him . If a student did manage to practice hard enough to begin to beat Mr. Jin, the teacher simply changed the rules. For example, you won only if the coin fell OULSide the circle. He made the rules, so he obviously had the right to change them . Plus, even a student who learned Mr. Jin's technique could still never learn to throw the coin with the same elegance. He was simply acknowledged to be the OCSl. They also played a game with a kind of s huttlecock made of coins tied into a piece of rag, with feathers stuck through the mid(lie (the coins had holes in the center); Mr. Jin was never beaten at this either and for the same reasons: he was good, he had style, and he could change the rules. It was he who decided whether they kicked one coin or two; whether the coins should have three chicken feathers or more than three attached to them; whether they

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kicked once with the top of the foot or the instcp or the sole of th e foot, or twice with each part, o r once with the top, twice with th e instep, and three times with the sole, o r in reverse order, or o nce (lOp), Iwi ce (i nslep), o nce (sole), and so on.Jin nOI only laid down the rules, but h e was also the umpire, so it went wilhout saying Ihat he was always going to win.

3 Mr. Jin's skills were manifested not only in games; he was also ingenious at devising punishments for his students . When students arrived late , he would chalk a wavy lin e on the blackboard and make them rub it o ut with their noses. He made the line as wiggly as poSSible, like the ripples of a strea m. The students had to rush along, alternately standing on tiptoe and kneel ing on the grou n(l, sneezing as they wenl The students were always eager 10 see laiC arrival s, so long as il was n ot themsel ves, for then they would have a spectacl e 10 walch. Mr. Jin rang Ih e changes frequelllly so thai whallhey walched was rarely the sam e as before, and before Ihe students gOI tired of o ne thing, there was something else on offer Ru bbing the blackboard wit h one's nose was not the only punishm ent for latecomers. Mr. Jin also mad e them hold aloft the Little Red Book of quotations from Chairman Mao while they did a d ance and sang Beloved Chairman Mao, the Red Slin in Glir Hearts. Young Tao's heart beat faster as he rem embered that tumultuous time back in Nanjing. Even mo re exciting was the punishmelll called "Doing Penance before Chairman Mao" O n the mud wall above Ihe blackboard hung a portrait of Ch airman Mao, and the students being punished were forced 10 kn ee l in fro nl o f il by Ih e two class monitors. Th e victim s would often wail and beg for mercy and st ruggle to stand u p, bUI Ihe monitors, robuSI youths, would hold Iheir hands behind their backs, press o n their heads, and fo rce them down. Th e reason for this pOintless resistance was Simple: under the victims' knees was not the usual smooth mud n oor but a heap of broken glass and tiles. Mr. Jin made a point of collecti ng such shards to usc for this punish ment.

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There was very little broken glass in Sanyu, and collecting it required considerable effort. So Mr. Jin carefully swept it up with a dustpan after each punishment in preparation for the next occasion. Those being punished had to roll their trouser legs up and bare their knees. Padded trousers were hard to roll up, so they just had to take them off. They knelt before the Chairman, their naked lower limbs a pallid white, and when they got up, blood ran down their legs. It was always the puniest students who were no good for physical work to whom Mr. Jin meted out punishment. The tall and strong, the good farmhands, not only became class monitors but also enforced the law. The severity of the punishment of course was not completely arbitrary. It depended on the crime . Arriving late was trivial and got a rubbing out with the nose or a song and (lance for the Chairman. Doing penance before the Chairman was a severe punishment, meted out fc·r a serious crime- for instance, when children who had not collected enough dung sneaked a couple of mud bricks into their manure bags and were discovered al weighing time. The prospect of being punished scared young Tao. He was small and slight and the youngt..,,::>t in the school too, no good at farm work, and he never produced his quota of manure . But Mr.Jin never punished him; in fact he kept his distance and almost behaved as if he did not exist. Young Tao was afraid that one day Mr. Jin might (10 an about-face and innict all his punishments in one go, and it would be too late to cry then. He went in fear of his teacher but still wanted to be close to him, so he did not know what to do. There was another problem Every day when young Tao went to school, he had to walk right th rough Sanyu As he approached the school, he passed a house, surrounded by a couple of hundred tall trees, that belonged to the brig,~de militia commander. The militia commander had two large dogs, well known in the village, one black and one brown with a black spot above each eye. Such dogs, known locally as "four-eyed dogs," were reputedly extremely ferocious. Young Tao did not dare pass the militia commander's house on his own and made the trip to school every day with four or rive friends . They crept by the house, and as soon as the dogs appeared, they ran as fast as their legs could carry them . The dogs tore after

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them, barking madly, at least until they had passed the next coupl e of houses. Wh en the dogs turned back, the ch ildren stopped running and made a show of hurling a few pieces of mud at the retreating animals. Young Tao regard ed th ese dogs as nothing better than beasts of prey from th e mountain forests and was terrified of them, even if th e "m ountains" were nothing more than riverbanks and the ~for­ ests" were the command er's trees. Tao tri ed to teach his son to be brave. He dug him up some stones, putthem in his pockets, and told him, ~When the dogs come at you, throw the stones at them ." He told him never to run away, as the more he ran , the more they would chase him . He sho uld stan d his ground and face them; belief st ill , he should cro uch down; then the dogs wo uld think he was going to pick up a stone to throw it at them . He challenged young Tao by asking him , ~Have you actually seen the com mand er's dogs bite anyone?~ ~No. »

~ They

may look fierce," his father said, ~but they're st raw dogs. Straw dogs don't bite people; they're only good fOf chasing chickens and ducks. The OJH."S that reall y bite are great big mastiffs. There aren't an y of those in Sanyu. Besides, the comm ander's trees aren't really a mountain wilderness . Ou r own trees will be taller than his in a few years' time." Eventually, with his fath er's encouragement, young Tao pl ucked up the cou rage to go to school alone. Tao said the same to his so n about Mr. Jin. He told him to usc his head and find th e teacher's Achilles' heel. So young Tao had a good look and soon found out something. Mr. Jin might be good at games and at inmcting corpo ral punishment, but he often misprono unced words when he fead aloud to the studen ts. For instance , he pronounced ~tumultuous~ as ~tea­ multuous" and "earnestly" (as in "earnestly admonish~) as ~hef­ nestly." Wh en you ng Tao told his father, the latter responded, ~He's teaching th ose kids twaddle!" Mr. Jin assured them that Nixon was the son of Nehru because bot h their su rnames began with the sou nd "'Nee.» Tao guffawed at this. And his teacher's howl ers graduall y made young Tao fear him less.

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4 AboUI th e tim e when Ihe Taos start ed to build their new house, a new tcacher came to the school She was a girl of scarcely twenty who had also been banished from Nanjing, but she was an urbling, not a cadre_ The urblings had come a year earlier_ There were thiT· teen urblings scattered through the production learns that made up the Sanyu brigade, and young li, the new teacher, had been se nt over from Number 4 Production Team Young Tao had mel Li before she came \0 the school, as she had

bee n a messenger for the product ion brigade. She spent her days fo llowing after the party secretary, Mr. Yu, ca rrying a nylon net bag. Sometimes she did the rounds of the teams on her own , still with her bag, delivering hooks or study materials, relaying Yu's instruc-

tions, or taking messages back to the brigade office. She had probably been given the position as a teacher because she knew Mr. Yu or because she liked reading The villagers habitually called the teachers "Sir~ or "Miss,~ but no o ne called Li "Miss.~ As far as the children were concerned, she was "young Li . ~ Li did not mind. She was used to it, as that was what they had called her when she was a messenger girl. After Li's arrival , Mr. Jin did not need to teach any more classes (apart from "farm l abor~ classes), and he became even more slack. After addressing them at assembly, he would go and stand at the bridge, on the lookout for latecomers, although during break he would continue to play coins and ki ck shuttlecocks with the students. Even when he took farm laoor classes, he only walked along the dykes at the edge of the fields, his hands clasped behind his back, supervising the work Li, on th e other hand , made a point of joining in all the farm work, although, as young Tao soon realized, she was the least able worker (himself excluded) in spite of all her enthusiasm . Young Tao and Li should have been drawn together by the fac t that they were both from Nanjing and both hopeless at farm work. In aCl ual fact, young Tao was al pains 10 avoid Li and was terrified in case anyone should sec similariti es belween them . li, in contrast, took a special interest in the boy. On several occasions, she grabbed his hand in front of everyone and bombarded him with questions like, "Have you settled in?" "How do you like

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the food?" "Arc your mom and dad well?" And so on and so forth. She spoke to him in the Nanjing dialect. Young Tao made his answers as brief as possible and gave them in the Sanyu dialect. li was plump and fair skinned, which also made the boy feel uncomfortable. It reminded him of what September and little Dick had said about Guilan and what September had said that day in the village. Not only were li and young Tao the least able farm workers, but th ey were also the fairest skinned in the village. They had so many things in common that young Tao's unease began to turn into someth ing like loathing. One spr ing morning during break, Li stood propped in the school doorway enjoying the sunshine. The students squeezed past her, each time pressing her plump thighs. They kept going in and out, but li seemed to be completely unaware of what they were doing and just gazed absently into the distance. The field in front of the school was beginning to turn a tender green. On the other side of the stream, a black and a brown dog were mating. In the schoolyard there was a general racket as Mr. Jin and his students pinged their coins into the circle. Suddenly someone shouted, and the chi ldren raced to the stream and began to throw dods of earth at the dogs 011 the other side. The dogs yelped and tried to nee but could not get free of each other despite all thcir dforts. The chi ldren yelled and hurled their missiles in increasing excitement. One of the class monitors rushed back to the classroom (and not to press li's thighs this time) , then rushed out again with the broom. Other children followed behind, arm ed with branches and st iCks, spades and shovels, and headed over the bridge to surround the dogs. The militia commander's dogs (for that was who they were) were by now facing in opposite directions, although with thei r hindquarters stuck fast together The brown dog was a bit bigger and just strong enough to pull th e black dog along a few feet, but the bl ack dog still struggled so that the pa ir movcd along in fits and starts, yelping as they went At this point li stopped propping up the doorpost and looked around for Mr. Jin . But the teacher was still playing coins, laughing heartily, and following proceedings with keen interest. Li was nonplussed . Then, on impulse, she ran to the bridge, blocked the children's way, and said something unpardonably stupid. "Who lied those dogs up?~ she said. MGo and

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unti e them! " The children burst out laughing, and the class monitor responded, "Please, Miss, the dogs arc sc rewing !~ "What nonsense! Don't use suc h dirty language! ~ "It's not nonsense_The dogs are screwing! Ask Mr. Ji n_ ~ O f course li did not go and ask Mr. Jin She suddenly understood , and aggrieved and shamed , she burst out crying_ Glinded by tears, she neve r saw th e o utcome of the great bailie between man and beast. But the ping-ping of the coin game and the children's raucous laughter COlllinued to ring in her ears

5 Young Tao detested li even more after this. He had not understood what was going on when the militia commander's dogs were mating, but at least he had not, as she had, made up his mind that someone had ti ed th em together li's authority crumbled as a result of this incident. The students not o nly did not call her "Miss," but they no longer listened to her. It was bed lam in the schoolroom _ If li dared to tell disruptive stude nts off, the response would be, "Who tied up the dogs then?" The gi rl would turn red to her cars, drop her textbook, and, forci ng back her tears, rush out of the room. Then Mr. Jin would appear, stop li from fleeing, and mete out punishment to the troublem akers. Spreading ou t th e broken gl ass before the blackboard, he would order the st ud ents to kneel and do penance before Cha irman Mao. The bare-legged miscreants, blood running from their knees, would weep and curse LL All the imprecati ons were heaped o n her head since no one dared say a word against Mr_ Jin li tried to restrain Mr. Jin, but th e laller ignored her remonstrations and wo uld COlllinue to ask the kneelers, "Do you submi t nowr If the stud ents did not, then they would be pressed down again_ There would foll ow anoth er bout of weeping a nd wailing and call ing li all the bad names they could think of. Eventually, li wou ld faint and in this way bring the scene of bedlam to a n end . Soon everyone knew that li co uld not stand the sigh t of blood, es pecially human blood when there was a lot of it a nd it made a big pU(ld le. Whenever she fainted, she collapsed onto the floor at the front of the classroom, and th e chi ldren left thei r desks and rushed

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up to surround her. Mr. Jin would support her back and pinch her upper lip hard , and if that did not work, he would box her cars. O nce he bent down and gave her mouth-to-mouth resuscitatio n. At this, dozens of dirty hands reached o ut and had a good feel of th e girl's clothes. It made young Tao remember the day the pig-herder children had surrounded him and done the same thing. Each time , after a period of torments, li ca me to, and a couple of strong lads were ins tructed to carry her to the Jins' big bed to lie down . The kneeling punishment was so effect ive that Mr.Jin grad ual ly abolished the nose-rubbing an d the song and dance punishments, and everyone, whet her a fault was mino r o r serious, had to kneel before Chairman Mao. Knees bled, and Li fainted. The students being punished were no longer so unwilling to face their pun ishm ent, alth ough they st ill wept and wai led. In fact, if no one had been ma(le to kneel for a while, the students felt something was lacking. Then they would be deliberately naughty to annoy (or rather to please) Mr. Jin . The simplest way of doing this was to say to li, ~Who tied them up then?" o r ~Please, Miss, the dogs are screwing!"

6 The year after the Taos had moved into their new house, young Tao left Sanyu Primary and started in the third year at Gez huang Primary, a mile and a half away. Then he heard that Mr. Jin had bee n arrested. One day the mil itia commander s ummo ned him to the brigade office, and as soon as he went thro ugh the door, two uniformed soldiers rushed out and clapped handcuffs on him He was accused of raping an urbling, li li of course left Sanyu Primary after that and was transfe rred to Laohe commune nearby, where she continued to be an urbling. Her two younger brothers, who as fellow urblings had lived with her in Sanyu, went too The brothers, who were twins, escorted their delicate little sis ter to their new ho me. Watching these two big, hefty fellows disappea r into the distance, the Villagers fo und it hard to believe that li could have been abused by Mr. Jin . By th e sam e token, with the girl under the protection of two such stalwart guardian spirits, they were not overly worri ed about her future.

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Sanyu Primary got a new teacher, and theJins' allot ment went to rack and ruin. Mrs. Ji n was forced to do the gardening herself. The son left the cou nty middle school and came home, with none of h is former airs, and no longer even wearing his scarf. The villagers felt some sympalhy for the Jin family's disgrace. They blamed li for causing all the lroubl e. She had walked away from it, bUl Mr. J in would spend the rcst of his life in jail. As they put it , ~ I f the bitch doesn'l lifl her lail, how can the dog moun t her?" And, "Mr. Ji n made her happy, and he's the one who got the blame! n The arguments about Li continu ed long after she had lert Sanyu, among the urblings too. Their views of course were somewhat d iffe rent from th e villagers'. According to the urblings, what had happe ned to Li was owing to her ignorance. 11 was obvious the dogs had been mating; how coul d she have thought someone had tied them up? Her miSlake h ad allowed Mr. Jin lO take advantage o f her_ Si nce sh e was h ere in the countryside as an urbling, it was im perative lh at sh e accepl reeducalio n by th e poor peasa nLS_ BUl she h ad had a sh eltered upbri nging, had let her brolhers shoulder the burden of the farmwork, and had been slack at reforming her outlook She had been firSl a mcssenger, th en a teacher, and had never really grasped the hoc. If you did not grasp the hoc, how were you to learn the necessary facLS of farming life? The more they talked, the more they felt they were righl. O ne urbling was ready with an example from her own experience. Before leavi ng the city, she had heard that according to country folk, no one from the city cou ld tell wheat from leeks. That was true , but there were no wheatficlds in the city, so lhere was no wheat to be seen_ There were, h owever, leeks in the vegetable markeLS, so the urbli ng in question weill and boughl herself some leeks, took them home, and spe nt a whole afternoon inspecling them_ Her a rgu me nt was sim ply thal if she could learn to recognize leeks, then what looked like leeks but were not mUSl be wheat. The test ca me when she arrived in Sanyu. A villager pointed to the wheat and suggt'"Sted it was leeks; he pOinted to the leeks and said , "That's wheat, isn't it?" She got the answers righl. However, her questioner seemed dissatisfied . not to say disappointed . So the next time the villagers pOinted to the wheat, she gave the wrong

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answer: "o f course they're leeks," she said . "They taste nice if you slice them and fry them with eggs." This allowed the villagers to have the last laugh: ·'Once a townie, always a townie. Can't even tell wheat from leeks! " It was one thing to tell the villagers what they wanted to hear because it was a necessary part of reeducation. But it was quite another really not knowing wheat from leeks. And li really had no t known that the dogs had been mating

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FIVE

Animals

I Young Tao had several dogs during his tim e at San yu_ The first was Patch_ Patch's mother was Lii Suying's black an d wh ite dog. Young Tao had mel th e dog on their first d ay in Sanyu, when he fed her a bit of meal. So they were al ready acquainted when, the next spri ng, the bitch had a litter of pup pies, and young Tao brought o ne ho me. like his mo ther, Patch loved meat; unlike her, if he wan led some, he could get it. His mother had probably eaten only o ne bit of meal in her life, and thai was the bit young Tao had given her. She had not had an y s ince then , hut her son could cat meat to his heart's conlen l. When they m oved into the new house a nd Patch did not w ant 10 come, yo ung Tao tempted him over with a dish of Slewed pork O f course the Taos d id not cook meat especially for Patch. He ate j ust the same as everyone else in the famil y. Since the Taos had a varied diet, so did Patch: every day he got plenty of good, fatty meat, and he acqui red a taste for everything else they ate too. He got some of the chi cke n feed that Su Qun cooked up from husks and rice. And he ate poop and drank pee when he gOI the chance. After all, he was still a dog. When he was a pu ppy, he would sq ueeze in through the dog hole every morn ing, stick his head inlO the spittoon at the bottom of th e bcd, and lap u p the contents. He frequently gal beaten for this bad habit and gradually stopped when the fam ily was aro und. But behind his masters' backs, who knew what he did? Palch regarded mice and small birds as tasty morsels and would oflen catch and eat th em . Young Tao had also seen him eat grass

77

and even lumps of earth. With such a good appetite, Patch grew fast and was bigger than his mother, La Suying's bitch, in less than a year. In fact, he was the biggest and fattest dog in the whole of the Sanyu Number I Production Team . Outside the production team, the only dogs bigger than Patch were the militia commander's brown dog and the two at the Xiaodunkou shop. Everyone knew the commander's dog, especially since the business with young Li The other two were communally owned and kept specially to guard the store; they were different because they were real mastiffs, and they got their own grain rat ion. Young Tao dreamed of the day when Patch would be a bit bigger and he could take him to meet them. 11 was Patch's thick and shi ny coat, however, that really made him st and oul. The black hair shone lustrous, like human hai r, while from a distance the white was like silver. Underneath this shiny coat, his nesh rippled ent icingly The villagers were consumed with envy at first when they saw the Taos feeding meat to their dog Then they relaxed Theyactually hoped that the Taos would fatten him up even more, into delicious dog meal. Patch was convening the Taos' meals into food that they could cal. They had already found out that the Taos did 110t cat dog meat, especially not Patch's meat (they quite understood this). But dogs were there to be eaten. If he were not, it would be a waste of a nice, fat dog. The villagers speculated that Patch's pelt would make a lovely warm mat, big enough for a whole bed. You wouldn't need a brazier in midwinter if you had one of those. Turned into a fur-lined jacket, he would be so hot thai you would get prickly heat, and as fur-lined trousers, he would be a sure cure for rheumatic joints. You could also sell his dick and his balls to the commune for thiny cents. It was a pity they were sold per piece. Priced by weight, they would have made a lot more money. These comments sometimes reached the Taos' cars. The family became extra vigilant when they heard all this. Tao forbade them to feed Patch meat, but even without meat, there was still a lot of fat in their food, a nd it was clear Patch was not going to lose weight in a hurry. Luckily he was a dog who was keen to gel on in the world. Sanyu-born and -bred he may have been, but he was a real social climber. (Eating the Taos' meals made him

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forget his roots. If villagers came to call, he would bark furiously.) He rarely went beyond his front door unless it was with his masters, or with the other dogs. He never went to La Suying's to see his mother, and he would nOI even look at any food Ihe villagers tried 10 tempt him with. Butlhe odd thing was thai whenever someone with a Nanjing accent dropped by- an urbling or a banished cadre, for instance- he would wag his lail and fawn over him or her. None of Ihis endeared him to the villagers In fact it gave them all the more reason 10 wanl 10 strip off his pelt and devour his flesh. Even if Patch had nOI been so fal, there is no doubt thai they would have felt the same way. The Irouble was thai Patch was dingy wilh members of his family. If they wen I out, he inslanlly tagged along behind as they dropped in on this or that villager and then accompanied them back home. But on Iht.'Se occasions. he was never oul of his masters' sigh t (or falher, Ihey were never out of his), and so the villagers did not get the ch an ce 10 lay hands on him. Su Qun was the only one of the Taos who rode a bicycle. Her Flying Pigeon bicycle, bought when young Tao was born so that she could gel home from work to breast-feed, had been brought to Sanyu from Nanjing along with the other furniture Now Su Qun cycled to and from Wangji Markel 10 buy the basics the family needed. She also used it to fetch Ihe grain ralions from the commune grain station for herself, Tao, and Grandpa Tao . Every time he heard Ihe bicycle bell or saw Su Qun put on her gloves, Palch gOI up. He knew Su Qun was going out and raced ahead of her to the bridge leading out of Ihe enclosure . There he waited for her 10 pass and trOlled along behind as far as the riverbank. BUI Wangji Market was five kilometers away, and Patch was not allowed to follow her allihe way, so young Tao's task was to keep an eye on him when Su Qun was about to leave and stop him from getting up or drive him back from the bridge. Once, however, about five minules after Su Qun had lefl, Patch slipped across the bridge and rushed madly after her. The road was fulled and Su Qun was cycling slowly, but slill faster than a walking pace. He muSI have gone al quite a lick 10 calch up with her before the villagers discovered him. By Ihis lime Su Qun had gone some dis lance. She gOI off her bike and went back toward the dog,

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throwing clods of ea rth at him and stam ping to frigh ten him off. Patch had never seen Su Qun so angry and knew he had done wrong. Tail between his legs, he slunk off back the way he had come . Wh en he was out of sigh t, Su Qun got back on her bike and rode on toward Wangji Market. Needless to say, Patch never arrived home. He met the vill agers on th e way, and th ey kill ed and ate him. For a month afterward , Tao and young Tao made separate searches of the village, but without success. Walking through th e village streets, they found themse lves in volu ntarily st icking their noses up into the air and sniffing as hard as they could. O nce they smd le([ something that might have been dog meat, but then in a sudd en gust of wind it was gone.

2 Soon after, a vill ager brought them a just.weaned puppy. It was a completely unsolicited gift. The Taos had not said they wanted another dog. Young Tao was delighted. The puppy's coat was pure wh ite, so he call ed it Snowy Tao felt the villagers had ulterior motives: they wou ld wait until Snowy was big and fat and then cat him up. It was obviously a plol. But seeing you ng Tao's delight, he did not have th e heart to send the puppy back. Snowy settled down at the Taos. Thanks to his good diet, he cou ld not avoid growing hugely fat, although Tao constantly warned them not to give the dog meat or whatever else they were eating. A bit of chi cken feed would do and would stop him going th e way of Patch. Young Tao actually obeyed because he was concerned about Snowy's fat e. But Grandpa Tao took no no ti ce. He fed the dog three meal s a day, not because he cared for Snowy especially, but because he was generous by nature to everyone, and that included dogs. He was lavish in his treatment of the villagers, therefo re even more so where his own family'S animals were concerned . There were con· stan t battles between Tao and Grandpa Tao about thiS, and these somet im es became very acrim o nio us, as you will read later in these pages. It was just Grandpas way of doing things, Tao realized , and as his fat her was very st ubbo rn , Tao eventually gave up the ba ltIc .

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When he was fully grown , Snowy was just as heavy as Patchnot as big, but fatter. Then there was his coat, which was s uch a (Iazzling white it could be seen for miles. Added to this, he was in th e habit of roaming around the village in search of bitches. So one day the village ve t came home with Tao, and preparations were made to castrate Snowy Castration was a bloody affair, but no one in the famil y raised any objections. Tao told his son to hold th e dog down. Then he fetched a three-pronged gardening fork and pinned Snowy down with a prong on either side of his neck. This effecti vely separated Snowy's head from his body, and Tao sunk the fork deep into the earth so that there was no way the dog could move. The vct took out a knife , felt gently between the dog's legs, and suddenly there was a gush of blood. Snowy yelped loudly, and young Tao, who was holding his back legs down, nearly j umped o ut of hiss kin. Wh en released from th e garden fork, Snowy jumped up and ran off toward the prod ucti o n team field s to the so uth of the house, hopping o n three legs. He ye lped as he ran and left drops of fresh blood behind him that made a dotted trail on the ground. Young Tao fo ll owed his tracks as far as th e banks of the Yanma River. Snowy had stopped by then but still stood with one leg raised. His cro tch was all bloodied, and the hair o n his legs was a ll red too. Young Tao made seve ral attempts to get ncar Snowy, but each time the dog jumped away. When the boy stood st ill, so did he , looking at you ng Tao with eyes full of fear. Intermittently he wh impered. This scene on the riverbank continued until it grew dark. Young Tao stayed with Snowy because he was afraid that ifhe left him, th e dog wo uld no t get home on his own. He remembered that when they had moved to th e new house, Patch had refused to leave the cowshed with si mil ar obstinacy. And Snowy of course had good reason to be upset In the growing gloom, Snowy's white coat fad ed away until o nly a pair of dog's eyes and the ripples on the su rface of the water glittered in the darkness. Young Tao crept closer and closer until fina ll y he succeeded in touching Snowy's damp head. The castrat io n put a stop to Snowy's roaming. Even when the fami ly went o ut , he cou ld no t be bothered to follow. He lay s unning him sel f by th e front door and did nothing but cat a nd sleep. As far as he was conce rned , his castration was all to the good, as now he

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could devote himsel f to eating and drinking. It was impossible to stop him from getting fatter and fatt er. Th e fatter he got, the less he wanted to move, and the less he moved aro und, the fatter he got. Added to this, his coat, gleaming white as a cherub's bottom, glistened as he wand ered around the ho use. Of co urse the vill agers saw him wandering around too, hut not very often. Snowy led a eunuch's life of peace and idlen ess for nearly a year. Gut nothing lasts forever, and one day he was faced with a new threat. Rum ors spread abou t an epidemic of an extremel y serio us disease called leptospirosis. Dogs had something to do wit h the way it was spread, and the cou nty government ordered a dog c ull. Th e villagers had no idea what leptospirosis might be, no r had anyone caught it , but they definitely approved of c ulling dogs. The fir st dog that they th ought of was the Taos' Snowy. O f cou rse th ey had 10 work up to culling him gradually. Hot bean curd could nOI be gobbled down in a hurry. or in olh er words, more haste, less speed . The Sanyu brigade organized a dog-cullieam, a nd September and lillie Dick were in il Th ey started with their own dogs, which, puny Ihough Ihey were, could slill be ealen. Rather Ihan the usual dog-eat-m eat , il was a qm.."Slion of eat-dog-meat. ror some time, the village dogs barked all day, and the ai r was filled with th e fr agrant s mell of dog meal. Snowy took refuge under the bed. Th e villagers were becoming addicted to dog meal. Gut they paid this heavy pri ce with one si ngle goal in mind: gelling thei r hands on th e Taos' Snowy. Finally o ne day, armed with cudgels a nd shovels, they arrived at the Taos' door. Tao had no good reason for refusing 10 allow them 10 cull Snowy. He was the o nly remaining dog in Ih e whole village (even the militia comm ander's dogs had been kill ed), as well as the fattesl and strongest. Telling Ih e team thai Snowy had laken refuge under th e bed and wo uld nOI come out , Tao delegaled responsibility 10 young Tao: if he could get him out, then th ey could take him away and kill him . The team gathered around young Tao and told him to get Snowy out. Tears streaming down his fa ce, young Tao tem pted the dog o ut of the house with a bowl of stewed pork. The culling team, waiting o utside , ambushed him with shouts and blocked off his escape

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route back insi de. With a last desperate bound, Snowy made fo r the back of the house. There, under the back window of the living room, he was killed. When young Tao went around to the back with th e dish of pork, he saw Septem ber dragging Snowy over the bridge. There was a drop of blood under Snowy's nose, but apan from that , he was as s now white as ever. That evening th ere was an especially s trong a roma of dog meat in the village. Word swiftly got around that the Taos' dog had been done to death. It was like Spring Festi val They all converged on the threshing nOOf, carryi ng bowls and dishes to enjoy Ihe feast of dog meal. The Taos of course did not go. But at least this time they had the consolation of knowing who had killed Snowy and who had eaten him , unlike with Patch, whose death remained a mystery. The villagers had no reason to be anything ot her tha n completely honest about eating Snowy. Afterward, his pelt was priced and sold to Mr. Yu, th e head of th e Sanyu production team, with the money going inlO the learn coffers Wh en Tao went to his house to discuss farming business, Yu would raise th e ragged piece of cotIon wadding covering th e lattice bed and stroke the dog-skin rug undern eath. "This is your Snowy's pelt. It's really warm!~ He said this with no ill intent. It was meallt as a compliment. Snowy's di ck and balls were given to September, a rewa rd for his hard work during the dog cull , and he sold them 10 Ihe commune for thirty ccnLS.

3 The Taos' third dog was brown and so was called Brownie. He was a survivor of th e dog cull A peasant from th e village had risen early one day to go to market and passed a dog-killing ground A bitch had been s ki nned and the body hung from a tree, the fangs bared Underneath were three puppies, apparently belonging to th e bitch One was still breathing, and the peasa nt (it was Youyi), seeing no o ne in Sight , picked it up, put it in his basket, and brought it back to Sanyu. Dead dogs were common at that time (otherwise the carcass of the bitch and the pups would no t have been left uncollected by the roadside), but live dogs were extremely hard to get hold of. Youyi took the pup home an d reared it carefully.

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The dog cull was in the closing stages, and the villagers turned a blind eye. By the time Brownie was half grown, the cull was over, and no one talked about killing dogs anymore . Sanyu was silent but for th e crowi ng of cocks (Brownie did not bark, perhaps because he was still traumatized). The distress that the Taos had suffered at Snowy's death had eased, and young Tao was beginning to beg fo r an oth er dog. Tao discussed it with Youyi and bought Grownie. Gut the deal was concluded between humans, and no one told Grownie. As any dog would, during the day he wwt to the Taos to eat since the food was good there, but at night he returned to guard Youyi's house . Tao talke(1 to Youyi about this on several occasions. So Youyi stoo(1 at his bridge, and when he saw Grownie com ing, he drove him back with a stick. And the Taos tried to coax Grownie in by feeding him even better and more abundant food. Gut Brownie did not mind poverty, and neither of these tactics worked. Brownie carried on eating at the Taos and being Youyi's guard dog. Ind eed, there were reports that Youyi was only pUlling on a show of brandishing a sti ck at Grownie for the Taos' benefi t and that actually the dog was warmly received at Youyi's o nce he had come back from dining at the Taos. As Youyi felt Brownie's silky coat and watched him grow big and strong, he began to do some calculatio ns. This dog of the Taos woul(1 die o ne day, and as he was its former owner, still bound to the dog with ties of affection, skinn ing the carcass a nd eat.ing the meat would naturally fall to him. What a joy if he and his family cou ld have exclusive enjoyment of Brownie's nesh and pelt! The Taos gradually realized what Youyi had in mind and began to put some distance between themselves and Grownie. Now it was Tao and hi s son who stood at the bridge ready to drive th e dog back, no t Youyi After they had done this a few times, the dog stopped corning. He was Youyi's dog now No one even called him Brownie, just "dog" or "the brown dog" or "Youyi's dog" or "Youyi's brown dog," in the village fashion, although the Taos could not reclaim the ten yuan they had paid for him . Apparently Youyi's family killed and ate Brownie before he got skinny again. That was what the Taos heard, anyway, but they did not want to enquire too closely.

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4 There was another reason for the Taos' giving up Brownie, and that was that they now had Blackic_ l31ackie was of course a black dog, and when he arrived at the Taos, he was still vcry small, just weaned in fael (like Patch and Snowy) The cull was now completely al an end, and everyone was beginning to keep dogs again, small ones. 11 was strange that there were no large dogs. Where had all these small ones popped up from? [\ was impossible to lell exactly where. 1t was as if they had not needed mothers and fathers, as i f they had jusl grown oul of the trunk of a tree or lcapl oul of a mound of earth_ Anyway, every village household now had a small dog, and strangers passing through the village were greeted by a pleasant chorus of puppies yapping Blackie arrived at the Taos aboul then; this was good timing, as he loved 10 be one of the crowd The Taos had learned a lesson from having Patch and Snowy, and they did not feed Blackie meat or anything else that they ale. He got chickenfeed to cat-and scant portions of it at thaI. On such a diet he was always hungry. He grov no bigger than the rest of the village dogs, and his coat was a dull black. Then Blackie got mange. Su Qun knew quite well that a dusting of anti-inflammatory powder or an application of manganese dioxide 10 the affecled area would cure it immediately. Gut Tao dissuaded her from her impulse 10 doctor him. Blackie's mange spread until he had bald palches all over and looked like he had a tally old jacket on. He had become a real ~mangy dog,~ one that it would never occur 10 Ihe Sanyu villagers 10 lay a hand on. Thanks 10 his mange, Glackie lived a long life, the longest of all the Taos' dogs. He enjoyed his freedom, was not castrated, mated with any village bitches he liked, and prowled around the village and its environs at will, without anyone wanting to eat his nesh. He was not only mangy, but he was also almost wild . The Villagers likc<[ him and gave him tidbits like yam stalks and bean cakes, which Blackie always accepted At worst, the villagers might aim a couple of kicks at him to vent some annoyance with the Taos. Then Glackie would give a yelp or IWO, and that would be thaI.

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Blackie was still alive when the Taos moved to Hongze County Town. They gave him to September to look after and thought that that would be the death of him. But it was not. Whcn September came to town to see the Taos, he brought Blackie with him. Blackie wagged his tail and shook his patchy gray coat (he had gone quite gray by now) . But although he seemed excited, he obviously did not recognize them This ingratiating behavior was just a way of begging for food. It was clear that September had brought him in th e hope of a reward. They gave him generous presents of old clothes, some medicine, and five yuan, and then he limpcd off home with Blackic, a basket over his arm

5 1 have gone into every detail of the lives of the Taos' four dogs, and this is not on ly because dogs play an imponaJ1l pan in the life of a child. The Taos' dogs followed them right through their stay in the couillryside (they got Patch shonly after they arrived , and Blackie was still alive when they left Sanyu), so I can also use dogs as a way of marking the passing of their years there. You will often lead in the pages that follow, ~when the Taos had Patch .. . \ "When Snowy was still alive .. .~; "Not long after they got Brownie ... "; or ·'During Blackie's time .. .. ~ My readers may find this strange, but young Tao would definitely have approved. Let me now tell you a bit about their other animals-the ir cat, for instan ce. The Taos had a cat in Sanyu. It was an ordinary tabby cat that lived through the reigns of their four dogs and even went to Hongze with them. There the tabby lived out the remainder of its life an d in due course passed peacefully away. Dogs are supposed to live longer than cats, so this eat's longevity is another way of underscoring the sad fates suffered by some of the Taos' dogs. With th e dietary standards of the Tao household, the tabby cat (who, unlike the dogs, had no name) grew big and fat and weighed over ten pounds. It generally bu llied the family's succession of dogs, at least when they first arrived. The situation was reversed when they grew up, although they usually got along well enough. There was just one time when the tabby became a scapegoat for Snowy's mis.:leeds.

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A hen had j ust hatched a brood of bright yellow chicks, which followed their mo ther around in search of food. One day when Su Q un chec ked, two were missing. Suspici o n fell o n Snowy and the tabby. J ust th en the tabby came out th e front door. She looked so much tubbier than normal that young Tao snatched her up for inspection and confirmed that her belly was markedly distended So the blame for eating the chi cks was pinned on the tabby. She had to be punished to prevent a recurrence, and she was put in a nylon bag and hung from th e branch of a tree by the ri ver. The cat's fur pressed through the squa res of mesh, deliciously Silky to the touch. Unable to move, she mewed piteously. But young Tao felt this did not go fa r enough; he got some quinine tablets, crushed them, forced th e cat's mouth open , and smeared the powder on the cat's tongue. Q uin in e was ex tremely biller. Young Tao had been given some when he had swamp fever, and he could no t help feeling for the cal. As he watched her pucker her mouth, it was as if the bitter dose had bee n poured into his own . When he had been given it, he had put it under his tongue and swallowed it with a big gulp of warm water so that the tip of his to ngue had not really noticed it, and even then it had been unbearabl y biner When the cat was let o ut , she gave a sneeze and shot away. She was not see n for some time , and young Tao was disappointed. Even when Snowy had been castrated, he had come home, and that had been after a much more painful injury. But the tabby had had a bit of qui nine and then just run off! Three days later, a sound of mewing ca me from the cookho usenot from the cat but from kittens The famil y followed the noise, and in a wicker coal basket with a matting cover they fo und the tabby cat with three kittens, eyes tightly shut, sucking at her teats. She had obviously not been the one who had eaten the chicks. Her ro und belly was because she was having kittens. The most embarrassi ng thing for the Taos was that they had not known th e tabby was a she. For a whole year they had thought it was a tomcat. When it first arri ved, Tao had checked seve ra l times and confirm ed its sex, and since there was nothing he did not know abou t country life , the ot hers had no reason to doubt him . The arfa ir taught them one thing: they had to keep learning o r Mmodestly receiving reeducation from the peasants,~ as Tao pul it to

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his son. Otherwise they would sooner or later be the butt of vill age jokes, like the one about leeks and wheat or the one about dogs being tied together. The kinens were given away, and the tabby did not have any more liners. She was a big, fat cat, but her belly was just normal. Even so, young Tao still sometimes hung her from a tree in a bag because he liked the feel of her fur through the mesh. He sometimes dosed her with quinine too, depending on the seriousness of the cat's misdemeanor The mildest punishment was to allach clothespins to the eat's ears. The tabby would wobble her head and cars as if she were wearing an imperial cap with wings. Although she had not been guilty of stealing chicks, it was not hard to catch her out in other crimes, such as stealing fish or shitling in the wrong place. All the punishments were carried out by young Tao, and eventually the tabby would nee as soon as she saw him . Granny Tao concluded that the pair of them must have been enemies in a former life.

6 Young Tao was the enemy nOI only of the cat, but also of all the other animals apart from the dogs. Take the chickens, for example. When he was bored, he would o pen their pen, go in with Snowy o r Patch, and chase them around The chickens would fly up in fright, scallering feathers ever)'\vhere. Somclimes they would fly out over the three-meter-high fence of sunflower stalks. Young Tao was in charge of killing the chickens too. There was plenty of variety in Ihe Taos' diet, and they ate chicken all year round. In Ihe depths of winter, a time the villagers called the ~Nines,~ they killed one or two chickens every nine days to make a nutritious chicken soup (Young Tao was a growing boy and needed extra nourishment.) There were nine periods of nine days in the ~Nines,~ making eighty-one days in all, which meanl that young Tao, by the end of the eighty-one days, had killed up to twenty chickens. It was no easy task killing chickens. Young Tao stood in the front yard, a kitchen knife in one hand, bent the chicken's head backward , and plucked the short feathers from its throat. He brought the knife down, and there was a spurt of blood . On the ground, a

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bowl half full of sa lt water was ready to collect it. The killing left no trace of blood on the ground, just a few feathe rs and a little heap of chicken sh it deposited during the st ruggle. Eventuall y young Tao did not need anyone else's help. He could perform the whole opera~ ti on him sel f, cleanly and skillfully In fact, he had virtually become a professional killer. The geese and ducks were slaughtered in much the same way, with th e difference that th e geese in particular were much bigger and more of a job to kill Plus, th e Taos ate goose less often, so you ng Tao did not get enough practice. Once he put a goose down after cutling its artery and filling a big bowlful of blood, but the goose got up agai n, twisting its injured neck, and staggered around cackling frightfully and soa king the ground in blood. This was one of young Tao's infreq uent failures, ~ nd he never forgot it. There was nothing difficult about killing fi sh , though. The 5anyu region was crisscrossed with waterways that teemed with all kinds of fish . 50 th e Taos ate fis h oft en Young Tao killed fish not singly but by th e pound As many as ten pounds of fish at a ti me lay in a wooden bowl; young Tao took them one by one, banged th em on the ground, and with a singl e movement sl it their bellies. The water in the washing bowl turned red with blood . IJvery time he changed the water, the red turned paler until it was com pletel y clear. The fish, gutled and de-gilled, fl oated on the s urface of the water as if they were alive and bobbing in the waves. That was for ord inary, eve ryday fish. But there were two kinds of fi sh that were killed a bit differentl}'. One was the cat fish, whi ch had two long, whiskery antennae growing out of its head and a tria ngularshaped body. To kill a catfi sh , you had to use a pair of scissors, CUlting a slit where the belly joined the head and then rippi ng right down th e belly to the bollom . The second kind was the swamp eel. To kill it you nailed the fi sh's head to a piece of wood and drew a sharp sliver of bamboo (or a fruit knife would do) downward from the triangular·sh aped skull , separating th e bone from the fl esh JUSI two or three slashes and the job would be done . Over the years, you ng Tao kill ed so many finn ed and feathered creatures that it was no wonder his grandmother sa id they must have been enemies in a former life. 5u Qun was pleased that you ng Tao was prepared to take over this chore , and Grandpa Tao encouraged him to kill more so he cou ld

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cat more, as he was a growing boy now, And Tao, whose o pinion counte([ most to the boy, believed that these killing sprees showed the kind of courage that a boy ought to have and that would serve him well in his future life in Sanyu. "who says all city folk faint at the sight of blood like young LP Our Taotao isn't like thal.~ Encouraged by the grown-ups, young Tao became an even more deadly killer. He never tired of it, even though it was hard, dirty work It never occurred to him to ask why the adults did not do any killing or why Granny Tao said that all this killing was a sin an d that if he carried on, he would not be reincarnated as a man in the next life (though he paid little attention to her comments, as she was ill iterate and the rest of the fam ily rega rd ed her as superstitious.) Actuall y, the villagers said much the same as Granny Tao, but their comments were quite obviously due to jealousy. They ate fis h and poultry and killed them themselves (as they did dogs, pigs, and cattl e), but they were too poor to do it often . The only animals the Taos did not rear were pigs . Everyone had a pig in Sanyu, but young Tao could not slaughter one on his own, and perhaps the other members of the family were unwilli ng to lend a hand. By the time young Tao was twelve (it was just after Brownie had arrived), killing fish and chickens was losing its appeal. "Why don't we get a pig?~ he suggested to his fathe r. ~l can kill it!~ Tao gave him a long look "Would you really be able to kill a pig we've reared? ~ "o f course!" young Tao replied, Tao Sigh ed and said, "I think you've become a bit too cou rageous." They never did get a pig, and young Tao could not help feeling that was a pitY- He never did get to feel the joy of plunging a clean knife in and bringing it out all red .

7 Apart from encouraging hisson to grow up brave, Tao also paid a good deal of attention to developing his phYSique. Young Tao nee([ed to be strong and healthy to survive in Sanyu. It was no good bei ng weak and weedy if he was to be a peasant engaged in manual labor.

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Every day in su mmer, Tao took young Tao to swi m in the river. He walked in front, bare-chested, clad injust a pair of sho rts, with a towel hanging from his sho ulder. You ng Tao foll owed behind, also bare-chested and with a towel over his shoulder_Tao walked barefoo t, his feet slapping on th e un even riverban k Young Tao wore shoes_Since th e night out with September catching eels, when the soles of his fee t had been jabbed by th e wh eat stubble, he did not dare go barefoot anymore They walked down to th e river together Tao was not tall , but he was stu rdy, with a farm er's build . His calves were parti cularly well rounded, and the pro minent tendons could be seen contract ing as he strode along. When they reached the river, Tao pull ed off his shorts and plunged stark na ked into the murky water. He got young Tao to practice holding his breath in the shallow water by the bank. Once he had practi ced this a few tim es, Tao told his son to let go of th e bank and swim out into the ri ver, while he stood by to assisl. Young Tao tri ed to reach hi s falher, but Tao moved away_Young Tao pan icked, went under, and swall owed mouthfuls of water. Tao rescued him in time, but the experience put the boy off swimm ing, and he even forgot th e movemen ts he had learned _ Young Tao had had high ambitions when he had started learning. Although the area around Sanyu was crisscrossed with waterways, few villagers swam Women certainly did not, no r did many men . Most of the swi mmers were boys and girls. [t was odd that once they had grown into young men and women, they did not swim anymore. Wh en th e village children swam, it was in the strea ms in front of their houses_They dog-paddled, spl ashing all aboul. It looked awkward and was tiring, but they did no t kn ow any other s trokes_The villagers did not even call it "swimming"; they called it "noating" Young Tao was not going to learn th e dog paddle (he could not be bothered ) but proper swimming What he wanted to learn was the breast stro ke, craw l, or backstroke, like his father did, and not in the s tream in front of the house but in the broad, fast-nowing river waters. With those few mouthfuls of water, however, he admitted defeat. After thiS, you ng Tao took charge of their clothes o n the bank while Tao swam or hung from the bridge, waist deep in the water.

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He watched his father swim back and forth, first the craw\, then th e backstro ke. Somet imes he lay back mot ionless o n the surface of th e water, looking like a corpse or a floating log, lelling the water carry him al ong. From his lower be1lysprouted a patch of jet black pubic hair. On those occasions, young Tao would keep an anxious eye on the surrounding trees, in case a passerby should emerge. In all his years in Sanyu, young Tao never learned to swim, whi ch was odd, consid ering there were places suitable for swim· ming everywhere and he had a father who was so keen on swimming. He not o nl y cou ld not swim in the river, but he cou ld not swim in the village streams either. He not o nly did not know any swimmi ng strokes, but he had not even learned to dog-paddle. When they heard about young Tao going under, the rest of th e fami ly wanted him to stop learni ng. They had their reasons: every year ch ildren drowned in the st reams at Sanyu . Every midsummer, th e chill ing sounds of keen ing and sobbing could be heard around th e village. ~That's why Taotao should learn to swim,~ said his father. ~That's why he shouldn't go swimming in the river,~ responded Su Qun and Granny and Grand pa Tao. It was not that young Tao was always too scared to go to the river. 11 depended on the season. In winter, when thick ice covered the su rface of the water, young Tao particularly liked going ou t on it. When he went to Sanyu Primary, he had to cross the bridge over the Yanm a River every day. When the river was frozen, he and his friends abandoned the bridge and crossed over the ice . Sometimes the icc emilled loud cracking sounds, terrifying them. In general, where th e river was narrower, the ice was thi cker, so it was safe r th ere. The Yanma River was of middling width, so there was a degree of safety, and they could risk it. Of course it also depended on whether it was cold enough, how long it had been fro zen, and how heavy the person on the ice was Wh en young Tao started in th e third year at Gezhuang Primary, he had a much longer journey, with many more bridges, and he s till li ke([ crOSSing o n the ice . It was riskier now because he was on his o wn, and he had grown bigger and heavier. In fact it very rarely happened that people in Sanyu fell thro ugh the icc and drowned. If they did falllhrough, however, it was much

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more dangero us than in su mmer. There was no o ne to save them. They might drown , or they might get hypothermia and freeze to (lcath . So the Sanyu villagers carried a bamboo cane if they took a shortcut across the ice. If th ey di d happen to fall through a hole, they could rest the cane across th e hole, and it could save their life. I have said that young Tao loved his dogs to bi ts and never illtreated th em, but there is one thing I have forgotten. One winter, young Tao took Patch to th e ice. He stood on one bank, and Septem ber stood on the oth er, about forty meters away. Young Tao got hold of Patch's hind legs, gave him a hard push, and Patch slid ac ross to the other si de . September caught him and heaved the dog back to young Tao's side. Patch started by standing sti ff-l egged and immobile o n the icc . It was like pushing a statue of a dog. Then he got (li zzy and fell on his back, all four legs in the air. Wi th his coat rubbing against the icc, there was less resistance than before, and the inertia made him spin round and round When Patch stood up, his claws made long, white scratches on th e surface of the ice. It made young Tao, bundled up in fo ur jerseys, feel hot all over. Young Tao was too scared to swim in the river in summer, but he enjoyed playing o n th e ice in winter, and this was much more dangelOus. His fa ther could not make up his mind whether the boy was brave o r a coward, rash or tim id, cruel or soft-heart ed. Wh ichever it was, he see med to grow stranger and st ranger.

8 Tao talked a lot with his son and never lost an opportun ity to ed ucate him For instan ce, he urged thrift in the treatment of their dogs. If they were to settl e properly here, th ey could not afford to be wasteful and extravagan t Mao ZeJong had called on everyone to ~dig deep tunnel s, store foodstuffs everywhere, and not seck hegemony. " If this appli ed to th e wh ole country, it applied even more to individual famili es. He took young Tao out int o their allotment and taught him about crops and farm ing as they planted trees, grain, and vegetabk'S. The family ate outsi de during the summer. Every even ing, Grandpa Tao emptied two bucketfuls of water outside the fro nt (loor. As the water evaporated , it cooled the hot su mm er air. Then

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Tao brought out a slatted bed. Tao had used this bed on summer evenings since he had been at middle school and lived in a house with a courtyard. The bed base was made of int erlaced bamboo strips of a purplishred color, polished smooth and bright with many years of use. Bamboo beds were reputed to give you a better, and cooler. night's sleep the more you slept on them There was no way the Taos were going to throw it away, so it came to Sanyu with them When they put stools on either side, the bed became a dining table. As the frogs croaked around them, the family sat down to (linner. When they had finishe d, they cleared away, wiped the bed clean, and threw water over it; then they could lie on it and enjoy the cool of the evening. The first to lie on it was Grandpa Tao, but only for half an hour, after which he would get up and make way for someone clse . (Because of his age, he had to keep warm) Su Qun and Granny Tao never lay on the bed because it was supposed to be bad for women . So it was Tao and young Tao's turn next. They lay side by side or sometimes end to end. The bed was narrow, and by the time young Tao was twelve , it was rather cramped. Still, they stretched out flat on their backs, with just the smooth bamboo strips beneath them and the stars above . The stars had always been there, but they had to lie down to see them . Tao waved a plantain-leaf fan with one hand as he taught his son which stars were which . "That's the North Star," he would say, "the brightest star in th e northern sky. In the old days, sailors sailed by the North Star.» And, "That group of stars is the Big Dipper You can see it looks like a spoon. As the years go by, the stars change their position, and the handle of the spoon gets 10ngeL" "I can sec! I can sec!" Young Tao was excited. "And that's Venus," his father continued "Look for its position. If il appears above the eastern horizon in the morning, then it's Venus. In fact, Venus is a planet, like the Earth . Our Earth is part of the solar system. The solar system is in the Milky Way, one of th e more than one hundred million solar systems. So the Milky Way is only a tiny part of the whole universe.» listening to his father's words and looking at the myriad bright Slars in the sky above, young Tao fclt filled with their grandeu r.

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As Tao talked, Youming stood waiting for Grandpa Tao to give him a cigarelle. At Tao's wo rds, he found himsel f looking up, craning his neck to see the stars over Sanyu. The brightly burning end of his cigaret te looked just like another star. Grandpa Tao stayed outside to give Youming cigarenes. His tooth less mouth, with its slackened muscles, was half o pen. Young Tao, from wh ere he lay, saw him sharply silhoueued against the starry sky and began to imagin e that this gliuering Milky Way migh t be comi ng out of Grandpa Tao's aged mouth, that he was spilling it o ut with each breath.

9 Tao also told his son about the cowh erd and the spin ning girl. Th ey were two stars in the sky, and it was a beautiful folk talc too. This kind of tal e would serve to soft en young Tao's boyish heart but must not make it too soft lfit were too soft, he would become a coward, oversensitive and prone to hypochond ria. Then how would he get a foothold in Sanyu? Tao was not sure he was geuing th e balance righl. As a correclive, after telling his SO il about the cowherd and the spinning girl , he would go o n to stori es from the Waler Mar;gin, j ourney lo the West, and the Romance of the Three Kingdoms . Young Tao's ears had a rich diet ! But Tao never told him children's sto ries, not even those by the fam o us Hans Andersen. He fclt that their sadness and aestheticism were quite unsuitable for young Tao and indeed fo r the China they were living in. Wh en young Tao got a bit older- probably about the time when they had Grownie- Tao began to tell him stories from world literature, pri ncipall y from Soviet Russia. He told him the stories of Res urrection and Anna Karenina by Tolstoy and Maxim Gorky's autobiographical tril ogy and Bal zac's Le Ptre CoriOI and Victor Hugo's J 793 . He always s tarted from the beginning so that yo ung Tao wou ld understand the whole picture. Tao told these long, involved sto ries over two o r three yea rs, until after Brownie went back to the Youyis' house and was killed and eaten by his famil y, until after Blackie had grown up and become a mangy dog. Although you ng Tao cou ld read for himsel f by now, he never looke(] at the original works. During the CultRev, most of Tao's

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collect io n of books had been thrown into the bo nfire. Even if they had survived this calamity and Tao stiH had them, he wo uld not have made young Tao read them . The way Tao told them, some bits gOlldl OUI and Olher bits received more emphasis, in line with whal he wan led 10 leach his son He retold the works of the wo rld 's writers nOI for lilerary reasons bUllo teach young Tao abouilife. As a forme r wriler, Tao had only o ne kind of teaching s kill: to lell his son Slori es from lileralure. There was anOlher reason why there were discrepancies between the originals and Tao's releHings, and il was not because his memory let him down. (His collectio n may have been co nSigned to th e flames, bUI every line of his books was imprinted o n his memory.) He pul his own inlerpretal io n o n Ihem oSlensibly to educate young Tao, but aCl ually because he was a born sto ryleller. Since he had bee n forb idden to write his own books, his crealive passio ns fou nd th eir only outlel in borrowing other people's lines. Aher a while young Tao got tired of th ese stories, but Tao forced his son to lislen and would not take no for an answer. Eventually a whole book would be compl eted, and Tao would find that he really had fo rgo tlen th e o riginal and could remember only his revised version Or the two versions had so mehow gotten mixed up, and he no longer had Ihe original al hand 10 make a comparison . So Tao was nOI jusl a creato r, he was also a deslroyer (o f these books) . In the same way, when I have fini shed wriling Ihis book, no Irace will be lefl of the lives thai furni shed me wilh my original malerial.

10 Tao not only PUI his son in charge of the slaughteri ng, but he also made him learn how to do housework Young Tao helped Su Qun wash cloth es in th e river, helped his gran ny scrub the woks and prepare food, and helped Grandpa Tao with the cleaning. He had to do wo men's work and be o n hand to help the old folks 100. Laler o n, he learned nOI just how 10 wash the bedding, bU I also how to sew Ihe quillS back up with a big needle and long st itches, and he cou ld eve n patch Ihe knees or seal of a pair o r tro use rs. Sewing on bullons was no problem at aH. Tao wanled him to learn

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to knit too, but young Tao felt that was too girly and drew the lin e there. Whcn Snowy was still alivc, a distant cousin of young Tao's, an urbling who had bccn scnl 10 a coullly nearby, came 10 Slay for a few days. The Taos Irealed her with cnormous hospilalilY, perhaps even a lillIe 100 much: Ihey would nOllel her lifl a finger, dlher in their home or outsidc. And since she was nOI even allowed to wash her clothes, when she put clean clothes on, she jusl bundled up the dirty oncs and slUlTed Ihem under the bed Onc day, whcn the cousin had gone with Su Qun to the markct, Tao found her clothes and told young Tao to take thcm to thc rivcr to wash . Young Tao was gClling morc skillcd at laundering with every passing day, so washing a few clothes was a small mailer. As he washed them, he came across a garmcnt shaped like a narrow stri p of material with somc suspicious-looking dark spots on it. They lookcd like blood stains to young Tao He soaped and washed it sevcral times over, and the stains became lighter, bUI he could nOI get rid of them completely. Young Tao spelll a whole half hour knceling on th c jelly and washing this strange garment, almost morc lim e Ihan he had spenl on a1\ Ihe other clolhes put together. Then he hung everything on the clOlhesline in front of Ihe house to dry in the brccze. The strip of cloth looked quite conspicuous in thc sun light. Young Tao felt dismaycd that he had not bcen able to gct rid of the spots. Thc laundry had not becn donc to his usual high standard . Whcn the girl camc back from thc market and saw thc clothes drying on the line, shc gavc an involuntary sh rick. Turning scarlct, she look th cm all down (not jusl the strip of clolh) and ran 01T 10 the river to wash Ihcm again. On Ihis occasion, Tao did not SlOp her, nor did he crilicize young Tao. In fact, he said nothing at all; none ohhc family said anything al al l. Aflcr thi s, Tao nevcr made young Tao do Ihe washing again. All the same, he had 10 COlllinuc doing the resl of Ihe housework. He knelt beside thc pile of fuel in the cookhouse, using the bellows to get thc fire started; he put dough balls on to cook and past cd maize pancah-s around the cdge of the woks. Oncc the whole family camc down with nu cxcept for young Tao. Forsevcral (lays he did thc cooking, and although it tasted on ly so-so, Tao

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ate it with relish. "Our Taotao ca n stand on his own two feet,n he boasted. "He'll never sta rve! n As young Tao got older, he took on the daily task of emptying th e toilet bucket by himsel f. Two years ago he had been able to empty only half a bucketful, but now he could carry a whole buckel. Tao's considerati on in del egating this task to him was not his son's em· barrassmelll (whi ch was something you just had to get over when you empti ed th e toilet bucket) but whether he was strong enough. He was now in his teens, so he was th e obvious candidate for lh e job. He did not get any special praise for it. It was just one of th e chores he had to do, and although he was not keen on it at fi rst, he got used to it. The one job young Tao really could not bear was preparing vegetables. Shelling beans and picking over the shepherd's purse was not only monotonous, but it also took ages, and yo ung Tao almost fell asleep over il. If his work was not up to scratch, Tao made him do it again, on the grounds that inculcating patience and perseverance in his son would serve him well in the future. And then th ere was the washing and pickling of the cabbages. Every willler the Taos would salt down a couple of hundred pound s of cabbage. The cabbages were picked and laid al ong th e foot of the wall to dry. When th ey had shriveled a bit, they were washed, packed between layers of sa lt in a large crock, and left to pickle . There was so much cabbage that the whole process took forever and was hard and boring work. Besides that, the river water was so cold th at after washing scores of cabbages, yo ur fingers froze, so they looked like ca rrots and could have been pickled too. For wash ing th e cabbages, the Taos used the same receptacle that they used at other tim es for washi ng fi sh or themselves-a large wooden bowl brimming with water from the stream. Every single leaf of every si ngl e cabbage had to be rinsed, layer by layer, until you got down to th e tender yellow hearl. Young Tao got chilblains every year Sometimes they came after the cabbage washi ng, sometimes before. They became inname(] and we nt septic, and then Su Qun would bathe the sores wit h manganese dioxide and bind them ca refully with a gauze dressing. The Sight of young Tao's hands covered in ch ilblains and swollen like steam ed buns from constantly wash ing cabbages in freezing water dis tressed his grandparents so much that they would gladly

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have taken his place, but Tao refused to let them. He reasoned that his son was getting chilbl ains because he had not been s urfici entl y hardened , so it was all the more necessary that he sho uld carry o n. Once Ihe cabbages had been washed, Ih ey had 10 be layered with saIl. Plunging innam ed hands inlO salt was aculely painful, bUI young Tao stuck it OUI. The Taos pickled thei r cabbages differently from Ihe villagers. Th ey used a di fferenl kind of cabbage, a long-sialked while cabbage thai has been mentio ned in earlier pages The Taos also pickled whole leaves, whereas the Sanyu villagers chopped them . Finally, the Taos added three to four pounds of salt per hundred pounds of cabbage, but the locals put in ten pounds of salt for every hundred pou nds of cabbage . Their pickk-s were almost black and so salty that you cou ld have been eat ing pure salt . The villagers called them Mbittcr pi ckles." There was o ne thing in their favor: a little went a long way When young Tao moaned about his chilblains, his fath er said, ~Wcll al leaSI we're nOI making you use ten pounds of sail! If you wanl 10 dig in al Sanyu, you have to learn 10 li ve like they do. ~ GUI fo r young Tao's chilblain ed hands, Ihere was no difference bctween three and Icn pounds of saIl.

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SIX

The Farm Tools Factory

I II was in Patch's time that the One Strike, Three Antis campaign was launched_ $u QUIl was selected to join the

commune propaganda team, and wilh another banished cadre, she moved to the farm 100ls factory in the town ofWangji Market. She cycled between Wangji Market and Sanyu on her Flying Pigeon bicycle, bringing things for the house she had bought in the market and taking back with her supplies of their own pickled cabbage, packc(] inlO jars and bottles, and a change of clothes. Whenever she came home, 5u Qun was fu ll of news from th e commune headquarters There was onc street (called Wangji Street) in Wangji Market.

Although it was not long, it had everything one needed: post of· fiec, restaurants, com In unc stores, the farm tools factory, outlets for farm machinery and grains, school, clinic, cultural center, a veterinary clinic, and a bank The biggest compound was of course the headquarters of the commune revolutionary comm itt ee, the RevComm; it was made up of scores of modern brick and lile buildings enclosed with a brick wall with an imposing entrance . The other commercial buildings were built of lhe same materials, but the main street was still a dirt road that turned into a sea of mud when it rained. There was a market day every two weeks, and the street filled with peasants making their purchases, the milling throngs packed so tightly that it took a good half hour to get from one end 10 the o ther. Even though the Taos had been in Sanyu for only a short timeless than a year-young Tao had practically turned into a country

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boy. He spoke pure Sanyu dialect, and his memories of Nanjing became hazi er with each passing day. He listened with rapt allention to accounts of the gOings-on in Wangji Market. He had been there to the comm une market a couple of tim es, riding behind his mother on the bicycle back carrier. But now Su Qun had moved to the commune and was living there, which was quite different from taking a day to go to town When Su Qun cam e home to Sanyu, she told them how the One Strike, Th ree Antis campaign was going in the fa rm tools factory. As the invest igati on intensified, it began to reveal just how corrupt the factory head reall y had been. In the face of mounting pressure , he commilled suici de by hanging hi mself in the carpentry workshop. Su Qu n seemed somehow afraid as she told them the story. The propaganda team at the factory consisted just of her and another banished cadre, also a woman. Over a hundred people worked in the fa ctory. They were all surnamed Sun, like the dead man; came from th e sam e village; and were all related (that went some way toward expl aining th e factory head's corrupt practices). All the workers were there when Mr. Sun was cut down from the beams. They stared silently at Su Qun and her coll eague, Mrs. Jiang, and the peculiar look th ey gave them was not something that Su Qun wou ld forget in a hurry. Tao was concerned for Su Qun's safety. Looking at you ng Tao, he said, "If o nl y he were a bit bigger, he could go and look aft er you!" Young Tao was overjoyed "'I'm big enough to go and look after Mom now!" he responded. Tao praised his bravery and sense of filial duty but paid no attention to his offer. The next day, Su Qun rode off on her bicycle. As soon as she had gone, young Tao took a garden fork and went behi nd the house in a pretense of doing some digging He dug for a bit, then he put down his fork and raced after heL Over their bridge, through the village , over the wooden Yanma River bridge, and along the Yanma embankm ent he ran . He ran all the way to Xiaodunkou but saw no sign of his mother. The mad dash made him puff and pant, and he got slower and slower until he had nearly given up hope of catch ing up wi th Su Q un . He kept on running just because it had become automatic. Then he reached the Hong-Wang highway. This road was import ant

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locally as it linked Hongze County Town and Wangji Markel. Xiao(lunkou was a stop along the way. Five miles west lay Hongze, through which the Taos had passed on their way to Sanyu during the Glorious Banishment. Two and a half miles to the east was Wangji Market, the headquarters of the commune. Young Tao turned east In front of him appeared a concrete bridge, its arch blocking the view of the highway beyond. As he huffed up its slope, ready to collapse with exhaustion, the figure of Su Qun gradually rose into view at the other end of the bridge. Young Tao gave a shout: "Mom!" Su Qun turned and saw her son staggering over thc bridge. She at first thought that there had been an accident at home and had to be reassured that all was well. But even then she did not scold him, nor did she send him back. She sat him on the carrier behind her, and mother and son pedaled on to Wangji Market. As they rode, Su Qun turned her head and told young Tao how they had bought this bike when he was born so that she could come home from work to breast-feed him. That was when she had learned 10 ride a bike . At Wangji Market, Ihe road ran alongside a broad river. Its bed was almost dried up, Ihe now of waler reduced 10 IWO nanow rivulets Ihat skirted a diamond -shaped sandbank in the middle. "Doesn't it look like Treasure Island?~ said his mother. MLets call it Treasure Island! ~ As for young Tao's deciding to leave home on his own, not a word was said . Su Qun seemed not to care that he would be missing school, either.

2 So young Tao began a month-long Slay in Wangji Market. Su Qun slill wenl back to Sanyu once a week, either taking him (in which case Ihey would Slay the night and return to Wangji Market the next day) or leaving him in Ihe farm tools faclory (in which case she would return the same day). Young Tao's presence at the factory was quite open and aboveboard, and he did not need to sneak around. As for his being absent without permission, his father not only did not tell him off. but he also went to the school to ask for a leave of absence for him . Only Grandpa Tao was unhappy at his missing school, but Tao said,

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MWhat can that teacher teach him? He talks twaddl e! Far beller that Taotao should get out and sec a bit of the wo rld .~ Su Qun and you ng Tao ate all their meals in the factory canteen. Lunch was not bad. They had bean curd , vegetabl es, a nd pig's blood, wi th meat every three days. Mo rning and even ing meals were always gruel navored with pi ckled vegetables. The pickles were not made like th e Taos' pickl es but in the Sanyu fashio n: a hundred pounds of chopped cabbage to ten pounds of salt. They cost o ne celll per saucerful , and the workers called them Mcen t-salties." When young Tao went home, his father jokingly asked him, MA rc cent-salli es ni cer And when he left, he sa id , "'Taotao's gone wi th his mom to cat cen t-salties .~ The grandparents were worried that young Tao was not gell ing enough to cat, and they plied Su Q un with more and more jars and nasks of meat and vegetables on eve ry visit. But in Tao's view th ere was really no need MLet him suffer a bit of hardship h would be good for him to toughen u p, ~ he said So how did young Tao tough en up? Well, apart from eating ce nt-sall ies, he spent most of his tim e roaming up and down the main street of Wangji Market. He got to know every bit of it pretty well and th e farm tools factory best of all. He went to the smithy to watch the blacksmith at work. The smithy con tained half a dozen forges. The pig iron was put into the names until it was red hot, then the master blacksmith took a small hamm er and tapped ou t a pattern. The apprentices followed the pallern and beat the iron into shape with their large hamme rs. When a sickle blade had been shaped, it was plunged into a bucket of water, which hissed and emitted a cloud of stea rn Young Tao watched entranced as the sm ithy echoed with the sound of hammer blows and sparks new The carpentry wo rkshop had a com pl etel y differelll atmosphere. The so-called wo rkshop was just a shack made fro m reed matting, pile(] high insi de with shavi ngs and other biLS of wood, all golden yellow. The carpenter chopped and chiseled patiently away, almost like a sculptor, squatting on his pile of shaVings. There was scarcel y a sound to be heard. Somet im es young Tao went to the store, grabbed the megapho ne off the display shelves, clapped it to his mo uth, and bellowed at

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the top of voice, "Everyone to the fields! Men with carrying poles, women with sickles!" just like the production team head, Mr. Yu, summoning workers every morning. No one paid any heed, so then in an even louder voice, he recited the Sanyu jingle about women going to work: First shout, no response, Second shout, heads go up, Third shout, and off they go, Stitching and mending as lhey go. Old Sun the storekeeper roared with laughter and told him what a clever lad he was. Although young Tao had come to protect his mother, ten of him could not have saved her if anyone had seriously wanted to harm her. Still, he roamed at will all over the factory and soon knew all the Sun-surnamed workers. He was generally liked and imperceptibly formed a link between the workers and the propaganda team. The atmosphere in the factory relaxed. Nevertheless the One Strike, Three Antis campaign had to go on. The day that young Tao arrived in Wangji Market, the whole factory was called to a meeting to criticize Mr. Sun, the fac tory director, even though the man was dead . A portrait of Mr. Su n hung from the flagpole on the rostrum, upSide-down of course and with a big red cross drawn over his face . A banner overhead read, MDown with Sun Fuquan, corrupt member of the clique taking the party down the road to capitalism!» Sun Fuquan, the fac tory director that young Tao had never seen, was deemed to have killed himself to avoid punishment and had been stripped of his party membership. The new factory director, Zhang, had just been aI'poinled 10 the post after leaving the army, and he presided over the meeting in uniform, although without his insignia. Beside him on the rostrum sal Party Secretary Cui, as well Su Qun, her colleague Jiang, and, finally, young Tao. Young Tao felt it was a great honor to be Silting on a rostrum for the second time in his life. The commune was much more exciting than the production brigades it controlled; the cut and thrust of denunciations reminded him of life in Nanjing all that time ago.

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3 Then Jiang's daughter fell seriously ill, so she took compassionate leave 10 go and look after her Only Su Qun and young Tao were Iefl in the propaganda team's hostel Sun's rclalivt''S were much less confrontational now, and Su Qun felt greatly relieved. In pari Ihis was because young Tao got on so well with the workers and in pari because the party had reasserted its authority through criticism meetings. But chieny it was because Zhang was in charge. He was a ferocious-looking man with a pockmarked face, and the workers we re afraid of him . But he was affectionate toward young Tao and would sweep him up in his arms and cuddle him (even though the boy was long past the age for cuddling). His whiskers prickled painfully against young Tao's face, and he would run away whenever he saw him He did not, however, fear the man as the workers did_ Meeting followed meeting, at different levels and with different peopl e. There were not many factory-wide meetings, but there were small daily meetings that went on into the small hours under the light of an oil lamp. Zhang, Su Qun, and young Tao were always tll1::n: , !Jut lin: uthcI~ dw[[gcu uCCUlui[[g tu whcllu:! the [[[ceti[[g was for party members, Youth League members, cadres, "active clements," or those under investigalion. Some meetings (like those for party members) SU Qun atlended as an observer, and in those cases young Tao was an observer's observer Zhang, as head of the factory Pany Commitlee and propaganda team leader, ran the meetings, and Su Qun took notes in a small notebook Young Tao kept a close watch on the proceedings but invariably found that time dragged Su Qun made him sit still during the meelings, and young Tao, who understood the seriousness of the occasion, did his best to behave properly. But he was a child after all, with no training in allen ding meetings, and pins and needles from sitling for so long made him wriggle in his seal. Young Tao preferred it when Su Qun had discussions with individuals; these did not count as meetings and usually took place in their hostel There he could run around inside and out as long as he did not go too far, or if things got interesting, he could sit and listen as long as he did not interrupt

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A locksmith by the name of Sun was alleged to have been involved in breaking up a soldier's marriage, and you ng Tao eavesdropped on that discussion. He found th e whole business vcry mysterious because both Su Qun and Sun appeared to be treading so carefully. It was di ffere nt fro m norm al meetings: they were deadly serio us, and yet they seemed to be talking about trivial, everyday things. Afterward , young Tao asked Su Qun, ~What's 'breaking up a soldier's marriage'?" ~ It 's breaking up an army family, " she answered. This was not a very sat isfactory answer as far as yo ung Tao was concerned. Later Sun the storekeeper told him , "'Breaking up a soldier's marriage' means doing dirty things with a soldi er's wife .~ Young Tao began to understand Sun also said , "That's a class o ne offense. You can get shot for doing that!" And young Tao was puzzled again. He had a vague id ea of what ~doing dirty things" meant, but why should doing them with a soldier's wife get you shot? Was a soldier's wife that much more beautiful than a ny other wife? Young Tao's mind raced as he followed that train of thought. Sun the locksmi th did no t work in the smithy or in the carpe ntry workshop; he had a small place of his own . In it he spent his tim e tinkering with all sorts of brass and iron locks a nd bicycle locks. He was also in charge of buying scrap metal fo r the facto ry, and it lay heaped in one corner and was used to make farm tools. He also ate and slept in the sam e room. Young Tao often stood in the doorway, watching Sun fix ing locks. He tho ught it must have ceen in this room that the locksm ith and th e soldiers wife "did it "T he soldi er made him think of Zhang th e fa ctory director, and th e th ought of Sun "doing it" with Zhang's wife was very exci ting Young Tao was old enough for it all to seem very real: the locksmith , the factory director, and this room. Of course he had not seen th e factory director's wife, but she must be very, very beautiful. Su n the storekeeper was right: young Tao was a bright boy with a powerful im aginati on. In his mind's eye, he could sec the dirty gOings-on, and when he went to the carpentry wo rkshop, he saw Su n the factory director hangi ng from the beams. The carpenters had told him whi ch beam it was, which stool he had stood on, and

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where he had lain after being cut down. It was as real to him as if he had watched his death struggles, even though he had never seen the man . His tongue stuck out and reached right down to his chin. The locksmith was always pleased to sec young Tao and chatted away as he showed him how to mend locks. He took apart a Yonggu brand lock and put it back together, carefully demonstrating how it worked Young Tao, for his part, wanted the locksmith to expl ain to him what "doing dirty things~ was, but he put off asking him until he felt they knew each other better. To please the locksmith, young Tao unscrewed Su Qun's bicycle bell cover and sold it to Sun for scrap. Sun in turn paid him fifty ce nts (which was far above its market value). The next time Su Qun called the locksmith to a meeting, he saw that the bell cover of her bicycle (which was kept in the hostel) was missing, and he guessed what had happened. He took the bell cover back to her, and young Tao's scrap metal dealing was exposed . Su Qun tried to return the fifty cents, but Sun refused to accept it. Su Qun was furious: "What do you think you're playing at, trying to bribe a member of the propaganda team? So Sun took the money and slunk away Young Tao got a terrible scolding and was strictly forbidden from having anyth ing to do with the locksmith again. When Sun and Su Qun talked, young Tao was not allowed to be there. Eventually the (Ioor of Sun's workshop was permanently locked and barred, an d no more was seen of him. Young Tao never found out whether he had been kicked out of the factory and sent back to the countryside o r arrested and executed.

4 Ji ang, Su Quns coll eague on the propaganda team, was ten years older than Su Qun, so her daughter was about ten years older than young Tao and was already in the army Su Qun was green with envy. In those days, it was very hard to get into the army, especially for the ch ildren of banished cad res, and most especial ly for agi rl . It must have taken some very good connect ions to arrange it. Jiang's husband, Song, was a cadre of long standing and had been allocated a job in local government after leaving the army. J iang promised that if young Tao wanted to join up when he was

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older, Song would put in a good word with his army friends. Su Qun thanked her but said regretfully, "All our family arc nearsighted. It's probably hereditary; young Tao already has eye problems." II was true. Young Tao could nOI see Ihings wilhout screwing up his eyes and frowning All Ihe same, Su Qun kept hoping againsl hope Ihal young Tao's eyesight would improve. She encouraged him 10 look illlo Ihe distance more, al fields and Irees and green th ings, 10 get more exercise an d spend less lime at his books. This happened 10 be jusl whal young Tao wanled, so now he had even more reason to roam around Wangji Market instead of going back to school in Sanyu. For young Tao to strike root in Sanyu and live his life as a peasant was a last resort, the worst possible scenario. The best prospect (gOing into the army) seemed too much for the Taos to hope for. But if he could become a worker in the Wangji farm tools factory, thai would nOI be bad He would al leasl gel a lown residence permil and earn around Iwenly yuan a mOlllh. So Tao encouraged him 10 stay allhe faclory; apart from keeping Su Qun company, il would also give him a tasle of faclory life The advantage for Su Qun of being part of Ihe propaganda team was thai she could make friends with Zhang, Cui, and othel~ with real power, and that might come in useful at a later dale . And she also became friends with Jiang, who said she would help young Tao get into the army, which was an unexpected bonus, even Ihough his ch ances were slim . The Taos were heartened, and Tao fell that they were on the right track. Ji ang was very proud of he r daughter and often told Su Qun whal a bright girl she was and how hard she worked in her unil. Su Qun was genuinely and unreservedly happy for her. Even though th is was someone else's daughler, that girl's present might be young Tao's future . A shared concern for the children's prospects gave the IWO women a constanl lopic of conversation, and they got along increasingly well. One day Jiang showed a pict ure of her daughter to Su Qun, who said , "What a lively-looking girl! So pretty! She takes after you! " Ji ang burst out laughing. Su Qun asked Jiang for a photo of her (l aughter as a memento. Jiang gave her the picture with alacrity. "Take this one ," she said. "['11 get her to send me another. " They put

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the picture under the glass that cove red the table in the hostel and wou ld stand and admire it whenever they had a mo ment. Young Tao saw it, and so did evcryone who came to the hostel. In it th e girl wore an army cap and uniform and had big, round eyes just like li Tiemei in th e Peking Opera Th e Red Lanlern. Two pigtails stuck o ut like lillIe brushes from underneath the cap at the back, and she looked like a proper soldier Everyone who saw the photo, including Sun the locksm ith, admired it greatly. Then th e daught er fell ill , and Jiang took compassionate leave to go and look after her. She nevcr retu rned , A month later, soon after the locksmi th had disappeared from the factory, old Song, Jiang's husband, turned up o n a bicycle to collect his wife's belongings. She might not be coming back for a while, he said. She was looking after their daughter at the hospital, The girl was paralyzed, had become a vegetable. ~ II was nOlhing serious al firsl , ~ he said . ~Just an o rdi nary cold and a temperature. But she always wanted to be the best, so even when her temperature wenl up to 42 degrees, she wouldn'ltake time off, and the feve r burned OUI her brain. Now she needs someone to feed and change her, and she can'l speak She can feellhough, and she can cry ~ Song s ighed, gathered his wife's things, and left. Before leaving, he extracted the photo of his daughter from under the glass tabletop. Su Qu n was on the verge of saying that Jiang had given her the picture , but she refrained. Holding young Tao by the hand, her eyes we t with tears, she watched Song's frail figure cycle out through the factory gates.

5 The One Strike, Th ree Anlis campaign came 10 an e nd, and Su Qun returned 10 Sanyu and went on with being a banished cadre. Young Tao returned wilh her and wenl back 10 schooL His time at Wangji Market had taught young Tao much about life, and he could not help feeling superio r to his classmates. He could have felt superior to them all along. Let us not forget that the Taos had come from Nanjing, the provincial cap ital and a much bigger place than Wangji Market, and young Tao had lived there

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until they were banished. This did not impress his classmates at all, however. So when they tried to emba rrass him with wheat- versusleeks and other questions, young Tao cou nterallacked. He told th em about the streets of Nanjing and the courtyard at 96 Hongwu Road . He said that their house bad had three noors, but his fri ends could not imagine th at. So he expl ained that it was like piling a house on top of a house until you got three layers. They still did not believe him ~The old lady's so old; how did she get up the stairs?" they asked . The "old lady" mean t Granny Tao, Sixty-three years old by th e time of their banishment. She was vcry fat and had had bo und fee t when she was young, so s he scarcely went o utdoors at all. So their (lisbelief was reasonable. As for what "stairs" were, young Tao cou ld not manage to make them understand. It was different with Wangji Market. Many of Tao's friend s had been there and kn ew it a bit. But they always made day tri ps, whereas young Tao had li ved th ere for a month He spuuered out wildl y exciting descri ptions of the sights and so unds of Wangji Market, maki ng them indescribably envious I have alread y said that XiaQdunkou was a stop along the road bClween Wangj i Market (two and a half miles to the cast) and Hongze County Town (five miles west). Hardly any of the children had been to the county town, and neither had young Tao, altho ugh he had spen t nearly two yea rs in Sanyu. Tao and Su Qun had each been there o nce, Tao to buy Paulownia trees a nd Su Qun to get the griseofulvin for September's ringworm and the plastic car fo r acupuncture practice from Hongze Pharmaceuticals. The Hongze ci nem a, however, came to Sanyu every year when a film troupe arrived to show a film. The fil m troupe's appearance caused a sensation throughout the Sanyu production brigade, and the elllire village would descend on th e space in fro nt of the brigade offices, where a screen was set up. The showing would not start until nightfall, but fro m three or four in the afternoon, when it was still broad daylight, people wou ld bring stools, some mud bricks, branches, o r sheaves-not \0 s it o n but to mark their place. It may have been difficult to tell things like mud bricks apart, but their owners knew quite well wh ich ones we re theirs, and there was never any argum ent.

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People from neighboring brigades could not get there until after (lark, so they had to stand at the back or view the film from behind the screen. The following day, the film troupe moved on to another brigade, where the Sanyu villagers did not have seating priority. GUt they would still call their children after dinner and set off along the dykes, stools under their arms, to Dazhang village (a bit less than a mile away) or Gezhuang village (a little further) in search of more en tertainment. The villagers had all seen the films-whi ch had litles like Tunnel Watjare, Min e Wa/fare, fighting North and South, and Heroic Sons and Daughters-hundreds of limes, but they never got tired of them and followed the showings around for a couple of weeks. Th e young people stuck it out right to the end. The next year in the winter slack season, the film troupe would come back, still with the same films, but after an interval of a year the villagers still fo und them novel So once again they turned o ut in force and went to the brigade headquarters to watch them. Every now and then a new film would be shown. It woul d already have been shown in the Hongze cinema of course, so young Tao alwa~ envied the county town people their cinema. His longing to go to Hongze grew. Finally one day Su Qun decided to take young Tao to Hongze to see a film. It would be a long and strenuous journey. Su Qun's Flying Pigeon bicycle was the only way to get to Ho ngze (there were no buses along th e highway then) Su Qun was slight, and although she had been doing manual work since arriving in Sanyu, she was still no t strong. Young Tao had grown and by now weighed over seventy pounds, but a ten-mile walk in one day was s till too much for him. They left before dawn. With young Tao seated behind her, Su Qun rode through the village and across the wooden bridge over the Yanma River. They bumped along the embankment and arrived at Xiao(]unkou. They rode two anda half miles weSI (as far as a trip 10 Wangji Market) , and then Su Qun gOI off her bike and pushed il for Ihe IwO and a half miles 10 Hongze. In Ihis way, of the tOlal len miles young Tao needed 10 walk for only five , and he could ride on Su Qun's bike for the olher five . They planned to return the same day.

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6 They did not return the same day, not because they ran out of energy or because they were bedazzled by the siglllS of Hongze, but because there was no matinee showing There was a poster stuck 011 a wall saying that the Korean film Comrade-in-Arms would be showing at seven that evening, and tickets would go on sale at two o'clock. Young Tao begged and begged, and finally his mother stored her bicycle and booked them into a gucsthousc ncar the cinema. At two o'clock they arrivc(l at the ticket office \0 sec a small blackboard hanging outside with the words "Sold Oul written on il. $u Qunlookcd al her watch , hut they were 110t latc. In fact they were IWO minutes early- She banged on the window After some lime il opened, and $u Qun pushed through two yuan. Irmncdiately a pudgy hand pushed it back A woman's voice said crossly, ~What was all that knocking for? Can't you see the blackboard? It's sold out! ~ Su Qun said, "But you open at two o'clock! It's exactly two o'clock now!" "Come back tomorrow; don't keep banging like that!" responded the woman and tried to shut the window. Frustrated, Su Qun said, "Where's your boss? [ want to talk to your boss! H People began to gather round, not to buy tickets but to watch the d ispute. Young Tao thought they should beat a retreat, but it was too late. Su Qun, face red with indignation, insisted that she wanted to sec the cinema manager She and young Tao were taken into a courtyard, the bystanders trailing along behind The courtyard was empty but for a few tall wutong trees. Suddenly a voice came out of the sky: "What's all this noise about?" Su Qun and young Tao craned their necks upward and spied a middle-aged man hidden among the leaves. A bamboo ladder leaned against the tree trunk, and the courtyard was lillered with branches that the man had been pruning. He continued pruning as they talked, chopping away with a big pair of shears. More branches fell to the ground, narrowly missing Su Qun . H

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Su Qun, holding young Tao by the hand, was forced to look up to talk to the manager. The fat woman looked up too and stuttered ou t an accou nt of what had happened. The bystanders too looked up and listened . The manager's voice, although quiet, noated clearly down from on high. Su Qun, o n th e o ther hand, raised her voice to make it carry and this, togeth er with her fury, made her sound quite different fr om normal Afterward, when he heard what had happened, Tao said with some hum or, "Your mother's a rehel." At the time, young Tao fel t that she was more like a brawling Village woman: child in o ne hand , the ot her o n her hip, her head thrust forward, her face red as she shouted raucously. The voice from o n high noated lightly down: M Just two tickets? Sell them two, then!" And the manager went on with his pruning. Puffing with fury, the fat woman returned to the ticket office and tore off two tickets for Su Qun . $u Qun handed over the money and took young Tao back to the hostel The fat woman may have been upset, but she nonetheless remembered to give them the worst two seats. $u Qun had been too overcome to check her tickets before leaving That evening, when they got to th e cinema, she discovered th ey were in the back row in the last two seats on the right. Young Tao was very nearsighted by now, and the whole film we nt by in a blur. All he cou ld sec was shad owy black-and-wh ite figures bobbing about on the screen, while in his cars the ind istinct dialogue mingled with the sounds of gunfire, explos ions, and music. When the film end ed, they went back to the guesthouse. "Was it good?" asked $u Qun "Very good. Fantasti call y good: said young Tao.

7 Three of the five Taos wore glasses. Tao and $u Qun were nearSighted, while Grandpa Tao needed reading glasses. Gra nny Tao did no t wear glasses, but she had eye problems too: she suffered from cataracts. Young Tao's Sight got worse and worse until by his fourth year at prim ary school, he could no lo nger sec the blackboard.

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The teacher put young Tao in the front row, whcre if he screwed up his eyes and made a big effo rt , he could see the wri ting on th e board, although if the teacher wrote s mall, he could o nly guess. That was d uring normal classes When it came to tests, the problem was worse. Even if it was an open-book exam and you could talk to your classmates, that was no help ifhe could no t even copy the questions down from the blackboard His results got worse and worse, and the fam ily began to worry. They decided he needed glasses. Young Tao paid his second visit to Hongze with Su Qun to have glasses filled . By now buses ran along the highway and stopped at Xiaodunkou . It was much simpl er to get the bus from Xia()(lunkou than to make the journey as they had done the last time. But when they got to Hongze, there were no opt ici ans to be found anywhere along its single shopping street. So Su Qun decided that they should take a long-distance bus to Huaiyin, a much bigger to wn than Hongze and administratively only one level below Nanj ing. An hour's bumpy ride later, th ey were in Huaiyin. With young Tao's blurred vision, it did not look much different from Hongze: the streets were a bit wider; there was a bit more traffic; it was a bi t more dusty And there were many more big st reets like this one, Su Qun told him , unlike in Hongze They booked into a guesthouse, and Su Qun found an opt ician. It was o nl y during the test that you ng Tao began to see his s urrou ndings clearly and realized that Huaiyin was huge and unlike anywhere he had been before, eve n if it was covered in dust. He cou ld sec every tiny detail : a ray of su nlight slanting down to th e floor ti les in a shop, specks of dust floating in the air. Young Tao's head began to swim, but just as he was corning to grips with it, th e test glasses were taken off and the world resumed its normal murkiness. The test glasses were complex things with heavy frames so that lenses could be easil y slotted in and removed. When all the lens were in, the glasses were thi ck and heavy and protruded forward , quite unlike normal glasses. Young Tao looked at himself in the mirror and thought he looked like agoblin. The test glasses completely ch anged his boyish face into something ugly and grotesque. The next morn ing Su Qun and young Tao returned \0 Sanyu. Su Q un went back, alone this time, to fetch the glasses when they were ready for him . After this young Tao had a pa ir of glasses, whic h he

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kept in his school satchel in a brown corduroy case, resling o n a piece of soft cloth for cleaning the lenses, but he hardly ever put them o n. As the tests approached, young Tao could not help feeling wor· ried. He needed to build up to wearing his glasses bit by bit so that his classmates would get used to seeing him with them on. So every now and then he put them on, first in class and later during breaks as well. Outsid e school he left them off, and they went back into his school satchel , so the villagers never saw him with them o n Nor did the family, apart from Su Qun. O ne afternoon, when young Tao was in class, there was a sud(len shout outside: ·Taotaol He looked out of the window. Someone was standing on the Dazhai River embankment, shou ting in the (lirection of the schoolhouse. His eyesight was so good by now that he knew without a shadow of a doubt that it was his fath er. Zhao Ningsheng (his Chinese language teacher, an urbling sent to Gezhuang village) let him out early, and he raced over to the riverbank. Halfway th ere he realized he was still wearing his glasses. [t was too late to take them off; his father had already seen him. Young Tao began to slow his pace, and his wild rush of excitement disappeared completely. Tao had been to the Gezhuang production brigade to exchange seed lings. Lookingat the sky as he passed the school, he had guessed the pupils would be leaving soon, and he had stopped to pick up his son. When he saw young Tao with his glasses o n, he made no comment. He JUSt rumed his hair, and they set off for home. Young Tao followed him in a state of considerable fear. Soon the villagers would see his bespectacled face, would see how alike father and son were with th eir glasses on. But Tao took it all quite calmly, as if nothing had happened, as if young Tao had always worn glasses. Young Tao felt more uneasy than ever. Tao had hoped that his son would strike root in Sanyu, marry a local girl, and support himself by working in the fields (at least this was what he constantly drilled into young Tao). Not o nly did the villagers not work in the fields wearing glasses, but they could not even imagine doing that. (Tao and Su Qun were different; they had arrived in the village with their glasses.) Young Tao knew he had let his father down. H

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He tried hard to discern the disappointment in his father's face, but none was to be seen. Tao's mouth was thrust for ward and his brows were tightly knit, but that was juSt his usual expression. Acute as young Tao's vision was now, he could not see a trace of disappointment on his father's face. In fact, he spoke in more than usually affectionate tones. Was young Tao cold? How was school? When were the tests? What had Zhao Ningsheng been talking about? Tao had never been bothered about things like that before.

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SEV EN

Zhao Ningsheng

, Young Tao was by now old enough to understand what his parents wanted for him , He did not play with the pigherding children anymore and would just say hcllo----cvcn \0 September, litlle Dick, and their friends- if he saw them_ Even if he had wanted to play with them, there was no time _ Early every day, he left for Gezhuang Primary with his school bag over his shoulders, and he did nOI get back until dusk His friend now was the school 's Chinese language teacher, Zhao Ningsheng_ Zhao was an urblingsclli down flOm Nanjing, like young li, except thai he had been banished \0 Gezhuangand given thcjobof languagc and literature teacher at the Gczhuang Primary School. Zhao was a well-known figure in Gczhuang because he had a girlfriend. She was a Gezhuang urbling too, although she worked in a diffe rent production team, and their love affair was the talk of the Village. Every evening Xia Xiaojie and Zhao Ningsheng could be seen sHolling arm in arm, back and forth along the Dazhai River em· bankment. On a fine day the lovers would seem to glow in the set· ting sun. Young and old, the villagers all gathered on their bridges to peer westward al this novel sigh t. On cue the village dogs would all bark in unison in Ihe same direction . When Zhao Ningsheng got the job as teacher, the school gave him a room to live in, and Xia moved in too. This arrangement was more discreet than their evening walks, but it was still more or less public knowledge. Xia still kept her bed in an urbling house and still set oul from there every morning, hoe over her shoulder, to go to work in the

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fields. But her housematcs reported that she often did not come back until the early morning. Mr. Yu, Zhao's neighbor, said that in the early hours he was often woken by Zhao's door banging and footsteps heading toward the school bridge. And the village dogs would all start barking. The vill agers could certainly confirm th e latter point. Their dogs often barked in the morning before day< break, like the cocks, but even earlier, proving that Xia had definitely been staying at Zhao's house. Young Tao did not know one way or the other because he did not live in Gezhuang. Wh at he could say for sure was that every tim e he stayed overn ight , Xia went back to her own place. Young Tao's conversations with Zhao often went on very late , and sometimes he forgot to go back to Sanyu. Xia may have looked like she wanted to hang around, but Zhao would remind her that it was late and she had better go. Then Xia, who was a n obedien t girl, would boil some more water for them and silently depart. Zhao's place was like a secend home to young Tao. He could drop by any tim e he wanted and browse through Zhao's books and other things. Best of all was listening to Zhao's tall tales. They often arranged in advance to meet at Zhao's place after school, and the sessions went on until after dark Young Tao would sometimes send a note home with a classmate to say he was staying the night. But even if he did not, his family knew that was where he would be. Young Tao obviously did not address his friend as Mr. Zhao or Teacher. He called him Zhao Ningsheng o r sometimes s impl y Ningsheng, as Xia did. And Zhao in turn used the family nickname of Taotao. He referred to Tao as Uncle Tao, making himself the same generation as young Tao In other words, they were good friends first and teacher and pupil second Initially Tao was in favor of their friendship. At least it meant that th ere was someone to look after his son at school: Zhao treated the boy not just as an equal but as a close friend, and since he was the teacher, he was in a position to smooth his friend's path. For instance, he let him off school early the day that Tao stood on the Dazhai embankment and shouted for him so that he could go home with his father. Young Tao was not worried about school tcsts anymore. Especially in Chinese language and literature classes, he was always at the top of the class. If anyone raised a doubt about

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these results, Zhao would say, "Taotao's dad is a nationally famous author. It runs in the family, so i1 would be odd if Taotao didn't come out first in Chinese tests!" Aher a while, young Tao did not even need to go to Zhao's classes. While the latter was teaching, young Tao would be lying on Zhao's bed, reading novels and eating snacks. Xia's parents sent the snacks to their daughter from Nanjing. Xia saved them all for Zhao, who told }-'oungTao to help himself. There were milk sweets, candied fruits, and soda biscuits-the kinds of things that young Tao had been used to eating as a ch ild . He had hardly come across them since the family's banishment, but he had not lost his taste for them. The main reason that Zhao let young Tao get away with such a lot was that he was the child of banished cadres and that he was also from Nanjing. He was the only one in his class-in fact in the whole of Gezhuang Primary- to have banished cadre paren ts. Zhao was especially exciled when young Tao started wearing glasses. Young Tao despised himself for having to wear these objects, which isolated him from everyone else, but they filled Zhao with admiration. Zhao almost always wore glasses 100 (with plain glass), so their faces now matched, and the glasses were like a secret sign . Even though Zhao's were purely cosmetic, they made them the only spectacle wearers in Gezhuang Primary. Zhao admired the round ripples vis ible on young Tao's lenses and felt himself qu ite inferior.

2 Find ing out that all the Taos wore glasses made Zhao all the keener to meel them. One Sunday, Xia sped Zhao over to the Taos on a bicycle. The bicycle belonged 10 Zhao, but she was a robust young woman, used 10 working in the fields all year round, so she did the pedaling. They got a hospitable welcome: young Tao poured tea, Grandpa Tao handed out cigarett(.'S, Tao took them on a tour of the al lotment, and [hey set\led down in the front room for a chat with Su Qun. Su Qun was forty-one years old but looked ten years younger. Tao, although only two years older than his wife, looked almost

Zhao Nings hcng

[ 19

elderly by contrast. Not surprisingly, the villagers often said she looked like his daughter or young Tao's sister. Zhao was struck by Su Qun's youthful appearance and was lavish with his praise. He was a sophisticated man and known to be a glib talker, but on this occasion his praise was not wholly insincere. When they arrived, Su Qun had been washing sheets in the stream She stopped working and took them to sit down at the table. There she exchanged a few words with them, and made sure young Tao looked after his guests properly She was just about to go back to the stream and her washing when Zhao stopped her. "It's so cold, and the water's iCy. Your hands will freeze, " he said. Then, indicating Xia, ·'She's used to it; she can put up with more than the locals. I guarantee your sheets will come out beautifully dean. Anything else you want washed, just give it to her to do." "No, no!" prolt.'Sted Su Qun. "You're guests; you can't just come here and start working!" "Gut we're like a family," Zhao responded. "And you're ourseniors. We should do stuff for you. Anyway, Xia hates to be idle. ~ They went on arguing, but Xia slipped away to the stream and began washing the sheets. Su Qun gave in and remained at the table, chatting with Zhao about this and that Xia turned out to be quite an exceptional sort of woman . The sheets were soon washed and hung out to dry on the line, where they sparkled in the sunshine. 1t had taken her only half the time it took Su Qun. Then she went into the cookhouse and started to do the cooking-gathering fuel, using the bellows to light the fire, picking over the vegetables, and slicing the meal. When she served dinner, Zhao behaved like the host, calling them all with "Dinnertime! Come and enjoy Xia's ha ndiwork." Xia did not sit down with them She put on Granny Tao's apron and ran hack and forth between the cookhouse and the sitting room, bringing in the dishes Tao and Su Qun urged her to come to the table, hut Zhao said, "l eave her be. She's used to being busy. let's cal." So saying, he picked up a morsel of braised salt pork in his chopsticks, popped it into his mouth, and said, ·'Delicious! Your salt pork is excellenl. [ haven't had Nanjing salt pork for ages! ~ The Taos gave in and began to cat too. [n no time at all the foo([ had vanished, and by the time Xia came to sit down, all that

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remained on the table were a few empty dishes. Having eaten their fill, they watched as Xia polished off three bowls of steamed ri ce. As Tao put it , the food was extra nice because it had been cooked for them. The wok was th ei rs, th e vegetables had just been picked from th eir garden, the salt pork had been hung from their rafte rs, and the oil and season ings were what th ey normally used, but the handiwork was Xia's.

3 As a result, Tao formed a very good op inio n of Xia; in fact he held her in much higher regard than Zhao. Xia was on ly about twenty, but she worked all day in the fields and was so weather-beaten that she looked older than Su Qun. She had knobbly knuckles, and her hands were covered in cracks, juSt like the hands of Sanyu women . Sh e was just as fast and as ha rdworking as they were too Best of all , she did not chatter_ She just got o n with her work She dressed simpl y in a traditional padded jacket. She wore no makeup and always had a patch of natural high colo r o n each check, like a young peasant. If it were not fo r her Nanjing accelll , you could llot tell her apart from the local women_Xia had truly struck root and undergone reeducat io n by the poor peasants. What a pity she had not fallen in love with a local peasant but had chosen Zhao, who was a compl etely different kind of person . According to you ng Tao, when Zhao was teaching, he did not speak in the local dialect or even in standard Ch inese . He persisted in speaking in the Nanjing dialect, regardl ess of whether the students could understand him In young Tao, he had finall y foun d someone with wh om he could speak in th e Nanjing dialect; he nce their friendsh ip_ At the Taos he could speak the dialect and soak up the atmosphere_ That was why he spent his time there, hold ing ce nter stage and telling endl ess tal l tales_ Once Zhao had become a teacher, he never worked in the field s again. In fa ct he cleared the house of all his old farm tools and gave them to Xia. He vowed th at local mud would never agai n st ick to the soles of his shoes. This, however, was an almost impossible vow to ca rry oul. Gezh uang Primary School was st ill in Gezh uang, not in Nanj ing. Zhao managed to persuade himsel f that the school was not the same as

Zhao Ningshc ng

Ilt

the village and that since the Taos were banished cadres, their enclosure (lid not count as a local enclosure. Going to visit the Taos, therefore, was not breaking his vow. He still had to get there, though, along the Dazhai and Yamna River embankments, over the wooden Yanma Bridge, and through the whole of Sanyu village. But do not forget that Zhao had a bicycle. If he cycled, he could make the journey without his feet touching the ground. So his bicycle was crucial if he wanted to go to the Taos or to the market in Wangji. Only when he arrived at the Taos did he allow himself to get off the bicycle. On his trips to Wangji Market, he did not get off at all. When he wanted to buy something, he stopped the bike and rested one foot on a branch or a wall. Whatever his foot support was, it still rested on the ground , but 1shall gloss over this point. Suffice it to say that Zhao had honed the skill of balancing on his bicycle to such a degree that he did it beuer than an acrobat. Once Zhao told young Tao that he wanted to enter a local acrobatics troupe to do bicycling tricks, but there was no hope of this as he did not know the right people. Once, with young Tao on the back, he cycled across the schoolhouse bridge, took his hands off the handlebars, and used his slingshot 10 shoot down two sparrows perched in a tree. In felling two sparrows, Zhao was out to prove his cycle-balancing skills rather than his ability to kill two birds with one stone. It was a much practiced trick that he reckoned would get him into an acrobatics troupe, but now his only audience was young Tao. As the sparrows plummeted to the ground, they proved that Zhao meant what he said and really was a very good acrobat. He was also venting his spleen. After all, these were Gezhuang sparrows. They deserved their fate. Zhao and Xia still went for a walk every evening, but they could not walk along the Dazhai River embankment without treading on Gezhuang soil After Zhao became a teacher, they still went for strolls but not by the river. Instead, they stayed inside the school grounds and did circuits, arm in arm, of the playground, the schoolhouse , and his lodgings. The Villagers no longer saw them silhouCIIed against the selling sun, although the dogs, perplexed by the change, continued to bark like mad.

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4 Young Taos accounts of Zhao's behavior alarmed his father. Young Tao was supposed 10 be striking root in Sanyu, yet Zhao was intent o n pulling up his roots from Gczhuang and getting out. This was scll ing a terrible example. Tao began to put IImils on the amount of time his son cou ld spend with Zhao . He told him, ~lt's like when someone has pneumonia. You mustn't gel \ 00 close in case you catch it. " Zhao had no inkling of what Tao was feeling,and he and Xia vis ited mO TC and morc OflCll _ As tim e weill by, they treated the Tao's house almost like their own home and were there nearly every Sunday Every time they arrived, Tao would give them a cool greeting and then pick up his 1001s and go QU\' SU Qun stayed and chatted with

Zhao hut with much less of her fonner warmth. Xia contin ued to work for the Taos-washing, cooking, and even hoeing a nd pouring night soil onto the allotment Zhao, completely oblivious to thc cool ing of thcir fricndship, sat at the tablc, loudly holding fo rth. If it was difficult for Tao to kecp Zhao at arm's length, it was cvcn morc difficult for young Tao. He was sti ll at Gezhuang Primary and still talked far into the night with his friend . Zhao of course did most of the talking, whilc young Tao listcncd. Thc latter rcportc([ a somewhat abridged version of these conversations to his father, but even so, Tao found th em terri fying For instance, in Zhao's view, it was wasting the best years of ones youth not to have a few love affairs. He also talked to young Tao about America: ~They're much more advanced than we are, you know" Zhao had a radio like Grandpa Tao's and tuned into Voice of America late evcry night, evcn if young Tao was staying over. Hc wou ld pull out thc acrial and slowly turn thc dial, and soon a st rangc voice would be heard . Young Tao had only hcard KMT broadcastcrs spcak in tones like this in the film Fi ghting North and South, so hc naturally associatcd thc voice with thc enemy. Thc intermitten t hiss and c rackl e of interfercncc mad c Voice of America sound evcn morc mysterious. When he first s tarted listening, young Tao used to fidget, but gradually he came to enjoy the broadcast . In truth, he could not make out much of what Voice of America was saying, but Zhao explained

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it all to him afterward, in the Nanjing dialect of cou rse. What really entranced him were the mellifluous tones of the announcer. Every time he tuned in, Zhao exercised the greatest caut ion. First, he shut and bolted the door Next , he checked to see that there was no one around outside the building, and he especially checked to see what his neighbor Mr. Yu was doing. Only then did he turn on the radio, turning the volume down so low that you could hear it only with your head up close. The radio sat on the table, between Zhao and young Tao, who pressed their ears against its case until it became quite hot Later, they simply took the rad io to bC(l and listened under the covers, where they were quite safe. Such caution was necessary because there were cases of urblings being sent to prison for listening to enemy radio stations. Every lime that happened, Zhao would stop, but he could not keep away for long, and after a couple of days at most he would be at it again. Only young Tao knew that Zhao listened to Voi ce of America. Even Xia did not know ~Never trus t a woman," said Zhao , and added, "Peo ple behave like a pack of wolves toward each otheL" Young Tao did not really understand Zhao's words, but he understood that Zhao trusted him. Young Tao did not tell his father anything about Voice of America. Instead he skirted the issue and just asked, "Dad, is it true that people behave like a pack of wolves toward each ot her?" Tao asked immediately, "Did Zhao tell you that? " Young Tao nodde(l in assent Tao felt the situation was gelling serious. One warm evening, when they were relaxing outside, Tao began to educate his son about patriotism and the meaning of life. He talked to him about Chinese heroes like General Yue Fei and the great revolutionary Fang Zhimin, about the Russian novelist Nikolai Ostrovsky, and even about his good friend Hou Jimin He fini shed by saying, "When you think of people like that, how can you say people behave like wolves toward each other?" Whether or not he had convinced young Tao , he felt he could not let things slide any longer. Next time Zhao and Xia turned up, he did not take his hoc and go off to the garden but sat and talked. Su Qun lcftthem to it and got on with her cho res. Zhao was not as a rule at a loss for words, but he was still a young man , and he was no match for Tao's careful arguments. Was Zhao convinced? ImpOSSible to tell, but at least superficially he

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appeared defeated. He was undoubtedly grateful that someone as knowledgeable as Tao should take the lime to discuss and explain things to him , but whether he would actually be guided by Tao was anoth er maller. Tao made young Tao listen in on everyone of his bouts with Zhao. He watched his father triumph and Zhao submit. It was teaching him , Tao felt , a lesson from real life. ~Th e truth will always win out over false a rguments!" Tao said afterward with a certain pride. He had realized that it was not en ough to try to keep his son away from Zhao; he had to trounce the opposition. Tao had by now forbidden young Tao to stay overn ight with Zhao, but Zhao and Xia still visited frequently. Zhao's lectures to young Tao in the quiet of the night were replaced by endless discussio ns in the Taos' front room. Tao was M r. Tao Pciyi, the professional writer. He knew how to use language. He argued with subtlety, backing up his points with examples from history Much of what he said to Zhao was actually aimed at young Tao, and Tao felt that all these different ways of educating his son were beginning to payoff.

5 A year or more passed. Young Tao had lransferred to Hongze Middle School, and Zhao stil l taught at Gezhua ng Primary. Young Tao boarded in Hongze, coming home once a month . It never occurre(1 to him to visit Zhao. The laller somelimes dropped by the Taos, although much less often, and enquired after young Tao, but the pair never met. The Taos were markedl y cool toward Zhao now that they were no longer linked by young Tao, and Zhao no longer held fort h in their front room Xia was such a good worker, so willing to be reeducated by the peasants, that she was recommended for a worker-peasant-soldier pl ace at university The next time Zhao visited the Taos, he pedaled there himself, cUlling a sad and lonely figure on his bicycle. In fact, the couple had split up at the beginning of the year of Xia's university offer, the reason of course being that their love affai r had aroused such disapproval. Xia had everything going for her except her relationship with Zhao. She decided to break up with him and immediately acquired a spolless reputat ion . Jr an urbling

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of this caliber could not get into university, then who could? Besides, she needed to be rewarded for having spl it with Zhao. The result was that even had there been another urbling with an equally solid background and character {who had not had an affair and then broken it ofO, Xia's move ensured that it would be she who got th e place in the university No wonder people said that she had used Zhao. She was not honest as the day but really rather devious. It was the ones who had neither gotten into university nor had a love affair who said that It was sour grapes, though understandable. So now Zhao pedaled to the Taos alone. Hesat in their front room, but there was no more bragging, and he spent his time bemoaning his fate. At one point he perked up because a chem ical manufacturer from Nanjing came to recruit workers. Zhao reckoned that there was no hope the company would hire him as a regular worker, what wi th his politically incorrect background and poor reputati on among the locals. But it was worth trying to get taken on as a cook, making the dinners for the workers. He had heard they were recruiting a lo t of people for all sorts of jobs, even chefs. He went on and on to the Taos ahout it His visits increased, and his mood improved until he seemed quite elated. His hopes rose higher and higher. Then one day he arrived on foot. Zhao not riding his bicycle! The Taos were astonished. He slumped into a chair in their front room without speaking. Tears poure<] from his eyes, and he draped one shaking arm over the back of the chair, where it hung as limply as an empty sleeve. The Taos finally learned that Zhao had been squeezed out of the job as a cook by another urbling He was in such a state when he heard the news that he had ridden his bicycle into a ditch. Fortunately it was winter, and there was no water in it, but the bicycle was a wri te-off. His hands were badly scraped, and his trousers were torn at the knees, although he seemed quite unaware of it. He wiped his tears with his bleeding hands and sobbed, "This is a really had omen! I've stepped in this stinking mud again! "

6 That was Zhao's last visit to the Taos. They heard that he had been sent back to Nanjing on grounds of ill health, carried by the

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Gezhuang villagers on a lattice bed to Xiaodunkou and then put on a bus to Hongzc. Thus he neve r had to tread the ground of Gezhuang, either then or ever again. There were only a few ways for urblings to get away from the coun tryside . They could go to university as worker-peasant-soldier students. This was the best way but also the hardest: only about I percent managed it. Xia was one oflhe luckyoncs. A second way was to join the army, likeJiang's daughter had done. This was also excellen t but almost as hard to do as obtaining a university place. Most got back to the citit.'S by being hired as workers, but quotas were strict, supply exceeded demand, and competition was fierce. Zhao, for example, suffered a cruel disappointment. There was less competition to join the army or go to university because most urblings simply did not aspire so high; they knew that success in these areas was more a matter of divine providence than their own efforts. Both the correct family background and the right connections were necessary; one was useless without the other As for any remaining urblings who wanted to get back to the cilY, they had to face hard choices: they had to avoid marrying or falling in love. They especially had to avoid entanglements with local boys 01 girls. Since the average age at which ulblings were banished was sixteen or seventeen, this meant they faced ten years of abstinence. But what about their sexuality? How did hot-blooded young people deal with that part of their lives in practice? What they actually got up to I really do not know, but there were rumors about urblings' sex lives in Sanyu, Gezhuang, and Wangji Market-in fact everywhere in Hongze County. One urbling girl had a male dog with whom she curled up in bed every night; suchand-such an urbling man would take a stool and stand on it and do il iO the production learn's cow from behind I would prefer not to believe such stories, bUI there was one case that shook the county, and young Tao read the report with his own eyes. He was al Hongzc Lower Middle School one day when he saw a notice pul up by the local military. It was an accusation against someone who had been on a work leam in such-and-such a brigade of such-and-such commune; gender: male; crime: sabotaging spring plowing. It was only when he had read to the end that young Tao understood exactly how the urbling in question had managed this sabolage. He had raped a brigade cow and left her too prostrated to

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do the spring plowing. This was the busy season for farmers, and the urbl ing had sabotaged their work. To return to what I was saying: those who stayed celibate had to throw themselves imo their work because that way there was always a sh red of hope. At least it was a n Ollllet for their energies until such time as their health broke down or they were disabled by injury- That was not such a bad thing eith er, as they could get sem home on grounds of ill health, and this became a way Olll tOO, after a pl ace in universi ty, the army, or a factory job. That was the route that Zhao took in the end. I may have painted too gloomy a picture. Large numbers of people successfu ll y faked illness to get back to the city, so you did not have to be really exhausted, ill , or disabled . There was no guarantee of a job if you got home that way, so you ended up being su pported by your parents at the age of twenty-seven or twenty-eight, but it was still prefe rabl e to staying in th e village. Those who could not take celibacy got married and had children in the countryside. Whether their partners were urblings or villagers made no di fference. They had burned their boats. The whole fami ly of three (or four or five, depending on how many kids they had ) was registered in th e village, just like other peasants, and had to live off the work points ea rned from farm work. That was what it meant to str ike root and dig in, and that, in turn, was what ma(le you a successfully reeducated urbling. If I have gone into some detail o n urbling escape routes, it is because their todays were you ng Tao's tomorrow. His father was crystal clear on this point. It did not matter whether young Tao completed primary school and wen t to Hongze and became Sanyu's only middle-school studen t. Sooner or later he would have to come back to Sanyu, like Mr. Jin's son had done. As for the alternatives, young Tao co uld not join the army because of his glasses, apart from anything else. Going to uni ve rsity was even more of a wild hope because Tao, Su Qun, a nd Grandpa Tao all had "political problems." If he faked illness, he had nowhere to go back to, as his family was all in Sanyu. The only two choices were to get taken on as a factory worker or marry a local girl and str ike root in Sanyu. It was one or the other.

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EIG HT

The Cleaning Bug

I Grandpa Tao, Tao Wcnjiang, was the oldest in the fam ily He was six ty-n ine the year the y arrived in Sanyu (or sevenl)" the way COLlntry folk calculated it) He was also lhe talles t, at nearly five feel nine in ches, and held himself ramrod straight. He had a full head of comple tely while hair, which was combed carefully hack Taci turn and with a naturally sober expression, he was a comma nd ing figure . Before Liberation, he had been head teacher of a primary school in Nanjing. He had jOined the KMT Party at one of its mass rallies and had served on a local KMT co mmittee. This meant thai as far as the present government was co ncerned, he had serious "historical problems." After Liberat ion , Grandpa Tao reti red He stopped doing any writing and limited his read ing to flicking through the daily papers. Eventually he forgot how to write, although of course he coul d still read perfectly welL Grandpa Tao rarely lost his temper, but when he did, the sparks flew He would hurl anything that came to hand-a teacup, fo r instan ce- and bellow terrifyingly When h e cal med down, he would sweep Ihe shallered fragmenls of Ihe leacup inlO a duslpan and carefully mop up any spi lled waler. Through all ihe crises Ihal Ihe family suffe red during Ihe C ullRev, Grandpa Tao remained imper1urbable and behaved as if nothing had happened. His hislorical problems were reinvesligated, and every week he had 10 presenl himself al Ihe local neighborhood commillee office to make a self-cri ticism and give a report on his political thinking. When he got home, he would relapse into a deep silence and refuse to tell the family what had gone on.

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On o ne occasion , when he returned from the neighborhood com millee , he threw a cup. He stamped his foot and, scarlet in th e fa ce, bellowed, "Damn you, damn you, damn you!~ The others di d not know wh ether he was damning his interrogators or himsel f, but they were very fright ened . They asked afterward what had happened, but Grandpa Tao's response was "No comment!~ That happened just once . The rest of the time, Grandpa Tao was calm and cooperative, whether th e Red Guards were sticking posters on their door frame as Tao was being struggled against o r their house was bei ng searched during the Smash the Four O lds campaign o r new posters were being stuck on their door after they had been approved for the Glorious Banishment. He would take his glue pot and reglue and smooth down the posters. He took such pl easure in this methodical work and appeared so com plctely unmoved that he might as well not have known what was wrillen on th em No wonder Tao wo uld sa)" "Dad's got the cleaning bugl~ It was true th at Grandpa Tao's liking for cleanliness and order had reached alm ost pathological proporti ons. It involved not just their own posters. Wh en Mr. Wang next door was struggled against and vitri oli c slogans were pasted on his door frame , Gra ndpa Tao went thele with his glue pot and got to work The Wangs wele fUl ious but dared not object, although they glared at him indignan tly. Grandpa Tao appeared not to nOlice . He also enjoyed sweepi ng and mopping. After ten years of sweeping and mopping, the floorboards of thei r home were no longer a bright , varnished mauve, like the neighbors', but a pale, mouled color where the original wood s howed through. And when he had nothing else to do, Grandpa Tao swept and mopped the corrido rs and stairs outside their nat The Taos lived on the second fl oor, and he some tim es cleaned right down to the first or even to th e ground floo r. The neigh bors' opini ons of his activities varied. Some thought he had too much energy fo r his own good and was just being nos)'O thers thought he was a good-hea rted old man and were grateful. And some thought that the neighborhood commillee had assigned him this task as part of his "reform through labor,» especially when they saw him clea ning the toilets in the building. In those days, people with political problems were oft en punished by being made to clean toile ts o r sweep streets.

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2 Nothing much changed after their banishment. Grandpa Tao s till spent his days broom in hand , sweepi ng away_ No Sanyu noors were made of s tone or concrete ; they were

made of dried mud_ So Grandpa Tao swept up dust each time- and plenty of it \00. He carried out several duslpanfuls each day, and as lime went by their ncor level san k viSibly below that o f the yard outsi de the door, so when it rained , water seeped in . They had to raise the si ll. He swcpll hc front yard as well, until it gleamed, and in the sunlight round scars showed up in the dirt. Of course mops were of no usc in Sanyu, but Grandpa Tao was so attached to his that h e ke pi it anyway_ An other o f his tasks was to dean the larnps hades _ As I have

expl ained, the Sanyu villagers made their own oil lamps out of ink bottles, with a piece of cotton as a wick and diesel oil as fuel The diesel was cheap and the name was only pea-si zed , so it was economical But the Taos were all shon -sighted, and if they wanted to read in the evenings, diescllamps were not good enough , 50 they lit the house with a kerosene lamp they had bought in Wangj i. Kerose ne lamps had glass shades, so tht: villagns cal kd tht:m "shad e lam ps,n The kerosene was much more expensive than diesc1 but had fewer impurities, so the name did not emit black smoke , A special nat wick was used, a centimeter in width, and the result was a bright light that they could read and write by easil y_ The Taos were the o nly family in 5anyu to have a kerosene lamp, and they had not just one of them but four. Every evening, when the lamps were all lit, the Taos would all gather close to the lamplight. The villagers would come and borrow one if something important cropped up, like a comm une members' meeting in the new cowshe(l o r someone's wedding. The Taos of cou rse had to provid e the kerosene too. Before it got dark every evening, Grandpa Tao would begin to dean the shades. He would range the four lamps on the table in the front roo m, reach inside each shad e with a piece of cotton rag kept for the purpose, and rub first one way and then another. The glass soon became so translucent it might almost not be there_ [t did nOl take him long, as he did it every day and the kerosene emitted very little black smoke_ But Grandpa Tao s till went at it energetically,

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giving the bottom of each lamp and the fuel tank a good rub. He carefull y trimmed the burned wicks with a pa ir of scisso rs and then li t them one by o ne. He was also in charge of boiling the famil y's water. (The Taos now used their locally made cooker for preparing food and kept the coal stove from Nanj ing just for boiling water.) A kettle sat permanently on th e stove in one corner of the cookhouse and, on th e floo r, a row of four th ermoses. wh en th e water boiled, Gra ndpa Tao poured it into th e th erm oses. Before he did this, he had to empty o ut the remaining boiled water, holding the thermos upsid edown until the last drop had drained ou\. If even a drop were left , it wou ld cool down the freshly boiled water. They a lways had far more boiled water than they needed, and Grandpa Tao sometimes ([rained o ut water that he had put in only ten minutes o r so ago. Tao was distinctly unhappy about this waste, but he could not very well say anything. The villagers did no t use thermoses, as they normally did no t boil water. If they needed a thermos, they ca rn e to the Taos to borrow one. They wanted the therm os rather tha n the hot water, as it brightened up occasions like pre-betrothal gatherings, weddings, and fu neral s. It was more than Grandpa Tao could bring himsel fw do to lend the thermos without filling it. On each occasion he fille d it to the brim. And each time of cou rse it came back empty. Apart from cleaning floors, cleaning lam ps, and boiling water, Grandpa Tao was in charge of dealing with the family'S chamber pots. There was one under every bed to use at nigh\. Every morning he would pour the pee into the crock in the garden or into th e toi let bucket and begin to scrub th e pots, using toothpaste and a discarded pancake turner to scrape off th e lime scale. Befo re they went to bed at night , he would put the pots, which had been airing in the sun all day, back und er each bed . The villagers did no t corn e to borrow the chamber pots, but Grandpa Tao was not disappointed He did all his jobs with the sam e degree of care and made no distinction between cleaning th e pots and the lam pshades. He not only cleaned the chamber pots, but he also regularl y scrubbed the lim e scale from the iron kettle used fo r boiling water, using the same met hod. He cleaned the o utside as well as the insi de. The ou tsid e got the sa me treatment as the lampshades: he

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rubbed its pitied su rface until it shone and you could see your face in it. He (lid the sa me with the aluminum wok and wok cover an d all the washbasins, until yo u could see yo ur face in them too. Th e real mirrors-th e one on the wardrobe door and the small round hand mirror--sh one eve n more brightly, and he polished the glass lOp 10 Tao's wri ting desk and th e house windows until there was not a speck of dust to be see n As a result of his efforts, the Taos' house was brighter and cleaner than anyone el se's, both insid e and out. No other homes could compare , not the Sanyu villagers' nor those of other banished families or urblings. Grandpa Tao's cleaning activities also extended to Ihe farm tools. He cleaned the mud off the spades and wiped the blade of the sickle. The spades soon got muddy again , a nd the shine on Ihe sickle blade grew dull , but Grandpa Tao was not deterred.

3 Although Grandpa Tao was a compulsive cleaner, he was not overly fu ssy aboul his personal hygiene He did not bathe from o ne end of the year 10 th e nex\. This may have been because Sallyu had no bathhouse , and although it was crisscrossed wilh waterways, he was too old to swim . In winter it was too cold to use the bathtub to wash at home, and it was inconvenient even in warmer weat her, as it mean t everyone else had to stay outside. Grandpa Tao was a very proper man and did not even go shirtl ess in s ummer as his son and grandson did . The odd thing was that although he did nOI much like having a bath , he did not smell. He did not wash his feet much eithe r, and although he went around in a pai r of rubber-soled cotton ~lib­ nation shoes,» th ey did nOI stink because his feet did not sweat. He balhed infrequently because he nalUrally sweated so little. The quilt that he and Granny Tao shared, however, was cove red with flak es of dried s kin , which fill ed the air like snowflak es when the quilt was aired . Dry, flaky skin was just o ne of those things you had to pu t up with when you were old , and in any case, dry skin never killed anyone . What really troubled Grandpa Tao was chronic constipation. He regularly went for days, even a week o r two, wit ho ut a cra p.

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Whenever he wen t to the toil et, the famil y co uld hear the sou nds of his exertions through the cu rtain . Wh en they saw his toes c url in his Li beration shoes at the bottom of th e cu rtai n, they knew he was straining. For a man who would not bathe in front of his family, his feeli ngs at having to crap in their presence can only be im agined . This went o n alm ost every day: th e trembling cu rtain , the sounds of his straining. Add ed to th at, there was the smell from the toilet bucket. Grandpa Tao probably wished th e ground would swallow him up. Although everyone knew about Grandpa Tao's co nstipat ion, th e fami ly never mention ed it O nly if the sou nds behind the cu rt ai n were different from normal did Tao o r Su Q un say, "Dad, a re you all right?" He wo uld not reply, and the groans would cease for a while , o nly to start again when he could restrain himself no longer. Somet im (.'S Tao would pull aside the curtain and go in and have a look, or young Tao was sent by his parents to see how Grandpa was getting on . He was a frightful sight, trousers down around his ankles, scarl et in th e face, and Fouring with sweat. " He's an old man; he could injure himself straining like this," Tao said to Su Qun But if he hoped that she co uld d o something, he was disappoillted Su Q UIl was the daughter-ill-law. Evell if sh e had flo uted conventions and tried to treat him , he would not have allowed it. The best remedy for cons tipatio n was an enema, but that meant a trip to Hongze Cou nty Hosp ital. Even if Su Q un went there and bo ught the equipment and learned how to usc it , it would not be pro per fo r her to administer the enema herself. They had to try and find an oth er soluti on. 5u Q un bought glycerin suppositories and glycerin and water enemas from Hongze Pharmaceuticals These had to be administered vi a th e anus. 5u Q un learned how to do it, a nd then sh e taught Tao. After a good deal o f effort, Grandpa Tao managed to have a crap. The ol d man preferred to manage o n his own, however, and avoi d medici nes if he cou ld It was not that he enjoyed st rain ing o n his own; it was that using supposito ries was humiliating. Even if it was Tao who administered them, it was still something inserted in to his body. 50 he wou ld agree to su ppositories or an enema on ly in a case o f dire nec(.'Ssi ty. The whole business, the old man felt, was

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fostering "life skills" in his grandson, who would later take over the task of treating his grandfather's constipation. The happiest event in the Tao household now became a crap by Grandpa Tao. "Grandpa (or 'Dad' or 'the old man') has had one!" the cry went up. And the air of oppression that had hung over the household for days would evaporate at the sound of the plop in the toilet bucket.

4 11 was hard to imagine that a person as neat and clean as Grandpa Tao could have so much difficulty in ridding himself of his own waste. As he cleaned the rooms an d polished the pots and the washbasins to a shine, it accumulated within his body for days on end. Perhaps his love of cleaning revealed his deep desire to void himself of it. Who knows? Nevertheless, apart from constipation, Grandpa Tao was a hale old man. Even when he was past seventy, his back was as ramrod straight as it had always been, perhaps even more so. He was in the habit of wearing a faded khaki Sun Yat-sen jacket, which, although old , still looked smart on him. Granny Tao liked to prattle on about the serge uniform her husband had bought for four silver dollars when they were married . 11 had shoulder pads, which made him look more than usually impressive. After Liberation the uniform went into the bottom of the trunk, where it stayed until the CultRev Red Guards searched the house and confiscated it Although young Tao had never seen Grandpa Tao in the jacket, he believed his grandmother. Grandpa Tao dressed carefully, even in his ordinary clothes like the Sun Yatsen jacket, buttoning up the collar to the last hook and eye, making the effect positively elegant Tao cut a completely different figure: he looked older than his years and was permanently stooped. As soon as he put on new clothes, they got creased. He particularly enjoyed going shirtless and in summer would go shoeless too, slapping along the river dykes on his big, bare feet. Where did he get these unbuttoned attitudes? Young Tao, under his father's innuence, became careless of his appearance too. In his case it was excusable, but in his father's? Tao's lack of formality was an eternal puzzle when you looked at

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how stern and rigid his father was. Perhaps it was that Tao had been involved in the Communist Party as a youth, while Grandpa Tao had been in the Kuomintang. But Tao had been stripped of his party membership. And his father had not joined the KMT of his own volition; it had somehow happened during a mass membership rally, and he had regrelled it afterward But I digress. After three years in the counLIy, things had changed a bit. Grandpa Tao's Sun Vat-sen jacket had become smoke- and spillle-stained. As the winters in Sanyu were cold, heavy padded jackets were worn under the outer garment, making it bulge and spoiling the neat effecl. When he had nothing to do, Grandpa Tao had formed the habit of standing with his hands tucked into his sleeves. His white hair was tousled by the Sanyu winds. His wispy eyebrows had begun to droop, the hairs grew out of his nostrils, his whiskers went untrimmed, and, as the networK of wrinkles deepened, his features grew more indistinct He started to lose his teeth, and Sanyu had no delllist who could fit him with false ones. Grandpa Tao was also a chain-smoker, and the remaining frOIll teeth were stained a tarry black Nowadays when he laughed, he was just another gap100thed, shrivel -mouthed old man

5 of the Taos' four dogs, two, Patch and Sno\vy, had come to a sad end when they were overfed and grew too fal. When Blackie arrived, it became a rule that he should not get proper meals, just a bit of chicken feed, consisting of husks and bran and rOiled vegetable leaves mixed together, when the hens were fed. This was intended to prevent Blackie from pUlling on too much weight. But as time weill by, Grandpa Tao appeared to forget the rule and started to feed the dog. He began by giving him their leftovers, and then he prepared food specially- First Blackie got meals every now and then; then it was three meals a day, just like the family- Blackie had a special bowl and a pot for cooking his food Grandpa Tao used the coal stove that served for his water-heating duties. It was he, of course, who cleaned the dog bowl and the cooking pot until they were shinier than the family'S own pots and utensils (which were usually washed by Granny Tao or young Tao). Three times a day, without fail.

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Blackie gOt fussier over his dinner and usually left a bit of food in the bowl. At feeding time Grandpa Tao would throw the leftovers o ut instead of mixing them with the new food , injustthe sa me way that he drained the therm os of water before putting freshly boiled water in_ Then he would wash the bowl and fill it with more dog food_ Glackie weighed forty pounds, but Grandpa Tao gave him more than enough to keep someone of a hundred pounds or more going_ No wond er th e dog could not finish his dinner. ~Yo u 're feeding this dog as if it were a pig\~ protested Tao_ GUt in Grandpa Tao's view, the reason Blackie was not wolfing down his food and licking the plate clean was because the food was not to his taste. Dogs were descended from wolves and wolvcs were carnivores, so he would s tew pork ribs and knuckles for him and SCTVC him the meat and the gravy and the bones to chew afterward . Eventually Blackie gOt beller treatment even than Patch and Snowy. Maybe Grandpa Tao felt that he had to make up for their previous ill treatment of the dog_ Tao was completely opposed to what his father was doing and said so fr equently The laller turned a deaf ear_ Maybe old age had made him hard of hearing, but it was more likely that he did not consider Tao's opi nions worth listening to Tao had twO reasons for protcsting. O ne was the need to safeguard Blackie: if he grew tOO fat, the villagers would want to cat him . The o ther had to do with Striking Root in Sanyu: if they continuc([ with this wasteful extravagance, how would they cope when timcs became hard? Actually the only extravagant, wasteful person in the family was Grandpa Tao. The way Tao saw it, overfeedi ng the dog, throwing out boiled water, lending money to the villagers, and needlessly buying their eggs were all part of the same thing_ It was worse now that Tao had been expelled from the party (more on th is later)_ They had to prepare themselves One day their salaries might be stopped, and they would have to support themselvcs with work points like ordinary worker famili es who had been sent down to the coun try. They were comfortably off now, but they should s till put some money by JUSt in case. But when Tao talked to his father about this, Grandpa Tao new into a thunderous rage. He dashed the dog's bowl to the ground and almost ove rturned thc stove. Instead he stamped his foot and, face scarlet, bellowed, ·'Damn you! Damn you!"

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Granny Tao sided with her husband and shouted accusations about "unfilial behavior." Tao muttered, "You're both nuLS!n and took himself off. When Su Qun came 10 see what was going on, Tao lei fly at her inSlead: "As for you, you spoil thai boy! How's he going to get along in Sanyu in the fUlure?" Su Qun burSI into floods of lears at thaI. Tao then felt he had gone too far and lold his terrified son, "Go and comfort your mOlher!" GUI Su Qun had had enough She slarting undoing her jacket but\ons, as if to end her life by throwing herself into the river. She made for the water, still unbuttoning as she wen\. Young Tao threw his arms around her thigh and hung on, shouting, "Mom! Mom! Mom!" Gut hiscrit.'S just seemed to make her more determined . The Taos had never imagined that the normally gentle and even-tempered Su Qun could behave like Ihis, and neither perhaps had she. Perhaps she had been in the country so long Ihat she was turning into a Sanyu woman. When it came 10 the crunch, she did as they did. Her suicide allempl shocked Ihe whole family. Granny pursued her daugh ter-in-law on her lillie feet, shouting at young Tao, "SlOp yom mother! Stop hell" Grandpa Tao staycd ill thc from room, silent now. As for Tao, he stood ready on the riverbank to stop Su Qun o r, in the event that he failed, to rescue her. Needless to say, Su Qun did not jump. The fact was that she really (lid not want to; it was the stress of the moment that had made her act that way, but she realized this only when they shouted and tried to stop her. Things had gotten so bad that she felt forced to throw herself into Ihe river. After it was all over, she denied that she had wanted 10 do Ihat (and was deeply ashamed of the whole inci dent). "Gut why were you undoing your bUllons?n asked Tao. "How should I know?" was the reply. Tao gave a sigh "We've been banished for so long, it's bound 10 affect us. Anyway, it doesn't matter now." And he seemed almost happy. And so it all blew over. This was one of two bad squalls that shook the family during their banishment, and this one almost claimed a life. The other incident actually did claim a life but involved only Grandpa and Granny Tao, no one else.

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On Ihis occasion, Grandpa Tao realized he had gone 100 far, and he began 10 rt.'Slrain himself when he fed Ihe dog. He also became far more considerale and caring loward olher members of his family.

6 Grandpa Tao often stood at the roadside watching for anyone who was due home- Tao, Su Qun, or young Tao. He would wait for Tao to come back from work and young Tao to come home from school, bUI mOSI often he would wail for his daughler-in-law. Wangji Markel was quile some dislance away, and when Su Qun wenl shopping, she of len did nOI gel back unlil after dark. Somelim es he wenllO meel her, going quile long dislances from home. He was of len 10 be seen al dusk on Ihe Yanma River embankmenl, looking loward Xiaodunkou. A dog lay al his feet. As Ihe years passed, the color of the dog's coat changed . First it was a black and whi te dog, then a white one, then a black one. On ly Grandpa Tao stayed the same, standing ramrod straight, hands tucked into his sleeves, peering into the distance, with his head slightly raised and his breath leaving droplets of water on his wispy white moustache. Sudd enly the dog beside him, always the first to sense Su Qun's approach, would jump up and leap down the embankment. He was soon back, followed by Su Qun. She had dismounted and wou ld be pushing Ihe raltling bicycle along the rough lrack. "Are you oul for a slroll , Dad?H she would greet him . Grandpa Tao would nod his head in assent, and Su Qun would get back onto the bicycle and cycle off 10 Ihe village . Patch (or Snowy or Blackie) would trot behind her, leaving Grandpa Tao alone on the embankment. Slowly he would turn and make his way home, arri ving usually a quarter of an hour after Su Qun . After all, he had not gone out to wait for her; he just happened to have bumped into her. At least that was how he wa nted it to look. Granny Tao never left home, so he never had the opportunity 10 watch for her return. Tao and young Tao were generally home on time, so the wait was short Only Su Qun came back al irregular hours and was often very late. Then Grandpa Tao look matters into his own hands and set oul 10 meel her. The laler she was, the further he would walk. Once he got onto Ihe Hong-Wang highway and almost as far as Wangji Market. After

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they met, he arrived home a whole hou r and half a fter her, which was really quite late. The o thers did not get this lreatment; he nee(led o nly to stand on their little bridge or in the village Slreet , and they would !Urn up. If several o f th em were OU I at the sa me time-Tao at work, young Tao at school, and $u Qun in Wangji- he would sta nd at th e roadside, meeti ng th em o ne by one. He would see each o f them to th eir littl e bridge and then go back to await the next. Again h e would tag al ong behind ulllil he h ad seen them to their bridge. Back and forth, the dog trolling alo ng behind him . The dogs found all this to-ing and fro-ing very exciling an d leapt up and dow n wagging their tails. G rand pa Tao was quiet and sober, as if tht.-se emotional reunions were no co ncern o f h is. With each new arr ival , he grew quieter and more sober, in co ntrast to th e traces o f anxiety he had betrayed before each pe rson arrived . This is how it weill each even ing: As five o'clock passed, Grandpa Tao began to get fid gety. Before this he wo uld pass the tim e sitting beside the coal stove, keeping an eye on the kettl e and reading the newspaper. As five o'clock arrived, he could s it still no longer and would start moving around the 100m. After a while he would gravitate to the back wind ow of the fro nt room, from where he could look out at thei r bridge an d the village street. As it grew dark, the scenery became more indistin ct, and Grandpa Tao would step outside and walk to the bridge. This seemed to comfort him for a while, but as lim e passed , he wou ld grow anxious again. He would start walking again, to th e village st reet and on further. How far he got depended on when th e pe rson arrived h orne, as I have already explained. O nce everyone was horne, Grandpa Tao would once again become placid, and a rare smile would nicker across his face. Tao tried to dissuade his father from standing in wait. It was fo r h is own good. He was getting on in yea rs, a nd being o utside for so long in all weather was bad for him Besides , it made no difference to the time that people got ho me: they would get there anyway, wheth er o r not Grandpa Tao was there. If they were dc1aye(l , it would not help even if he stood there another two hours. Fortunately, the Taos were generally o n lime. So melim es, though , something went wrong; they arrived vcry late or did not arrive at

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Han Dong

all. It caused Grandpa a lot of trouble if, as happened at least twice, he waited and they did not turn up. Once was when young Tao took off after his mother and went to Wangji Market. Grandpa Tao went to look for him and had reached the Hong-Wang highway when he met some of the Sanyu villagers, who told him that they had seen Su Qun with young Tao on the back of the bicycle, so Grandpa Tao went home. Another time was when Su Qun took young Tao to the cinema in Wangji Market and there was no matinee so she decided that they would stay the night. On that occasion, Grandpa Tao waited on the Yanma River embankment until midnight, and all Tao's efforts could not budge him . When young Tao went to Gezhuang Primary and stayed the night with Zhao Ningsheng, all Grandpa Tao's waiting was fruitless. He would come home sighing and toss and turn in bed until cockcrow. When he thought of his father and his son, Tao could only shake his head helplessly.

The Cleaning Bug

I .. t

NINE

"516"

I One day when Grandpa Tao was waiting for Su Qun on the Yanma River embankment, a stranger approached him and asked the way to the Taos Tall and thin and dressed in a Sun Vat-sen jacket that was much 100 hig for him, he moved almost soundlesslyGrandpa Tao led the way to their enclosure. When Tao looked up and saw the new arrival, he greeled him with a volley of joyful exclamations_ This was n Olle other than his best friend, Hou Jim in, young Tao's "Uncle liou, " In the light of the kerosene lamp, his checks were so emaciated and his eyes sunk so cavernously in their sockets Ihal they rt.'Scmblcd a skull. No wonder Grandpa Tao had not recognized him . Tao and HOll had been friends since middle school, and when Tao jOined the party, HOll had been his sponsor. After Libcration they weill their separate ways_ Hou worked on a newspaper while Tao began to write novels, hut the two kept in touch_ As Hou put it, Grandpa Tao had watched him grow up, and now he watched young Tao grow up O nly young Tao had forgollen his Uncle Hou by now_ He just felt that this man had a really scary face_ That night 5u Qun and young Tao squeezed into the same bed, and Hou and Tao shared Su Qun and Tao's big bcd. Thcy talked until late into the night. Young Tao watched the pale light cast on th c roof mal1ing above them by their keroscne lamp and hcard bursts of laughtcr interspersed with mul1ercd conversation. Hc was rcminde([ of night-timc convcrsations hc had had with Zhao Ningsheng. Finally he fell aslecp.

142

Hou st ayed with them for two nights and left earl y on the third (lay. He and his family had been banished to aeo mmune in a neighboring cou nty, within the Huaiyin dislrictlike Hongze County, and Hou had made a poin t of com ing to see Tao. After his departure Tao issued repeated warnings to you ng Tao not to tell anyone about Uncle Hou's visit. In particular, he was not to say a word to Zhao Ningsheng. To convince him, he went o n, ~U ncl e Hou has just been released from prison. I'm certain he's innocent , but he hasn't been cleared yet" In the days that followed the Taos discussed what had happened to Hou. To start with Tao was cautious and co nfined himself to dark hints, checking eve ry so often that there was no one eavesd ropping outsi de. But as tim e went on, he could keep it to himself no longer and finally told the family everything. As he told the story, young Tao kept hearing the same mysterious numbers: "' 516.~

2 ~516~

was one of the strange and frightening catch phrases common in that cra, like th e One Strike, Three Antis (campaign ), the pour Comers (of the world), and th e date an7, which, once past and gone, meant not hing to anyone. Most of them were linked to numbers. Other catch phrases without numbers-like (going) Up Mountains, Down Country (for banishment to the coun try), banished fa milies, and educable youth-my readers will be able to figu re out, but these number phrases present problems to a nyone doing textual analysis. The poet Yang Li mai ntains that ~Language is th e wo rld ,» and he is probably riglll An essenti al characteristic of weird and bafning world s (or epochs) is that they are enshrouded in, and embellished by, weird and baming language. Furthermore, the morc bafning, distorted, and culturall y impoverished such a worl d or epoch, th e more such in ven ted language flourishes. The Ten·Year CuhRev (another number phrase) is one such period. Finally and self-evidently, such phrases carry force o nly a l a specifi c moment and are not transferable to other wo rlds or times. This book describes just such a splendidly strange and distorted world (of language). My readers really need a specialist dictionary when they read it to save me the trouble of explaining expressions like

" 5 16"'

10

rightist, banished cadre, urbling, barefoot doctor, revo lutionary committee, armed struggle, loya lt y dance, morn ing inst ruct io ns, evening report back, May 7 Cad re School, cap italist roader, and Red Guard As it is, I have abridged and simplifi ed a good deal in order to make this book accessible to posterity a nd to make it easier to translate, but in many places the results leave much to be desired_ I can o nly sin cerely apologize LO my young readers or those from another world_ The world I describe here was, after all, a pecu~ liar and transitory one, constructed of language that enshrouded an d permeated it with what Buddhists call ul1ityu, a mysteriOUS impermanence.

3 The suffix to the phrase ~516~ was "Counterrevolutionary Group, ~ whatever that mealll. Luckily it seemed self-explanatory, at least to young Tao And it is imm aterial to this story why it was the 5 16 Counterrevol utio nary Group and not the 5 17 or 526 Counterrevolutionary Group_ The Hous and the Taos were both banished cadre famili es from Nanjing_ The difference was that Hou Jimin was arrested in connection with 516 soon after the banishment and was taken back to Nanjing, where he spen t an entire year in prison. Young Tao cou ld not stop thinking about these events. Until now he had seen cou nterrevolu tionaries beating up revolutionary mart yrs only in films . But here before him was a real person, reduced to skin an d bo nes by ill treatment, who was also his father's closest fr iend and h is Uncl e Hou_ Accordi ng to Hou, as a key suspect, he had had to wear h andcuffs for the entire time_ In order to make him confess, his interrogators stomped hard on his handcuffed wrists. He showed Tao his hands: the fingers were tTanslucelll, like candles; the wrists were a grayishwhite color and seemed thinner than young Tao's_ It was a miracle that they had not been broken. Tao told them that Hous wrists were never like that before; they were like his own, thick and strong. Tao told his son that Hou had tried to kill himself. He had no thing in his cell apart from a bed, not eve n a bit o f rope to hang himself with . Then he realized that he had a portrait of Chai rm an Mao pin ned up on the wall with tacks. He pulled out all the half dozen

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tacks and swallowed them with water, sat down, and waited fo r the pain to start. It did hurt , but then he had a crap a nd fel t nothing more. Most likely the coarse prison food had carri ed the nails through his system and they had been excreted After this Hou did not try again. Even if he had wanted to, he did not have th e means, as even his trouser belt had been confiscated. He had to hold his trousers up all the time, whether he was si tting or standing in his cell. To keep fit, he st retched his arms and moved his legs while standing. When sitting, he wrote confessions o r read Mao's Collecled Works, the o nly read ing material he had. He read them twenty o r thirty tim es, until he co uld recite them almost by heart. Then they became a powerful weapon that he co uld use against his interrogators. At fir st they were unwilling to accept that he knew his Mao much better th an they did . They would check at every quotation, but he was always proved right, so later they became more circumspect because it was no joke if Hou caugh t them misquoting Mao. They might end up being arrested too and becoming his cellmates. Finall y, they stopped challenging him, and Ho u could hoodwink th em into believing that his own words were the Chairman's. He had the Chairman's mannerisms and figures of speech down to pe rfec tion, and he now made th e dictums favorable to himself. An example: "Chairman Mao said that prisoners should not be ill treated . They should get meat at least o nce a week, not just in peacetime but in wartime too. At least o nce a week. If there's no po rk, then o ther kinds of meat should be substituted." If they had gone to verify this in the Collected Works, Hou wo uld certa inly have faced the death pe nalty. Tao admired Hou's courage and wit. "Hou could talk himsel f o ut of any con fr ontati on with th ose people The only weapons they had were brUle fo rce . When they ran out of arguments, they got angry and pounced o n him, stomped on his wrists, a nd slapped his face. That j ust shows their weakness» Hou was invincible. He refused to admit that he was guil ty of anyt hing. Then they threatened to shoot him O ne dark and moonless night he was put into a jeep with two gun-toting PlA. guards, and they set off for the burial grounds on the city outskirts. His guards looked Signifi ca ntly at their watches. "Your time's nearly up," they told him "But you've st ill got time to make a con-

"5 t6"

In

fession ." Hou thought, "It's finally happening . ~ In fact, he had prepared himself, had spent several nights wrestling fiercely with his conscience , and had made up his mind that he would not confess 10 any crime. He had written a note for jusl such an eVClll. It said he had been wrongfully killed, and if any good -hearted person found this note, would they please pass it on to his family (he had added the commune and brigade address, along wilh his wife's name). If his family could nOI be found, would they please lodge an appeal with the aulhorilies on his behalf. With Ihanks from HouJimin, now in Ihe netherworld. He clutched this nOle in his handcuffed hands and waited for an opportunity to throw it out the window. However, no such opportunity arose. In the cramped cab of the jeep, he was tightly squeezed between the soldiers and his interrogators. Even if he had found an opportunity, the note would just have been blown away by the wind and vanished . Even supposing it had been found, by a "good-hearted person" who could read, would he or she have been able 10 gel il into the hands of Hou's family? Or failing that, would he or she have been bold enough 10 lodge an appeal on Hou's behalf? Hou Jimin had always been, and remained, too much the noble-hearted scholar. Of course the note was a desperate last resort, offering a glimmer of hope in his despair. But why then did hearing about it make his listeners feel even more despair? The jeep drove around the outskirts for a bit and then returned to the prison without stopping to let anyone out. It had been only a mock execution . Hou was gratified that he had not given in, and even more so that he had nOI thrown the note out the window. If he had nOI died and the note had reached his family, it would have been very painful for them, and the fuss of an appeal would also have caused a 101 of trouble My feeling is thaI ifHou had really been shot, the note woul d not have reached his family, and conversely, if he had not been killed, it would have. I have no reason for saying this, just a certain understanding of anitya, the impermanence of life . Such arc the tricks fall' plays on humans. The mock execution was a trick too, but one with a human agent, feeble by comparison with the supernatural power and far-reaching effects of a trick played by fate. So we can

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say that in this case, a small trick with a human agent fo il ed a much bigger trick of fate that would have changed the whole s ituation. Young Tao was on ly d iml y aware of all of thiS, and even his father did not fully grasp it Even HOll, who was personally involved, was rather con fu sed. BUI after Ihis, h e was never afraid again. What had a man to fear when he had died once? Young Tao felt imm ense adm iralion and respect for his Uncle Hou's courage, and Tao seized the opportunity 10 use Ihis real-life ex ampl e for his son's ed ifi cati on . Was Hou really a counte rrevolu tionary? Was the 516 gro up really counterrevolutionary? 11 was irrelevant , and yo ung Tao did not ca re. To him, Hou's behavior in prison was JUSt like that of the revolutio nary martyrs in nlms, and he fu lly ap proved of Hou's being elevated to the status of General Yue Fci and o ther heroes.

4 The time was ri pe, in Tao's view, for his son to have a couple of Ihings thai Hou had left as mementos. He had al nrsl thoughl he sho uld wait a year or IWO, ulllil h is son was a bil bigger. Gut now thai he saw h ow young Tao reveled h is Uncle Hou, Tao saw no nee(l to wail. He gave them to him and made him put them away carefully. Both objects were made out of cigarelte packets. O ne was a decorat ive piece: Hou had carefully cut the metall ic red Nanjing brand cigarelte packet into strips and woven them together over a piece o f Silver-gray lining paper in such a way that red characters were visible against Ihe sil ver Th ey read, ~Have failh in the masses and the party." The Olher object was also made from a cigarette packet. Hou had created a liny n ewspaper on Ihe back of Ihe packet, a nd he h ad covered it in minule wriling. The newspaper had a dateline and a quotation fr om Chairman Mao in th e masthead position. There was a prison diary and poems in dirferent classical meters that were vehicles for his anger and resentment. And Hou had drawn decorative motifs linking or diViding the pieces . The tiny newspaper was exquisitely made, packed with information, a nd a delight to the eye.

" 5 t 6"'

IH

In one of the poems, Hou described a dream in which he returned to the place to which he had been banished. He a nd his son had gone to the st ream to enjoy a swim. Awaking to find himself in his prison cell , Hou soaked his pillow in tears. He, like the Taos, had a ri ver in which he swam with his son . The difference was that his son had learned to swim. At least in Hou's dream he had. It was apparen tly no t un com mon for prisoners to make mininewspapers and to braid decorative s logans from ciga rette packets. Ho u had always been a heavy smoker- two packs a day, Nanjing brand only-and while in prison, his hab it increased. He had nothing else to do , and he need ed th e precious packets. His prison cel l became a haze of s mo ke all day long and looked like it had caught fire. He was given plenty of papcr o n which to write confessio ns, but it had to be accounted fo r every day. So to sat isfy his restless desire to keep writing and drawing, he had to rely on the cigarette packets he coll ected He smoked as hard as he could (luckily there was no limit on how much of his own money he could s pend in prison). By th e tim e he was let out , his health was bro ken by the to rture he had suffered and probably also by his uncontrolled chain -smoking. Hou had run a newspape r before the Cu lt Rev; in fact he had a long-st anding con nect ion with the newspaper wo rld. Before Liberation, at middle school , he and Tao had run a newspape r together and had written leaflets exposing the corruption of the Kuomintang governm ent. After Liberation, he had run a newspaper that fervently s upported the new socialism. Now that he was incarcerated , he con tin ued to create a newspaper, as if it were the o nly way to free his souL Only this one was unusual: it was written on cigarette packets, one shee t per day, and was for his eyes only It was as if Hou had gone back to middle school, scribbling away at the risk of being discovered, but now in fa r harder circu mstances. No wonder Tao said Ho u had th e newspaper bug in the same way he had the writing bug. What puzzled but also moved Tao was that these mini-newspapers had no readers apa rt from Hou himself. o f cou rse most of them ended up confiscated, so his interrogators were their fi rst readers. Hou had probabl y expected thiS, so rather than pUlling anything in

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them that might get him into trouble, he filled them with protestations of his innocence. In ot her words, he subconsciously intended his interrogators to be his readers. Confiscatio ns notwithstanding. Hou succeeded in gell ing a few mini.newspapers out of prison so that his family became his second set of readers. The third set were th e Taos, and in giving a mininewspaper and a cigaretle packet slogan to you ng Tao, Ho u clearly wanted the objects moved to safety There might be a search of Hou's own house at any tim e. Tao inspected the two pieces closely and ca me to the concl us io n that although not very auspicious, at bOllom they had no obviously reacti on ary content. After careful consideration, therefo re, he discreet ly gave them to his son. The responsibility weighed heavily on young Tao. Keeping them safe was a glorious but risky business . He regarded these crude artifacts as akin to the reli cs of revolutionary martyrs. In the dead of night he retri eved them from thei r hiding place and perused them at length. He fo und th em feverish Iy exciting. Not even Zhao Ningsheng had seen these two objects There had been occasional mentions of them, but when Zhao asked, young Tao refused to give details.

5 In the winter of 197 1, towa rd the end of the Patch era, Su Q un se t off to coll ect a package from the Wangji post office . The package was fro m Beiji ng, from her father, young Tao's maternal grandfather. He sent Su Q un weekly leiters and a mo nthly parcel co ntain ing mostly food items like sausages and milk powder, ca ndy a nd ciga. retles, and books o n horticulture and comm on medical prepara· tions. Sometimes he bought one or two ch ildren's books and put them in fo r young Tao. Themail did not get delivered to Sanyu but stopped at Wangji Market. People comi ng from there would often bri ng a message for the Taos: "There's some thing for you at the Wa ngji post office. n And Su Qun would get on her bicycle and go off to Wangj i Market to fetc h it, sometim es combi ning it with doing the shopping. She had to go to the post office cou nter to ask, "Is there any mail fo r Tao Peiyi's famil y?"

"5 16"'

H9

That day she set off before ten in the morning, and as she had no other shopping to do, she expected to be back about three. She had not been gone long when Patch gave the family the slip and chased afler her over Ihe bridge He got as far as the Yanma River embankment, and Su Qu n gOI off her bicycle 10 send him back. We already know what happened to him after Ihal. We also know that $u Qun remounled and finally arrived in Wangji Market, but whether or nOI she went to the post office for her package o r whether il even existed, I can net tell you. An hour after $u Qun had left, the family began to search fo r Patch, but no trace of him was found. Tao and young Tao combed the village; Grandpa and Granny Tao searched the house . Granny Tao turned out all the drawers and poked a stick under the bed. MPatch is not that small!" said Grandpa Tao. "How could he posSibly be in therer Tao and young Tao were soon back, needless to say without Palch. They were sure he had followed $u Qun to Wangji Market and hoped he would turn up wagging his tail on her return They just had 10 be patient and wail. II was now three in Ihe afternoon, the time when $u Qun was supposed 10 be homc. Out she d id Ilot arrive At about four, beforc Grandpa Tao could take up his position at the roadside, Taowent out to make some enquirics. He walked toward the Yanma River embankment, reading Scientific Experiments as he wenl. Then he bumped into Mr. Yu, the production team leader. Yu sim ply told him to go back because Su Qun would not be back that nighl. II had been Yu who had sent the message about the package that morning. He seemed 10 have been waiting for Tao for some time. Grabbing him by the ann, he whispered a message into his ear. Tao's expression underwent a sudden change. He turned on his heel and went home At home Tao moved a chair in front of the door and sat on it, stretching his legs out and resting them on a small stool. And there he stayed, half sitting, half lying, brows furrowed in thought, one hand resting on his stomach. He said he was feeling unwell; maybe had a cold; it would be better soon The grandparents and young Tao were all in the room and could not leave as Tao was blocking the exit It grew darker and darker,

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and the time was coming for Grandpa Tao to go out and wail. He pace(j the house anxiously but did not demand to be let oul. Gradually the house darkened tOO, but Grand pa Tao forgot to light th e lam ps_Tao's half-reclining shape could be seen against the remaining light in th e sky outside, just t he glasses on his face glinting in the gloom_ Grandpa Tao stopped pacing and stood straight and tall at the back window, his glasses catching the remaining light too_ Fath er and son, back to back, one on a chair, the other standing, silen tl y waiting_ Apart from Granny Tao's occasional muuering, there was not a sound to be heard in the house. Young Tao cou ld even hear his grandfather's hea\'}' breathing. Eventually groans and sighs erupted from the old man, and he began to tap his feel. Before Grandpa Tao could los e his temper, Tao moved away from the front door. He stood up and sa id , "Su Qun won't be back tonight. I've just seen Yu , He told me that somethi ng's happened at the commune headquarters_ They may be going to re-form the propaganda team " Then he picked up a spade, told you ng Tao to do the sam e, and made for the door_Since it was quite dark by now, it seemed odd to be going to the allotment with spades_ They left the house behind them and got as far as the s tream, where there was a liule more lighl. Tao stuck his spade in to the earth and leaned on the handle. Young Tao followed his exam ple, and they stood face to face and began to talk. "Your Mom's been detained for investigation, a nd she won't be back for some time," said Tao. Then he said nothing more , just waited for young Tao's reaction. Young Tao was so scared that his breath caught in his throat. After a lillie while, Tao went on, "You should prepare you rself. ! migh t be taken for investigation too, and th en you would be left with Grand pa and Granny- If an},thing should happen to them, what would you do?" "I'd go to my granddad in Beijing," said young Tao_ Tao sigh ed but said nothing. He pulled out the spade and began to dig over a few clods of earth. Young Tao heard the sound of sta lks snappi ng but could sec nothing in the dark. When Tao stopped digging, he asked him, "Dad, will Patch come back?~ Tao did not answer. He said to his son, "Taotao, you're eleven years old . You're a big boy now. When are you going to grow up an d

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behave like one?" He gave a long sigh, and young Tao knew he had (lisappointed his father. The two of them walked around the allotment, follow ing the stream It was pitch black, but they could dimly see the outlines of the allotmenl The saplings were leaness now as it was wimer, but after two years' hard work, their branches had finally shown vigorous growth, and they stood tall_ The waters of the stream glittered, reflecting the night sky Father and son turned and looked at their home_ Grandpa Tao had lit the lamps, and light streamed out of the windows. Tao patted his son's shoulder. "We'd better get back," he said. MGranny and Grandpa will be worried."

6 News that Su Qun was under investigation spread rapidly around the village, although the villagers did not really understand what "under investigation" meant and knew only that she had been arrested_ Rumor had it that Yu, the production team leader, had ordered her 10 go to the brigade office_ As soon as she stepped through the door, she had had handcuffs clapped on her by two people in army uniform . This happened to be a carbon copy of what was supposed to have happened when Mr. Jin, the schoolmaster, had been arrested. We know that Su Qun eycled to Wangji Market and was on her way to the post office to pick up a package. We do not know whether she got her package, but in any case she was later taken to the RevComm compound_ There she remained that night- and the next and the nexi In faCI Su Qun spemlhree or four weeks there_ During those weeks life was strictly regimented: eal, sleep, write confessions, undergo interrogation_ She had a room, with a bed and a table, in which she nOI only slept bUI also wrote material for her interrogators. She took all her meals in the commune dining room,and over the three weeks she got to know the faces of the commune employees well, although they never talked to her. Su Qun would have liked to strike up a conversation, but, aware of her status as a detainee, she refrained .

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The RevComm secretary, deputy secretary, leader, deputy leader, clerk, accountant, and other RevComm functionaries all ate in the (lining room. These were important people that Su Qun would not normally have had a chance to meet. Now, although she could not speak to them, they knew her, just as she knew them, and she committed their faces to memory, thinking to herself that it might come in useful one day As time went by, she would get a nod and a smile by way of a greeting from them, and Su Qun reckoned that her detention was proving of great benefit to her. When Su Qun went to and from the dining room and the toilet, she was followed by two urblings. The two girls had been sent up to the commune headquarters from one of the brigades and had been given the job of supervising her. Being able to mix with the commune officers was an opportunity for them too. They ate, went to the toilet with her, and slept in her room too. So the room had a double bed for the urblings to share, in addition to Su Quns single one. The two girls were shrewder than Su Qun. They made friends with the commune leaders (with whom they were allowed to talk). They made an effort to be nice to Su Qun too, not just because they, like she, were from Nanjing, but also because after a few hard years of being mblings, they had mature heads on their young shoulders. They knew all about the impermanence of life and about Su Quns disgrace. of course there were limits to how friendly they could be to their charge. They had to stick to the rules or they would get into trouble. And they had to be discreet and could talk freely to her only at night, with just the three of them in their room. Then they were delightful and addressed her as ~big sister.~ They also sometimes cried bitterly as they told her about the hardships of their life on the production team They behaved very differently when they and Su Qun were with the interrogators. They assumed severe expressions, and their voices rose in pitch. Su Qun understood perfectly On these occasions they nee(led to be nice to the interrogators. The interrogators, like the girls, were from Nanjing and were immensely powerful figures, so it behooved them to love and respect them Since the interrogators were from Nanjing, they had no connection with the commune. They had been allocated a room in a row of office buildings, one without a nameplate on the door. Here they

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Minvestigated" Su Qun. Apart from eating and going to the to ilet, this was where she spent her days. During interrogations, the two urblings stood to one side looking bored . There were three interrogators who had come all the way from Nanjingjust because ofSu Qun She could not help feeling flattered by the hono r accorded her, even though it was only later, after her release, that she discovered thei r full title: "516 Counterrevolutionary Group Cases Group" Su Qun had heard o f 516. Hou Jimin had been imprisoned on account of 516 that year. Although the Taos were close to Ho u and believed he was blameless, there had still been an element o f doubt. 11 was only now that Su Qun too had been detained in con nectio n with 516that she completely believed Hou. Not o nly was he not a M516 clement (like her, he was a victim of injustice), but the whole 516 business was probably trumped up, a complete fi ctio n. Th e thought comforted Su Qun but also terrified her. It was comforting that 516 was not real, and Su Qun, like Hou, now began to repeat, as if she were reciting a mantra, "Trust th e party and the masses." Hou had woven the words out of cigarette packets to comfort himself and keep his spirits up. Su Qun did no t smoke but just said the words 10 herself or sometimes aloud to the two urblings. The frightening thing was that although the 516 business was absurd, it was still extremely serious. You might even end up being executed, as had almost happened to HouJimin . Su Qun was being treated much better than Hou. (The Sanyu villagers might not have known the difference between detention and impriso nment, but to Su Qun they were heaven and helL) But if s he refused to submi t and admit guilt, then it was a very s mall step from detention to a real prison. Her interrogators enlightened Su Qun on this point. " It may no t matter to you if you go to prison , but think what it will do to your son's prospects," they said. Su Qun burst into tears at this. She thought of young Tao, o f his future, and of their aspirations that he should strike root in Sanyu. The interrogators, seeing her agitation, did not press th e point. They just left her to think it over. The next day, they called her into the room and asked, MHave you had a good think?" H

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O n the wall behind them she read the custo mary slogan: "Be lenient to the honest; treat resistance with severity! ~ The words of the slogan seemed to emit dazzling rays of ligh l. There were three morc of them than in Su Qun and Hou's "Trust the party and the masses," whi ch gave th em a more mystic power_ It was too much for Su Qun_ She pondered and decided she had better confess_ In spite of her decision, putting it into practice was not so sim ple. As she had nothing to confess, she had to make it up as she went along_ She did not have a due about 516, had only ever heard of it o nce (from Hou) before she heard of it from them . Now she had to write everyt hing up-places, people , and conversat ionsand they all had to match officiall y accepted materia l in every detail. Her interrogators were very strict, so it would be fiendishly difficult! Probably not even Tao, who made his living from making up stories, was up to il. Luckily, she had been Tao's wife fo r a long tim e and had absorbed an ability 10 in ven t. It was possible that she would be able to get around her interrogators_

7 Theysat behind the table with a great heap of documents in front of them. Every tim e Su Qu n got stuck, they would flick thro ugh their papers and prompt her memo ry with a couple of details. But they did not say a lot-just a detail, a nam e, or a sentence th at someone had sai d-l eavi ng Su Qun plenty of space to fl esh it oul. Su Qu n wished she coul d get her hands o n their documenLS. Then there wo uld be no need for wild guesses. She could j ust copy it out , give it to them, and be done with it. It would save such a lot of time and spare both her and them an ordeal But it was impossible, even th ough th e pile lay on ly in ches from her_ Unless she stole it. But for one thing, she had no experience or skill in theft and fo r another, she fou nd it even harder to imagin e being pu nished for theft than for counterrevolution_ There was no point in thinking abou t thaI. Twenty-three days was three weeks and two days. Su Qun's (le tention passed with a stalemate in the first half of the month between the nine-word inca ntati on and the six-wo rd one, until the pressu re grew too great and Su Qun's defenses crumbled . The rest of the time was spen t making up her confession. Even with the

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active cooperation of her interrogators, that was probably going to take anot her two weeks or so. But a week into her confcssio n, something unexpected happem.-d One day her interrogators gave her a letter. It had been sent by Su Qun's father in Beijing, and instead of waiting for her to collect it and take it back to Sanyu, they had picked it up directly from th e post office in Wangji Market, thus making the lener's journey considerably shorter It was thi cker and heavier than his usualleners, and the envclope was a bit bigger. Under their watchful gaze , she tore it open and fo und ano ther envelope inside. Her father had written three words o n it: "Burn after reading." Su Qun knew she was in for a shock. Her scalp tingled, and she broke out into a cold sweat. It was too late to stop now. They had given the leller to her in person so that she would open it in front of them . And she too wanted to dispcltheir doubts: this was just an ordina ry famil y letter; there was nothing in it that cou ld not be told She put on a brave face, opened th e second kner, and started to read. By now they were standing behind th e cha ir on which she sat, staring intentl y at th e kner over her shoulder. Someth illg big had happelled ill th e Central Comminee, her fat her wrote: Vice-Chairman lin Biao had defected to the Soviet Union but had died in a plane crash over Ondorkhaan in Mongolia. He wrote more bt.'Sides, but Su Qun could no longer sec to read. Her head swam, and she felt as if she was going to sl ide off her chair. That ended her session for the day. Her interrogato rs went back behind the table, and not a word was said-at least not until after the urbli ngs had taken Su Qun by both arms and escorted her back to her room The next day and the day aft er that, the usual sessions were canceled. There was no word or news from her interrogators. It was as if Su Qun had been forgotten.

8 o f the entire detentio n, those last two days were the hardcst to bear. They were not interrogaling her because of the leller. ~Th ey've handed my case over to th e Public Secu rity Department," she thought. She would leave the com mun e headquarters and be taken

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to a prison with an electrified fence. Connicting thoughts raged within her. First cam e painful recrimination. "Dad, o h Dad! Whatever got into you? " she th ought. "Why did you write that letter to me at that precise moment? Why didn't you write something else , like you used to? Why that particular hit of news? You've condemned your daughter to death! O h Dad, why were you so stupidr No response came from her father far away in Beijing, of course. Su Qun continued: "That's brilliant. Your daughter will never get o ut of prison, and it will affect you too. Your grandson Taotao will never be able to lift his head up either, if his mother's imprisoned as a counterrevolutionary. And he has so much of his life a head of him!H At this, sobs choked her. But crying was no use. Su Qun had to think of something else. She decided to take her own life. Suicide was a punishable c rime , but at least that way young Tao would not need to be concerned abo Ui his jail ed mother or ahout supplying her with food. Havi ng made up her mind, she began to loo k for an opportunity. Since the last session, th e urbling girls watched her more closely than ever and alm ost never left her side But even if she could get ri d of them , how wo uld she do it~ Looking around the room she had lived in for three weeks, Su Qun saw the ceili ng beams for the first time . Inspiration st ruck. She would hang herself! Su Q un imagined hersel f hangi ng from a beam like Sun the factory director, head askew, bright red tongue protruding. And she could almost hear Tao saying sorrowfully, "Qun, what a way to end up ! Just like a village woman , hanging yourselffrom the beams by your belt. So ugly! At least find another way to kill yourself!" "But there's no knife here fo r me to cUi my wrists with,H she protested. "A nd no sleepi ng pills that would make me look like I'd gone to sleep. No stove so that I could seal the doors and windows and gas myself. There's on ly the beams What do you want me to do?" There were o nly a few ways fo r Sanyu villagers to kill themselves: they could throw themselves into the river, hang themselves, or swallow pesti ci des-unlike people in Nanjing, who co uld slit thcir wrists, take s leepi ng pills, o r gas themselves. They could also j ump from upper 1100rs, but Sanyu buildings had no upper 1100rs, no r (lid the RevComm Single-story building in Wangji Markel. After

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the Yangtze Bridge was built at Nanjing, Nanjingers would leap off that too. Even though they were jumping into water, they were leaping from the bridge, not throwing themselves fro m the bank. Even so, Tao did not approve of such violent methods. He had set an exampl e earlier during the CultRev: he swallowed sleeping pills in a town far away, o n the outskirts of Nanjing. Even in death he had wanted to maintain his dignity. During th e row over th e dog food, Su Qun went to throw herself into th e river, und oi ng her jacket buttons as she went. Tao was annoyed not at the suicide bid, but at the way she made it. In his view, she had acted like an ignorant village woman . Su Qun explained that she had not known what she was dOing, had not reall y wanted to die. Tao's response was, "That's even worse!» But now Su Qun knew exactly what she was doing: she had (lecided to hang herself from a stout beam . Gut hanging herse lf was not going to be easy. First, she did no t have a belt made of cloth, such as the village women used for thei r trousers. Even if she had , her waist was too slim, and the belt would not be long enough to go around the beam, which had the girth of a rice bowl, and then around her neck She would have to find a rope, long enough and strong enough, and then she would have to get the urblings to leave her alone. While Su Qun was racking her brains about how to get hold of a rope, the news of Lin Biao's defection sp read across China. The Central Commillee issued documents about it that made their way do wn through every level of government until they reached th e villagers of the Sanyu Number 1 Prod uct ion Team. They gossi ped exci tedly about how Baldie lin and his bevy of wives had fled in a plane and Premier Zhou had gotten out his "troublemaker" and shot the plane down and it had burst into flames. Then Baldie lin had tumbl ed out and broken his trident bone. They added their own touches, and the story became rather fantasti c, but they were not too far from th e truth of th e matter. Baldie Lin, of course , was li n Biao, who was no lo nger deputy c hairman of the Chinese Communist Party but Baldie Lin, a man with not a hair on his pate. He and his (only) wife, Bev, had left in a Trident pl ane, which the peasants had heard as "trident bone. n And the "troublemaker" was a guid ed missile . Tao was quite excited when he heard them talking. "Ordinary people's language

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is so vivid!n he exclaimed, and the family secretly enjoyed these unus ual expressio ns for a long time after. T he commune headquarters cadres were not s uch bumpkins o f course. They had documenlS to read and had an in-depth understanding o f whal had happened . It never occu rred 10 Ihem Ihat Ihere was someone in their midSI who was so ill informed thai she was con templating s uicid e and looking for a piece of rope. A wo rd in her ear, 10 tell h er abo ut the poli licallUrm oil crealed by Ihe news of lin'sdefectio n, wo uld have saved h er life Gut no one Iho ught of that, nor did Su Qun expect them to. No o ne talked to her in the dining room . The ur blings saw no need to tell her. Since the interrogators had not told her, why sho uld they bother? So Su Qun went on searching for a length o f rope to hang herself. Did s he find it? The way I see th e im pe rm anen ce of life and the cruellri cks fale plays o n mere mortals--as 1 expl ained in th e story of Hou Jim in's mock executi on- il is like this : if Ih e news of lin Giao's defection had bee n just rum or, then sh e would nOI have. GUI if, as was the case, th e news was Irue and was public knowledge, Ihen she might. Imagine Su Q un hanging hersel f hom the beam, slill in ignorance of the fa clS. How pathetically tragic! Almost ridiculously so! Having written thiS, I canno t help but take pity o n Su Qun . [t would be better fo r her not to find that rope!

9 Not o nly did sh e not find th e rope, but also quite OUI of the bl ue she was released from detelllion and was given permission 10 return 10 Sanyu. A tractor happened 10 be making Ihe journey and she gOI a lift , with th e bicycle going in Ihe trailer. They chugch ugged al ong Ihe pot-ho led road, and with every jolt Su Qun's body grew more numb Her nose tingled, and her eyes reddened The tractor set her down in Xiaodunkou . Su Q un mounted her bicycl e and rode along the Yanma River embankm ent to Sanyu . Far in the distance she cou ld see the outline of the village ho uses . It was now spring, the willows o n th e riverban ks were putting o ut ShOOIS, and a veil of pale gree n covered everything. Soo n she saw the dark gray roof of the Taos' house. The pig-herder ch il d ren were

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the first to spot her. They formed an escort, running beh ind th e bicycle and shouting and yelHng, "Young Tao's mom's here! Young Tao's mom's here!" Su Qun rode into th e village street. Grandpa Tao was not keeping watch at the roadsid e since they did not know she was corn ing. No Patch rushed up wagging his tail dther. Instead, escorted by a cluster of pig-herder children, Su Qun rode over the bridge in to their enclosure. The family stood at the door to welcome her. Grandpa Tao, still wearing his winter padded jacket, stood grinning fro m car to car. Granny Tao scolded the children and kept them out of th e house. Young Tao stood stupefied , apparently not recogn izing his mother. The c hildren bellowed into his ea r, "Your mom's horne! Your mom's home!" Tao took the bicycle from Su Q un and lea ned it against the wall. Eve ryone made way, and Su Qu n entered their fro nt room She sat on a chair. Granny Tao fet ched a bowl of hot water, wrung o ut a washcloth, and handed it to her. Su Qun took it , held it, then asked, "Taotao? Where's Taotao? ~ Young Tao s uddenly appeared in front of her, and Su Qun pulled him into hel arms, tears pouring down her face "Help your mom wipe her face," Granny Tao said . But young Tao did not move. The Sight of Su Qun sobbing away like a baby was terribly embarrassing. "Your mom's crying! Your mom's crying! " shouted the children. Finally, after a couple of m inutes, Su Qun lowered the washclot h, reveali ng a red and swollen face. Puffy-eyed, she said, "1 was so worried about Taotao's future and how he was going to livel~ And she began to cry again. Gecause of lin Giao, Su Qun did not have togo to prison or hang herself, but she had not been cleared of involvement in 516. The interrogators had taken all thei r documents with them. They told her, "Examin e your conscience well when you get horne. One day we will come back for you." It seemed that this was one problem she would never resolve. She waited. The family waited. Gut six mo nths passed and there was no sign of movem ent No one ca me to the house again to tell her to go to Wangji Market to pick up a parcel.

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Su Qun's fat her continued towriteand never knew that his "Burn after reading" leiter had nea rly brought disaster on his daughter. She said nothing to him about it , not cven abo ut her detcntion . Su Qun continued to go to Wangji Market to do the shopping and pick up th ei r mail, and life gradually ret urned to normal. After Patch, the Taos got Snowy. Every evening Su Qun would shoulder a wooden medicine box and go from house to house as a barefoot doctor. The process of Striking Root, after a bri ef interrupti on, had resumed its course. The villagers did not ca re whet her Su Qun's case had been concluded o r not and had no idea what 516 was. They were in teres ted only in the fact th at Su Qu n had had handcu ffs clapped on her. Then she cam e home. According to rumo r, Cu i, the com mune party secretary, had got a car to take her as far as Xiaodunkou. (Actually it was a tractor, and it was not sent by Cu i.) The stat us of getting a car ride was enough to cancel o ut the shame of having been in hand cuffs. Su Qun's detention might never have happened . Gradually even the Taos seemed to forget it

10 As winter approached, Tao and Su Qun hatched a plan for a village activities room. In Tao's view the reason for Sanyu's povcrty was that people were no goo(1 at learning scie ntific farming mcthods, and the reason for that was ignoran ce. If they had an act ivities room, Su Q un cou ld read newspapers and books to them, increasc their knowledge , and open their eyes to the world This was also a good way for the Taos to get closer to the vi llagers Winter eveni ngs were long; an activities room would give th e villagers something to do and keep them from si tting around a fire in the cowshed or going to bed very early, which was a big waste of tim e. After discussing it with Yu, the team leader, they decided to use the ol d cowshed for the purpose. 11 was now morc dilapidated than ever. Th e paper they had pasted to the walls two yea rs before had long since been torn off and used by the villagers to light fires. The rice st raw st uffed into the wall cracks had been pulled out too. The shed needed wallpapering.

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Again Yu sent over a load of rice straw. That would be enough, as one room would be sufficient for the activities room . They fixed up the room on the west side of the house, formerly the grandparents' bedroom, and did not touch the front room or the east side. The Taos filled the cracks in the wall with rice straw and stuck on two layers of newspaper, followed by a layer of magazine pages. They did exactly the same thing they had done the first time, with the dilTerence that they were skilled now and finished in no more than half a day Tao and young Tao carried in a table (the one they ate at). Grandpa Tao donated two brightly polished kerosene lamps and lit them himself. Under their bright light Su Qun stood on a stool and hung a portrait of Chairman Mao on the wall. She made young Tao stand back to see if she had hung it straight . Young Tao stood in the doorway, solemnly screwed up his eyes, and said, ~A bit higher on the left, higher still, down a bit. Now it's okay. Perfect! ~ Su Qun jumped down, walked over to young Tao, and put her hand on his shoulder, and they admired the Chairman's portrait. She had done a good job: the picture hung perfectly straight. The Taos brought over some chairs, and Yu got some benches from around the village. Su Qun made a special trip to Wangji Market to buy a newspaper rack an d hung up that month's newspapers. Tao selected some books and put them on the table. Even young Tao contributed a few children's books. All was ready, and the activities room opened . That evening the villagers nooded in. When the west room was packed full, many people stood in the un papered rooms. Su Qun sat at the table, where there was also a bench ready for Yu, the team leader, and any other cadres who might appear. Although the room was crowded, empty spaces remained at the table. The two kerosene lamps were lit, and the table shone in their light. The villagers started to chat, commenting that the Taos must be pretty well off as even their table had a layer of oil on it. Su Qun sat all alone, surrounded by dark crowds of people. They seemed to bc waiting for a performance te start, the men smoking pipes and the women holding shoe soles, taking the odd stitch during lulls in the conversation. Every now and then they rubbed the needles on their hair or spat on the soles they were stitching to make the ncc(lle run smoothly. Unruly children ran in and out. The room

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filled with cigarelle smoke, and although a north wind blew outsi(lc and rallIed the magazine pages on the wall, no one felt cold . Finally, Yu the team leader turned up. As soo n as he sat down, Su Qun got ready to read But Yu said, ~T h ere's no hurry. Wait till Mr. Yu the party secretary comes" This was the first that Su Qun had heard about the party secretary com ing, and she could not help feel ing that it was a good sign . They waited and waited, but Yu did not arrive. Since he was not there, Su Qun could not read th e papers. She sat at the tabl e with not hing to do, bored. Yu the team leader and the o ther villagers, however, were quite unconcerned. They knocked their longstemme([ pipes and talked with such vigor that the spittl e new. Gradually they almost seemed to forget that Su Qun was there. 11 was unprecedented to have all the men and women in the village gathere([ together, talking and laughing. At commu ne meetings each famil y se nt o nly one rcp resentative, usually the (male) head of the household, and the women and ch ildren rarely attended. The party secretary arrived, and the crowd made way for him. He wore a blue greatcoat and a fur-trimmed, three-flap hat. His surname notwithstandi ng, he did not live in the village but came from Sanyuls Number 5 Team He also had a bicycle, a Yongjiu man's twenty-eight-inch utility bicycle that actually belonged to the brigade, but he was the on ly one who rode it. Once he had arrived, he ope ned his greatcoat and sat o n the beneh at the table. Yu the team leader shifted to one end, leavi ng the rest of the bench to the party secretary and ending up with only half his bOll om actually on the bench . Since everyone was now here, Su Qun cleared her throat and began to read the newspaper. She had read only two sentences when the party secretary leapt to his fee t. The team leader was taken by surprise, the bench upended, and he landed on the fl oor. There was a burst of laughter. Some one said , "The ann will always be beaten by the thigh. What did he expect?" The "he" was the team leader, who put o n a big show of falling heavily and took his time getti ng up off the floor, in an acknowledgement of the party secretary's quick thinking and physical st rength. like the ot hers, Su Qun thought that the whole thing was JUSt the party secretary's lillIe joke, but then, to her surprise, he turned on his heel, pulled his greatcoat around him, and lcftthe room .

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After a short while , September ran in and sa id to the team leader, MThe party secretary wants to sec you. ~ Yu scrambled up and wen t oul. With these two key figures gone, there had to be a pause in th e reading. Aher another liltl e while, Se ptember ran in again and said to Su Qun, "The team leader wants to see you. ~ Su Q un got up from th e table and followed him outside. Yu was standing alone at the bridge, and th e party secretary was nowhere to be seen . Yu appeared to have just seen him on his way. Far away down the dark village street a dog barked, and they heard the clear tinkle of a bicycle bell. Yu sa id slowly, "The party secretary doesn't want you to read the newspapers. He says there's been no verdict on the accusa ti on against you yet ~

11 The acti vities room had been created by Su Qun; the rest of th e fa mily had j ust helped . They did not want 10 interfere. So that day they had put young Tao 10 bed carly; Tao and the grandparents had stood o n their side of th e ditch with its acacia hedge, keepi ng an eye on the cowshed yard and their bridge in the distance. The villagers thronged over the bridge and in through the cowshed door to its brightly lit interior. When there was no one left outside, th e fami ly went back inside and bolted the door. About an hour later, the grandparen ts had gone to bed and Tao was reading in the lamplight when suddenly there was a knock at the door. "Who is it?" he called. Su Qun, in a completely unrecognizable voice, answered, "Me" Tao opened the door to find Su Qun in fl oods of tears. Once insid e, she continued to sob Pointing at th e malting that covered th e roof, Tao signed to her not to disturb the old folks and you ng Tao. The room dividers were partitions of woven sunflower stalks that did not reach the rooL Tao and Su Quns lamp shone o n the malting and shed reflected light into th e other room. Granny Tao call ed oul, Mis that Qu n?H There was no answer. Then she asked again, "Has Q un come back?H Grandpa Tao started to cough. Addressing the rafter mailing, Tao said , "1I's nothing. Go back to sleep."

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After that no one spoke. But no one went back to sleep properly, not even young Tao. He sta red up at the mailing, on which the lamp in his parents' room shed uneven circles of light. Its yellow beam stayed o n the whole night. That night the whole family slept badly Grandpa Tao coughed, tossed, and turned , making th e pahn.fiber bed creak. Gran ny Tao sighed and grumbled softly to herself. Young Tao ground his teeth in his sleep and every now and then awoke to see the malling still illum inated. Next door, o n the other hand , it was unusually quiel. The last time you ng Tao awoke, he heard a st range noise. Su Q un was quietly read ing the newspape r aloud. The whole house was silent apart from the monotonous tones of her recitat ion. He fell asleep again.

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I The 516 investigation group did not come fo r Su Q un, but Tao got a visit from a party comrade . The man, wearing a polyester twill Sun Vat-sen s uit and carrying a black briefcase, arrived with Yu th e Sanyu brigade party secretary and Yu the Sanyu Num ber I Production Team leader. The family went ou tside and left them to thei r conversation After a short while, the comrade stood up and left. T he rest of the family ca rn e back inside and found Tao si tting in th e front room, smoking silently. He looked sh atte red, as if someone had thumped him hard . The purpose of the visit was \ 0 info rm Tao that he had been expelled from the party. The reason given: after his banishment , Tao was st ill not considered to have undertaken proper refo rm through labor and instead had a\tempted to usurp power at th e basic level of Village government and become act ing p roduction team lead er. In 1957, before yo ung Tao was born, in the halcyon early days o f Tao and Su Qun's marriage, the Nanjing Writer's Association h ad given Tao a job as a professional writer, a nd he had fin ally been able to give up his administrative job_ His first short stories were publish ed in a succession o f newspapers a nd magazi nes, and he gradually acquired somet hing of a reputation . He was an energet iC you ng man with a bright future in those days, but then he and a few ot her yo ung writers got together to set up an independent j o urnal called The Explorer. The Explorer had not even seen the ligh t o f (lay before it was banned on the grounds that it was anti-parlY and its contribu tors an d would-be readers, members of an an ti-parly clique_

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It was not so much the journal itself that was the problem; it was the plans and activitit.'S of the writers and the reports theysubmilled for official approval. That was how it came to be condemned before even being published The "Explorers" received different degrees of punishment. Some were condemned as rightists and sent back to their places of origin------effectively illlernal exi Ie- while others were sent to be reformed through labor Tao was let off comparatively lightly: his party membership was suspended for a year, pending investigation. Thinking back to that time, Tao would heave an emotional sigh: if he had not been a party member, he would probably have been banished as a rightist. Privately he told HouJimin, MParty membership is like a skin. Without it people can take a lump out of your flesh, like they did to the non-party 'Explorers.''' Being "on probation" for a year meant that Tao was not completely flayed but was left with a wry large open wound . If he did not behave, then the strong hands of the proletarian dictatorship would grasp its two sides and rip the skin off, taking flesh and blood with it. If he put his best foot forward and showed that he was sorry, those same hands would take an embroidery needle and, like a loving mother, carefully sew the wound up. But one year su etched into many, and no one either flayed Tao or sewed him up. Afflicted with this dreadful wound, Tao had endured years of extreme peril-until today. During the Cult Rev Tao had been struggled against, suspended from his job, and sent to May 5 Cadre School, but the party had never issued a verdict on his membership. 11 was Tao who, guiltridden, allowed it to get to him . He felt as if he were tainted and would never be right again Then he got hold of a boule of sleeping pills and weill off to the city outskirts to kill himself. Even when the attempt failed and he was restored to life, the party never pursued the malter. This was a mystery that Tao never succeeding in explaining to himself. Tao's soul searching stirred emotions deep within him. His suicide was never intended to be blackmail That would have been both pointless and childish. He really had wanted to die. Yel the party (lid not pursue the matter. It remained as mysteriously remote and impassive as ever, even though its statutes clearly stated Ihat members must not killthemsclws, and suicide implied defection. Tao felt he had lost face and was left feeling unbearably anxious.

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After the banishment, they were furth er from the center o f th e st ruggles, and the pressure cased so mewhat. Besides, Tao had mo re free tim e. Gradually things became clearer to him . The CultRev, he felt, was a movement of the masses, and even if some bad people had stirred up trouble, the party itself was clean and could be relied on. At the beginning of the CultRev, the party o rganizati on had come under varying degrees of attack at all levels and had needed to defend itself. Where would it get the time or energy to deal with his case? Now th e party had suddenly sent someo ne to inform him that he had been expel led, and altho ugh this had come like a bolt from the blue, Tao st ill did not feel it was unjust. At least it meant that party work was gradually getting back to no rm al. The reasons given-that he had been unwilling honestly to undergo reeducation, that he had said and done inappropriate things, and th at he had attempted to usurp power in the village-were quite u ntrue. But his suicid e attempt gnawed away at him and made h im feel h e d id nOI deserve his membership anymore. They were allowing him 10 relain some personal dignity by not mention ing it. There was some thing else: HouJimin's visit. The party either di d not know aboul it or was ho lding its fire. Tao believed his friend was an inn ocent vi ctim of injusti ce, but within tile part)', private feelings had to take second place to party principl es. St ripped of his party membership skin, Tao felt naked and unbearabl y ashamed , yet at the same time he felt his wo rries slip away. Now at least he cou ld at last relax . He also had a clear co nscie nce abou t treat ing HouJi min as a fellow unfortunate.

2 Aboul the lim e th e Taos got Snowy, a famil y moved into th e cowshed next door. Like th e Taos, they had been banished from Nanjing, bUI Ihey were n ot cadres or workers and certainly not urblings. There were Ihree of them , and they had been sent down under police escort. The head of the famil y, Yu Gengyu, had been categorized as a rich peasant and had ned Sanyu just after liberation. Then a young man in his twenti es, he was now fifty is h and getting o n a bit. His Wife, in her forties, was abo ut the same age as Su Qun but looked much older. Their daughter was nearly twenty.

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Neither mother nor daughter was local to Sanyu, but Yu Gengyu had brought them with him . His family's old house had been divided up many years back, during the land reform [t was said to have had twen ty or so rooms, an d th e family was th e first in Sanyu to be cl assified as rich peasants during th e land reform. But in Sanyu, as Tao was well aware, ri ch peasants were no t really rich. A Sanyu house with twenty-odd rooms was still built with mud bricks a nd roofed with thatch . As fo r land , these Yus had had as much as ten acres. GUI the Sanyu area was sparse ly populated, and on average everyo ne had an acre per head In those days Yu Gengyu's parents were stil l alive, and when you cou nted t he children , they had on ly about two acres pe r head. Tao had worked o n land reform o n the o utski rts of Nanjing, and he knew that that amount of land would have been more than enough to mark them as landlords arou nd Nanjing, where o n average people had less than a quarter of an acre each. GUI in real economic term s, th ese Yus were at most in the uppermiddle peasant category. Yu Gengyu was now of course a poor rich peasanl. It appeared that twe nty years of wandering had not enriched him at all. You could tell that from th e furniture lhey brought to Sanyu: they had just one or two piect':> of basic fur niture, a chest of drawers, and a couple of hot-water flasks made of bamboo. It was nowhere ncar as spectacular as what the Taos had brought. The Gengyus moved into the cowshed where the Taos had lived before them . The cowshed had become even mo re dilapidated s ince the Taos had moved out, and by contrast with the Taos' big new ho use, it looked quite tumbledown. It looked as if the Gengyus were going to be there for some time, as the old Yu house no longer existed, and even if it had, they could no t have got it back. They were not bani shed cad res either, so they did not receive a reseulement grant to build somewhere new Goth fam ilies were from Nanji ng, but that was all they had in common . Class was one difference: the Taos were still revolutionary cadres, even tho ugh Su Qun's case had not been sett led and Tao had been expell ed from th e party, while Yu Gengyu was a rich peasant who had ned his Village. They were different in every way. Fat e had ordained that they shou ld share an encl osu re and an entrance bridge and should keep bumping int o each other. Gut the Taos felt

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that they needed to be especia lly vigilant and ensure that they were not lumped toge ther in the minds of the villagers. The Gengyus had of cou rse been sent to st rike root in Sanyu. That was wh ere th e family's roots were, only then they had been cut off. As regards Striking Root, th e two famili es were bound to be in competiti on Their circumstances were different, but the balance was about eve n, so th ey were constantl y trying to outdo each o ther.

3 The Taos rel ied on improving farming yields (Tao), treat ing villagers' ailments (Su Qu n) , and dispensing occasional charity (G rand pa Tao) to win ove r the villagers, while the Gengyus used much more direct methods. They had a daughter of seven teen or eigh teen Her name was Jinfeng, which means Golden Phoenix; she was as pretty as a picture and had th e airs of a city girl too. Yu Ge ngyu let it be kn own that he was looking for a local son-in-l aw who would move in with them. Even though the Gengyus' political backgrou nd was not good, all the vill age bachelors were keen to have a go. There was a constan t stream of visit ors to thei r cowshed door, all of them s turdy you ng men who had come to do odd jobs fo r them. Even September decided to have a go and drove his ducks into the river behind the cowshed. But his close friendship with the Taos meant that Yu Ge ngyu turned him down. Eventually a young man ca ll ed Youjun emerged as the favorite . Youjun was about th e same age as September and about the same height but of much more robust build. At eighteen or nineteen, he could carry weights of two hundred pounds on his shoulder pole. He earn ed a daily ten work points, unlike September, who got only six, like the women. He was taci turn by nature, happy just to get on with his wo rk , and had none of Sept embers quick wit. The youth the Gengyus had chosen was an honest soul Also, Youjun was a distant relative and called Yu Gengyu "Second Unclc.~ Their kinship tics, however, had no adverse effect o n Youjun's political pedigree . His fam ily were third-generat ion poor peasants. In fact Youj un was currently the poorest bachelor in Sanyu. There was anot her impo rt ant

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thing in his favor: he had had nothing to do with the Taos. He was healthy and had not needed any of Su Qun's medicine. He was also a simple sort of a man and had never bummed a ny mon ey off Grand pa Tao. Once the Gengyus had shown favor toward Youjun, the other inte rested young men stopped com ing. They had changed their minds. After all, the Gengyus had a bad class background, and Youjun was poor. He and Jinfeng were well matched. Once chosen, Youjun cam e every day to help Gengyu with the farmwork. The villagers all said that Gengyu had got himself a free labo rer, o ne who could (10 the work of two men. Even though the other bachelors (li d not come anymore , he took over the work they had done , so the Gengyus did not feel they were any worse off. Youjun began to come to the Gengyus' all otment every day after work, someti mes eve n before going to his own home. He ate three meals a day with them, leaving only to go home to bed Shirtless and drenched with sweat, he worked away on the Gengyus' land, and during his breaksJinfeng would bring him his tobacco pouch and a towel. It was quite touching Even though th e Gengyus had arri ved three years after the Taos, they were making much more rapid progress with Striking Root, and Ihis of cou rse put some pressure on Tao. Luckily, every now and then Yu Gengyu would be hauled up before the brigade or comm une for a st ruggle session, in accord ance with the politi cs of the moment. Di d Tao derive comfort from the sight of Yu Gengyu, along with ot her landlords, rich peasants, and co unterrevolut ionaries, standing on the platform wearing their tall hats? I do not know, but at least it showed th at that there were essential differences between the two famili es. Yu Gcngyu seemed to be used to this kind of struggle. It was all rather th eatri cal. Atthe appointed lim e he donned his suit of a rmor (a tall hat on his head and a sign with his name on it hung around his neck) and stood on th e platform for a couple of hours. When he cam e back down, his daughter and future son-in-law were ready and waiting for him , offering water and wiping the sweat from his face, as ifhe had been hard at work in the fields. After each sessio n, Yu Gcngyu would be wiped out for a couple of days and would not be his usual cocky self.

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So whichever way you looked at it, the Taos were in the lead. And Tao had a degree of admiration for Yu Gengyu; he could not imagine still living in the cowshed and enduring the struggle sessions.

4 Obviously after being thrown OUi of the party, Tao could not continue to be involved with the production team. He transferred all his energies to the family allotment, which he tended conscientiously. Luckily in a place like Sanyu it was unimportant whether or not you were a party member. No one cared . Nor did the villagers make any distinction between Tao's losing his parly membership and Yu Gengyu's being sent back to Sanyu under police escort as a runaway rich peasant. It was all the same to them. Because the Taos and Gengyus were neighbors, it meant that as time went by, friction was unavoidable. For instance, the acacia hedge that Tao had planted along the ditch spread over to the Gengyus' side. While Tao was still in the party, Yu Gengyu did not say a word and just got Youjun to dig up the acacia roots. But after Taols expulsion, he began to protest that the Taos' acacias were impoverishing his family's land. The acacias had also grown into the ditch that divided the Taos' property from the Gengyus' This ditch did not belong to either family, although it was Tao who had planted the acacias. Youjun ignored that. During the winter, he cut them down, carried all the wood over to the Gengyus' front yard, and laid it out to dry and use for fuel. The Taos were not pleased, bUi they said nothing. Su Qun muttered, "They might at least have said they were going to do it!" Although the Taos' political status had declined, their standard of living had not suffered. What is more, Tao was putting all his energy and experience into managing their allotmenl. It was now more productive than ever: it teemed with poultry, leafy trees stood in rows, wheat and maize vied to outdo each other, and there was a constant supply of fresh green vegetables. Although Snowy's food had been drastically reduced and he was fed only on chicken feed, he still kept gelling fatter because the feed was so high in nutritional content.

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The Gengyus had a guard dog too, but it was not hing but ski n and bones because it got nothing to cat. Although the acacia hedge kept people o ut , it was no barrier for a dog, especially a skin ny dog that was starving. Neither the acacia hedge nor the Taos' carefull y pl aited sunflower stalk fence kept it out. The dog regularly penetrated both th e fe nce and th e hedge, got into the chicken run, and ate up the ch icken feed . That did no t mailer so much, but the hens were at risk too. The Gengyus' dog frequently chased them all over the place, and th e feathers flew When the dog j ust ate the feed, Su Qun did not say anyth ing. She was not pleased, but she did not ca re enough to go and argue with the Gengyus about it. Self-control and her scorn for the Ge ngyus prevented her from speaking to them. [n the nearly o ne year that they had been neighbors, she had not add ressed a single sentence to them. Nor had the rest of the family. The Gengyus were also self-respecting people a nd did not speak to the Taos. When the acacias in vaded th e Gengyus' allotmeJ1l, it was Youjun who turned up to discuss it with the Taos. Hencefo rth he became the go-between. Complaints were not raised directly but had to be transmilled through him. Although he was the Gengyus' future son-in -law and a member of their family, he had not moved in yet. Also, he was classified as a poor peasant, so the Taos did not feci (lemeaned by talking to him O ne day the Gengyus' dog pounced on the Taos' chickens j ust as Su Q un was feeding them. Brandishing the feed scoop, she gave chase. The dog had squeezed into the run through a crack in the fe nce but now could not find the way out . [t ran round a nd round , scallering hens in its path. Feathers floated down like snowflakes. It was mayhem. Young Tao hea rd th e comm otion and ra n over. Grabbing a stick, he gave chase, whacking th e dog hard on its hind legs. The dog yelped, broke thro ugh th e chicken run door, and ran back horne. Not long after, Yu Gengyu's wife arrived cu rsing at their door. Su Qu n, scoop in hand, apron tied around her waist, shouted back. Young Taosti ll gripped the st ick in his hand. Mrs. Gengyu had Youjun wit h her. He had rushed over from their allot ment a nd stood with the spade over his shou lder. The daughter,Jinfeng, jOined her mother in the fray. For the Taos, Granny Tao tottered out of the

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house on her little feet. Neither of the family heads, Tao and Yu Gengyu, showed up, although no doubt they were keeping a surreptitious eye on the proceedings. The dispute became so fierce that they nearly came to blows. Mrs. Gengyu said some prelly unpleasant things, such as, "A dog is an animal and docsn't understand . But people should know what they're doing, not behave worse than animals! ~ Su Qun said, "You're no beller than a savage yourself!" Mrs_ Gengyu said, "Your family's a bad lot! Good people don't get banished, and banished people are no good!" She had struck home, and Su Qun was momentarily at a loss for words. Then she said, "Our family are revolutionary cadres! Your fami ly's nothing!" But Mrs. Gengyu snorted disdainfully. "Revolutionary cadres? ! thought you'd been thrown out of the party!" The dispute finally brought home their predicament to the Taos_ They would never get ahead of the Gengyus now !n fact, it was dear th ey were in the same category They were bad elements_ The Taos might be beller off, but in political terms, they had no superiori ty to speak of. "[!ven rich peasants call piss 011 us from a great height IlOW!~ said Su Qun despairingly. Tao tried to comfort his wife: "You mustn't take it like that. Neighbors always fight. Don't get it out of proportion ." Su Qun said, "'They wouldn't have dared to speak like that before." She meant that Tao had lost his party membership and that the 516 case against her had still not been dosed. The Gengyus must have heard the rumors; otherwise they would not have turned on them like this_

5 Tao repaired the chicken TUn, but although the fence was mended, the psychological scars took time to heal. There were no furthe r disputes between the two familics. The Gengyus took care not to let their dog steal the Taos' chickenfeed o r make any more trouble. And Tao strictly forbade his son to cross the ditch and go over to the Gengyus to stand and gawp with the other children .

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During the day the Ge ngyus worked for the production team, butJinfengsometimes slipped back o n he r own and waited fo r Youjun in the cowshed. Youjun came, though not to work on the allotment. He stuck his spade inlO Ihe soil and went inlO Ihe house. The pair bolted Ihe door and wenl 10 bed A crowd of small children would gather aro und Ih e house, peering in Ihro ugh door cracks and wall ope nings. A shirtl ess Youjun would rush OUi and chase them away After a while, he no longer bOlhered because as soon as he had gone back in , Ih e children would return. Young Tao had never seen Youjun and Jinfeng in bed togelher, but he often saw the ch ildren crowd ing arou nd the cowshed all agog and Youjun dash ing out, hold ing his trousers up, and he heard J infeng shouting at them from inside, "What's so interesting? Go ho me and watch your mom and dad! ~ Later, when Youjun stopped running out and Jinfeng stopped sweari ng at them, th ere were more and more children . Even Iho ugh the coupl e was nowhere to be seen and Ihere was not a sound, young Tao kn ew they must be inside because of Ihe children. He wan led 10 go and have a look through the cracks too bUi decided nOllO when he remembered hi s fa lher's proh ibition. It did nOI take long fo r news of whal was going on to spread, and it pro bably reached th e Gengyus' ea rs too. But they appeared not to care. They con tinued to work conScienti ously in the team fi elds, returning at dusk and never popping back during the day to take a look. The young couple clearly had their tacit approval, and the parents may even have fixed it up. Youjun and Jinfeng behaved so o pen ly and with such complete assu rance that it was j ust as if they were a proper husband and wife The villagers were nOI bothered. Afler all, if th e parents did nOI care, then why sho uld they? In any case, Youjun was definitely going 10 be Ih e Gengyus' son-in-law, so sooner o r laler he would be sleeping with Jinfeng. All this was like tinde r 10 the nam es fo r hOI-blooded yo ung people like Yo ujun and Ji nfeng. Why hold back when Ihe), were being aided and abeued by their parents and the ot her village ciders excused them? The on ly oncs who were exci ted were the children, who stuck like flics to the o utside of the house and o nly buzzed off when Youjun came out. Su Q un commen ted indignantly, "I'm sure it's a bad inn uence on the kids! ~

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The grown-ups in Sanyu might excuse Youjun a ndJinfeng, but the children continued to cause trouble. They not only spie(1 on them, but they also made mischief in the enclosu re. The Gengyus' guard dog was so puny that it could scarcely protect itsel f from the ch ildren's teasing, let alone perform its guard dog duties. Gut the Gengyus had another dog- Youjun, who kept roaring out of th e house and walloping any chi ld that he caught. And not just in the Gengyus' enclosure. lfhe met them on the road, he had a go at them there too. The Taos watched all these goings-on, and Su Qun said , "It's all Yu Gengyu and his wife's doing!~ When the Taos had lived in the cowshed, they had put a window in the north wall, and it was still there when the Gengyus moved in. So there were only two Sanyu families with windows a\ the back of the house: the Taos and the Gengyus. The Gengyus had put a clay cupboard below thei r back Window, with a shelf above, like th e o ther Sanyu villagers Unlike them , th ey put a bamboo hotwater nask on it. They must have brought it from Nanjing, and it was obviously worth a lot to them One aft ernoon some children had finished school and came across from the village s treet. They started chucking pebbles at the Gengyus' house from the other side of the river One pebble flew straight as a die through the back window and hit the nask. Mrs. Gengyu was just passing through the front room and deftly caught it. Holding it in her hands, she rushed outsid e a nd blocked the children's way. This time she had caught them red-handed . We have already had a taste of Mrs. Gengyu's fiery spi rit. This tim e it was much worse. She leapt three feet into the air, nearly dashing the flask to the ground. True to form, Youjun had dashed to her side . They reckoned that th e culprit was a lad called Third Chick. The child had long been an enemy of the Gengyus and was also a good friend of young Tao (They had been classmates at Sanyu Primary. After young Tao went on to Gezhuang Primary, Third Chick stayed at Sanyu to repeat a year, and he was still repeat ing.) The irascible Youjun ,!,'Tabbed him, gave him three o r four goo(1 slaps on the face, and would have gone on. Then Youjun marched the sobbing boy home, where, without furth er ado, his parents gave him a good thrashing, too. All this went o n until around (Iinnertime.

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The Taos left the back window of their front room and were juSt sill ing down to dinner when the rumpus started agai n. A woman was weeping and wailing at the tOp of her voice. It appeared that , overcome with shame, Third Chi ck had thrown himself into the river. Luckily the river was shallow It was only the st ream in front of his home, and he cou ld dog-paddle, so whatever happened, he was not going to drown . It was, however, a forceful protest against the Gengyus. He was soon fished out of the water, but his family cried as hard as if he had really died In a reversal of the afternoon's events, about a dozen members of Third Ch ick's family and other relatives, spades and carrying poles over their shoulders, desce nded on the Gengyus to settle accounts. The Taos were clustered around their back window until evening. When Third Chi ck gOt a slapping from Youjun, Su Qun exclai med ind ignantly, "Those rich peasants are nothing but savagesl~ Then when th e boy was marched home through the village by Youjun, Tao said , "What do they think they're doing?" When Third Chick's rel ati ves crowded over the bridge and headed towa rd the cowshed, Tao said, "They've gone from one extreme to the o ther l~ Third Ch ick really was a difficult boy, and the thrashing was intende([ to teach him a lesson once and for all. However, Third Chick was more cunn ing than they had imagined . Wi th o ne leap, he had turned his defeat into victory, and now even people who had once sympathized with the Gengyus fdtthey had gone tOO far. Village friendships that Yu Gengyu had spent nearly tWO years building were destroyed alm ost at a stroke, and he reverted to being a runaway rich peasant, making groveling apologies for his mistakes to his accusers. Apparently Yu Gengyu publicly slapped himself a dozen times on the face and adm itted th at he had not kept his wife and daughter under proper control. As for Youjun, he was almOSI apoplectic with rage. Bu\ as his future father-in-law had gone soft, all he could do was sigh despairingly. News of the incid ent spread to the production brigade orrice. Again there was a commune members' meeting; Yu Gengyu was again escorted onto the platform and publicly crit icized. Afterward, Yu fel l ill. He never recovered. It seemed the family'S luck really had run out.

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6 Ahcr young Tao started midd le school in HOllgze. he carne horne once a month_ He never saw Yu Gcngyu again_ The rumor w as that

Ge ngyu had cancer of the esophagus and had taken to his bed to wail for death_ Many children still came to the cowshed door to peer in, but the attract ion was no longer Youjun a nd Jinfcng in bed together, but rather Yu in his death throes. They were bolder s ince the Third Ch ick incidcnt----qui tc shameless, in fact. Under Third Chick's leade rsh ip, they gathered in noisy crowds outside the cowshc(] every day. Youjun,Jinfcng, and Yu Gcngyu's wife gave them a wide berth as they wenl in and out. You might think thai th ere was nothing attractive about a dying man_ Not so. In the ch ildren's eyes, he had every bit as much drawing power as a pair of en lwined lovers_ Gengyu, now nOlhing bUI skin and bones, lay in Ihe semi-darkness on his lanice bed, unable 10 cal a Ihing, his cavern ous moulh gaping in vain_ The vill agers said that Youj un dug up worms and pUlthem in his moulh so Ihat Ihey would wriggle their way down his throat. A folk remedy like this was completely unimaginable to the Taos. Gcngyu's wide-open mouth, unable to swallow even a grain of rice, seemed to express a great longing to cat. The family filled this hole with eve ry possible kind of food, edible or inedi ble, raw or cooked, alive or dead, but it was no use. Yu Gengyu's mouth now could only vomil il back OUI On e day Youjun took a red· hal hearth hook and Ihrust it into th e sick man's mouth_ When th e haze of smoke had cleared, Ihere was a pungelll smell of burned nesh_ The children aroun d Ihe doo r squealed in terror. BUI Ihe dead cannot bear wilnCSS_ And now Yu Ge ngyu really was dead_ Third Ch ick insisted that was what Youjun had done . But when the villagers saw the dead man, their sympathies swu ng again, and they all said to each other that Third Ch ick got up to all sorts of tricks and that whether or not Gengyu had been killed, he was trying to put the blame on Youjun. Even ifYouju n had used the hook, it was for Gengyu's own good. He was just being a good son- in-l aw! Tao's verd ict was: "Pure ignorance! Pure ignorance!" When h e had h eard Ihal Gengyu was se riously ill, he had wallled Su Qun 10 go and offer her assistance_ But Su Qu n had never trealed

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anything as serious as esophageal cancer. Besides, the famili es had not spoken since the chickenfeed incident. So Tao dropped it. But the family agreed that using things like worms and red-h ot hearth hooks was barbaric and irrationaL Hot on the heels of Gengyu's death and funeral, Youjun and J infeng were married in the cowshed As upon the famil y's arrival from Nanjing, there were three people, only now Youjun was head of the family. The villagers now talked of "the Youju n s~ instead of "the Gengyus" The next year Jinfeng presented Youjun with a bouncing baby boy. They were still very poor and stayed in the cowshe(1 (which grew ever more dilapidated) for many more years since they had no money to build a new house. But in one respect they had beaten the Taos: they succeeded after much painful effort in Striking Root in Sanyu-real, genuine, wholehearted roots that could not be pulled up. Jinfeng's son was given the same good social classificati on as his father (that is, Youjun) and was cou nted as a poor peasant too.

7 I have tol d the s tories of banished cadres, urblings, and runaway rich peasants. Among the great army of people who were banished to the countryside, there was yet another category: banished families. These were unlike urblings in that the whole family came, and they were differen t from banished cad re famili es because their wages had been stopped. Just like the local peasants, they relied on the work points they ea rned to suppo rt the family, and their material poverty can only be imagined. Although they had a far superior political s tatus than bad elements like runaway landl ords and ri ch peasants, they had after all been sent to a Slrange place, with no previous experience of farming, so their superi o rity was hard to detec\. They were, without exaggeration, the most miserable bunch of people, the utter wretchedness of whose lives remained unknown and unseen. The banished cad res always hoped they could make a comeback; the urblings co uld count on the support of their families back in the city and could fake illness to get sent back home when necessary. Runaway rich peasants found it comparatively easy to strike root in the Villages wh ere their families had originated. Only the banished families were left

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completely adrift. Forgollen by history, they are pari of what this story is about too. I have mentioned that Dong, who helped the Taos build their house, was from one of the banished families. Most of these were factory workers deserving of the title of ~skilled craftsmen" Gut their skills were of no use to them in the fields . Nor did the banished families live in groups, like the urblings. In that respect they were like the banished cadres. scattered among the production teams, living side-by-side with the peasants. Gradually, in their new lives as simple peasants, they fell further and further behind the locals. Some years later, Tao met Dong again, although the laller was quite unrecognizable. Tao did not even realize at first that the man standing before him was from one of the banished families from Nanjing. Asking him how he was, Tao said, ~I remember that when we built our house, you said your wife was pregnant. Your chil d must be three or four years old now." Dong blinked reddened eyes, perhaps from emotion, perhaps because he had an eye infection, and said, ~My wife had twins. We were too poor to raise them both, alld we gave the elder away. The younger one died of pneumon ia at about a year old. We wanted to take the elder back, but they said, 'If it goes back to you, it'll (lie. You can't eyen look after yourself, so how can you look after a child?'" Tao was speechk-ss. All he could think of to say was, "Have another one, then. You're still young. n Dong spat a few times and said, "We can't have any more. I've been for a checkup at the Wangji Market health dinic, and the doctor says I'm sterile." So Dong was quite unable to strike root in Sanyu. He had been thrust into the soil like a dried -up tree stump. Once the trunk was completely withered and dead, the man would simply cease to exist in Sanyu.

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ELEVEN

Striking Root

I Yu Youfu was the poorest of the poor In Sanyu Village, aparl from those men who could not afford a wire. Youfu did have a wife, and a son 100. Their thatched, three-room house stood on its own to Ihe west of the village. Just like those of the other villagers, their house was bordered on all sides by a stream And just like the others, they had a plol of land in front and behind, on which they grew crops and vegetables First, let me tell you ahout Mrs. Youfu. She had apparently been a prostitute in Wangji Markel and had then married Yu Youfu and

become respectable. She was in her forties and peculiarly ugly, with a long, pockmarked face and protruding teeth. Unlike most farming folk, she was lall and lean. Her husband was in his nflics; he

had married late and would probably still have been a bachelor had he not found this former prostitute. Then there was their son: he was fifteen or sixteen years old an d still in the second year of Sanyu Primary School. He had already been there several years when young Tao arrived. They were classmates for a year, and then Tao transferred to Gezhuang Primary. Youfu's son remained in Sanyu Primary, and in fact he was still in the second year there when Tao started Hongze Middle School. Even when Youfu's son was not at school, his parents did not send him out to the fields (although he had to do his bit for Mr. Jin on the school allotment). The boy sat around at home all day, his face so pale it looked almost bloodless. PhYSically, he was tall and lean like his mother and walked with litlle short steps. His eyesight was poor, and when night fell, he eould see nothing at all. The villagers called him "Sparrow Eyes" In fact he suffered from

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night blindness, caused by a poor diet and a lack of vitamin A. His mother proudly said that she was going to get him filled with glasses, just like the Taos. Another thing th at made Sparrow Eyes stand OUi fro m th e crowd was that he wore dark green clothes There was nothi ng like them in Sanyu, and even the Taos found them rather odd . The material often caught th e light , alth ough it was hard 10 tell exactly what it was. The rumor (never questioned by the villagers) was that Mrs. Youfu had mad e the outfit from some garment left over from her days as a prostitute. The boy constantly had a runny nose and wiped it with his hand before drying his hand o n his green o utfit. According to young Tao, who had watched him do this many times, the material's sheen actually ca me from this coat ing of snot. The mai n reason the villagers looked down on Yu Youfu and his fami ly, however, was their inability to look after themselves. They should have been able to get by quite well, as two of the three of th em could work Yet their roof had no chimney, and for cooking they used a "pot cooker" This was an earthenware crock with a hole in one side. The pan sat on top of th e crock, and fuel was fed in through the hole. Because th ere was no chimney, smoke billowed up every tim e th ey cooked so that th e house itself became a chimney and see med to be on fire. Mrs. Youfu coughed and co ughe(l and her eyes st ream ed with tears until finally the food was done. 11 was a slovenly way of doing things and wasteful of fuel, so when winter came the family had no firewood to burn. Then You fu wou ld climb up to the roof and pull off th e rice st raw. Wi th ho les in the thatch, the roof let in the rain and snow. When the rain poured o utside, it would be drizzling insid e. 11 was just not the way no rmal people lived. As for their allotment, it was odd that whatever they planted fai led . PeslS ate th e vegetables, and th e wheat ha rvest was poor, sometim es less than th e seeds th ey had sown . Their trees were felled and used as cooking fuel before they had matured The Youfus had been marr ied a good number of years now and thei r son was a big boy, but their plot was st ill a wasteland-the most desolate in all of Sanyu . Even their pigs were runts , They grew to seven ty o r eighty pounds and then stopped growing, although they ate enorm o usly. Mrs. Youfu mad e a big show of feeding them twice a day, call ing them with c ri es of "Piggy, piggy, piggies!" She got her so n to mix

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wood ash with water and write a pair of couplets to hang o n the wall of the pigpen. The left o ne read, "Grow half a pound every (lay." The right one read, "Grow four ounces every night. " That made twelve o unces daily. But after nearly a year of feeding, the Yus' pigs still weighed in at around eighty pounds. As fo r Youfu himself, th ere was no thing particularly special about him He wore a sort of balaclava mad e of knilled COllon during the day. These hats, generally black and popularly known as Old Geezers, were worn by nearly all the Sanyu men o ver forty. When it was hot, you rolled up the lowe r part, and in winter. when the northwest wind blew, you pulled it down so that it covered the whole of you r head, leaving just two holes for the eyes. Youfu sloped around the Village in his Old Geezer with his dung bag slung over his shoulders, looking a bit like a burglar on the prowl. But no one was afraid of him , least of all the children. They followed him around , snatching his dog turds and his cow dung (th ey collected dung too) . The tall er ones even pulled his hat off his head and tossed it around (Old Geezers had a liule topknot) . Youfu hated the cold, and with his hat gone, his neck almost disappeared into his collar. But although flustered, he bore it all with a resigned smile and never lost his tempel Youfu was a poor du ng collector, and this. together wi th what the chil dren put him through , meant his bag usually co ntained nothing more than a few dried up pieces of dog turd . But st ill he wandere<1 here and there, scraping arou nd in the tussocks of ro ugh grass wit h his dung trowel lfh e found no dung, then he migh t still turn up an ol d shoe o r someones disca rd ed, worn-out broom. Youfu parti cul arly liked to pick up cigarelle butts a nd smoke them They were diffi cult to find. Few people in Sanyu smoked cigarelles, and wh en th ey did, th ey did not waste anything. So it may have bee n o nly after the Taos' arri val that Youfu acquired this habit. Hi s dung coll ecting now mainly took place near their house, and he wo uld rush to pick up any ciga rette butt he spOiled . Once he had smo ked it , he kept o n looking. When you ng Tao was at Sanyu Primary. his classmates (who we re also Sparrow Eyt-'S' classmates) were foreve r playing tricks o n Youfu. They would wrap a lillle earth in a scrap of white paper and leave it by the roadsi de. From a distance it looked just like a cigarelic bUll or even a cigarelle. Youfu would approach and inevitabl y

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SlOOp 10 pick il up. The children ran oul from Iheir hiding places and laughed unlillears ran down Iheir faccs. This happened a number of limes, and Youfu knew Ihal Ihey were leasing him. Bul each time without fail he picked up the paper-wrapped din. Was he afraid of missing a real cigarette? Or was he trying to gel a laugh from the children? I really do not know. In any case, they never tired of the game, and Youfu played along every time.

2 After Ihe Taos were banished 10 Ihe counlryside, laundry became a major even I They had had a maid in Nanjing especially to do their washing for Ihem. Running water came out of the laps, and no sooner had Ihe maid propped Ihe washboard in the sink Ihan the job was done. After they came to Sanyu, clolhes had 10 be washed in the river, and there was no one to help. The light clothing was all right, but when it came to washing the heavy stuff like sheets and quilts, the frantic efforts of all the family were required Tao carried the wooden bathtub out of the house and set il down in the space by the front door He and his son took it in turn 10 fetch buckets of water from the river and fill it. Then Tao lOok off his shoes, rolled up his Irousers, and began 10 tread the sheels in the tub, ralher like Ihe way in which the Sanyu villagers prepared Ihe mud before making mud bricks. Tao, surely inspired by them, ShOule(] enlhusiaslically as he trod. He lured his son in too; the latler look off his shoes and rolled up his Irousers and gOI inlO the tub with him. Laler young Tao look over Ihe whole job by himsel f. When the treading was done, Su Qun set up the washboard and began slowly to scrub the wet things. But she had little experience washing clothes and was too particular, so she spent nearly an hour on a single sheet and gave herself blisters on both hands. Thai was all right in warm weather, but in winter the water from the river was piercingly cold, and the Taos had to add hot water 10 it. Even though Grandpa Tao's coal Slove was pressed inlO service, supply slill fell short of demand. After it was scrubbed wilh soap, the bedding had 10 be rinsed in the river. Finally, when Ihis was done, Tao grasped one end of a sheet and Su Qun and young Tao Ihe olher, and Ihey began to wring il oul. They Iwisted ii, one to the left, one 10 Ihe right, lighler

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and tighter, until it looked like a thick rope. The sheets were then o pene(1 o ut and hung on the nylon washing lin e in front of the house to dry in th e sun . Su Quns dearest wish was to be able to manage the washing on her own o ne day, like the Sanyu women did. They did not use washtubs or hot water but stood on the rive r jetty. One vigorous shake of both arm s and the snow-white sheet spread out. settled o n the water's s urface, and slowly sank in. The center of the sheet ballooned up as Su Qun looked on, intoxicated by the spectacle. She tried it herself a few times but lacked both the skill and the strengt h. So when Zhao Nings heng suggested that his girlfriend Xia Xiaojie help with the laundry, Su Qun put up o nly token res istance. Xia Xiaojie took over the washing of the bedsheets and quilt covers, and Su Qu n just did the family's light garmen ts. They became so depend ent on this arrangement that when Zhao a nd Xia stopped coming, the sheets no longer got washed, and the bedding could not be changed. In any case, this had onl y been a temporary solution . Xia Xiaojie was not o ne of the famil y; she was on ly doing it to help out and would not accept any money for it , which meant that the Taos were unhappy abOUithc arrangClllclll Later they asked Mrs. Youfu to come and hel p with the laundry. They probably sell led on Mrs. Youfu rather than anyone else becausc the Youfus were poor, and the Taos felt sorry fo r them . It may also have been because Mrs. Youfu had livcd in Wangj i Market, whi ch made her almost a townswoman , so thc Taos felt it was all right to give her their washing. She did all their clothes, as well as the sheets and quilt covers, and resewed the covers too. Su Qun no longer had to worry about any of it , from removing the quilt covers, wash ing and drying th em, and sewing them back on. Mrs. Youfu cam e once a fortnight, and in add iti on to giving her lunch, Grand pa Tao would press two yuan into her hand as she left. Th is was fair payment for a se rvice, and th e Taos had a clea r co nscie nce abou t the arrangement. The Youfus an d the Taos becamc close because of the washing arrangements. Now when Youfu roamed around near the Taos' housc, he frequently came across deccnt-sized ciga relle bUllS o r cven wholc cigarelles. I suspect they may cvcn have been deliberately dropped by Grandpa Tao. Even if Youfu found not hing there ,

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when he came into the Tao's enclosure, Grandpa would give him a cigarelle. So he turned up frequently when his wife was doing th e washing on the pretext of consulting her about some domestic matler, or he would stand by and help by handing her the soap. There was always somelhing in il for him , even if it was jusl smoking more of the Taos' cigarelles Laler slill , th e Taos gave him chores 10 do--for example, building a henhouse or fetching Ih eir grain ration or laking Ihe rice to Xiaodunkou to be machine-husked Then he would be asked to stay fo r a meal, which always included meat. He usually arrived without breakfast. This made him feel weak, but he was at least savingon a meal at home. He could save a lot, in fact, because when he we nt home, he did not cat again for at least one meal, so he cou ld save on a whole day's meals. O ne day when Youfu was working at the Taos, it so happened that th ey had finished Ihe laSI of the fresh meal from Wangji Markel. When Gran ny Tao prepared the dinner, she sliced up a large piece of salted meat and braised it. It filled a large bowl to the brim, and a th ick layer of oil noated on top. Youfu, who had fasted as usual , ate up more than half th e fatty meat and drank down the oil that remained in Ihe bowl. That night he was very unwell. He sent Sparrow Eyes to Su Qu n for some pills, but not hing could stop th e (li arrhea. Then it came to Mrs. Youfu in a nash that there was too much oil in her husband's gut, making it so sl ippery that everyt hing was going st raight through. She mixed up a bowl of the pigs' husks, Youfu ate it, and th e runs ca me to an instant ha lt. His diarrhea had lost him half the fat from the meat, thought Youfu, but at least he had th e o ther half still in his stomach , together with the rough bran he had forced down He could skip dinner that night. As for Sparrow Eyes, th e Taos took good ca re of him too. Su Qun made a special trip to Hcngze Pharmaceulicals a nd bought some bOlll es of fi sh liver oi l for him. The capsules were smooth and round , like pearls, and thei r surface shone with an oily gleam. At each dose , Sparrow Eyes bit into them and the fish-n avore([ oil spurte([ into his mouth. He did not like the taste, but at least it was oil , and he swallowed it greed ily. He would take two o r three capsu les at a time when he had nothing else to do. In fact, he enjoyed his medicine and needed no reminding to take it. He would happily

I S6

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have carried on until the bOllle was empty and was restrained only by Su Q un's constant warnings that he would get beller on ly if he ate them s lowl y. It was some tim e before Sparrow Eyes told his parents about the fi sh liver oil. One day he could not keep the secret any longer. Youfu and his wife each tri ed a capsule and found it really did contain oil. Mrs. Youfu commented, ~No wonder your eyes are getting better if you're eating oil every day!" Youfu and his wife could not make heads or tails of Su Qun's explanatio n that this was a special sort of oil. As far as they were concerned, s he was talking in riddles. They had never heard of vitamin A. And Mrs. Youfu remain ed puzzled. "The Taos cat so much oil," she said . "How come their eyesight is so poor?" Her husband had no answer. Over tim e, Spa rrow Eyes' eyesight gradually im proved, and he could see where he was going if he went out in the evenings. Mrs. Youfu's del ight , though, was mixed with a certain regrel. As tim e went by, there was less and less hope that her son would wear glasses like the Taos.

3 Mrs. Youfu did the Taos' laundry for three yea rs. During that time many things happened in the Tao famil y: Su Qun was taken away fo r interrogation, Tao was ki cked out of the party, a nd the fami ly's fir st two dogs came to bad ends, o ne after the ot her. Mrs. Youfu con tinued to do the washing until Blackie's time . She did not care about the Taos' political disgrace; she ca me once a fortnight without fai l, washed, had her lunch, and before leaving was paid a few yuan Although no one else cared, the Taos were very sensiti ve about these events. A friend in need is a friend indeed, and the Youfus stayed loyal So it was that now there was even more oil in Youfu's (lin ner, and Grandpa Tao increased his payments to Mrs. Youfu . Relat ions between the two families grew even mo re warm and friend ly, with o ne exception: Gra nny Tao could not stand Mrs. Youfu. Granny Tao, her husband's junio r by six years, would soon be sevent y. She had not worked since her youth , was the on ly o ne of

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the famil y who did not wear glasses, and was also the o nly o ne who cou ld not read or write. 50 she did not read the newspapers and had no interest in national affairs. Before being sent to the countryside, she had spen t her days exchanging gossip with the other old lad ies in her courtyard. In 5anyu she could no t make herself unde rstood and so hard ly talked to th e vill agers Or rather she talked, but they und erstood nothing she said , and vice versa . In three or four years in Sanyu, she scarcely set foot out of doors, not even to cross thei r bridge. Grand pa Tao was lonely, but he read the newspaper, listened to the radio, and sometim es went for a wa lk alo ng the dyke at the edge of the village. His wife's situatio n was pitirul: she had left her old friends in Nanjingand could not communi cate with th e Sanyu villagers. That left just her family, and even they o rten got fed up with her endless chatter and ignored her. But still her tongue (li d not rest. She chattered away from mo rning till night , even tually without the need of a listener She conducted ent ire con versa· ti ons with herself, asking questions and answering them, talking and laugh ing. As th e years of banishment in the countryside went by, Granny Tao became more and more garrulous. What did she talk to herself about? Things from long, long ago, like what a terribl e lot of troubl e she had had bringing up Peiyi (that was Tao) and Taotao (that was young Tao) . Taotao was th e third o nly son in a row in th eir family, which made the respons ibility especially heavy. On and on she went, mixing up evenLS from her son's an d her grandson's childhoods. When she talked of the privileged life they had enjoyed when she was young, she went into raptures. Grand pa Tao had been principal ofWud ingmen Primary School, and as the wife of the principal, she was known everywh ere as ~ Mrs . Head Teacher. ~ For a while, she had been in charge of meals at th e school, and that was the most glori+ oLlS tim e of her life. She talked of how she used to go off to the vegetable market with her scales, followed by a man pulling a handcart. She might have been illiterate, but Granny Tao knew exactly how to read the scales. She talked of how she used to dress then: "Red leat her shoes, sm all parasol. ... ~ Clip-clopping through the gray flagstone s treets in her red leather shoes, holding a s mall parasol to sh iel d herself from the hot summ er su n, Granny Tao wore a cheo ngsam, which showe(1 off her soft, snowy-white upper arms.

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Granny Tao's memories appare ntly stopped at the Cult Rev. She never mentio ned anyt hing that had happened to the fa mily during that period. Still less did she talk about their banishment and Sanyu, except for th e even ing of their arrival, when she had had to make the appallingly difficult and dangerous crossing of the woode n bridge over the Yanma Ri ver, and th e time when the old man (Grandpa Tao) had lit a fire in their then home, the cowshed, and it nearly went up in names. There was one good thing about this: unlike he r husband, sh e was not plagued by pointless anxieties. Her most vivid memory s ince coming to Sanyu was not her daughterin-law's detention or her son's expulsio n from the pa rt y o r the death of their dogs, Patch and Snowy, but o ne almost inSignificant event. O ne da y, when Tao and Su Qun were st ill at work a nd young Tao was at school and Grandpa Tao was watching o ut fo r them on the road , someone had come to the house. Carr ying a wooden box, he stood mutely by the door. Granny Tao was con vinced he was going to murder her for their money and was terrifi ed . She kept talking to him in a fri endly way, but th e only reaction was a foolish smile. Finally, th e rest of the famil}' arrived home. The young man turned out to be th e son of the village barber. He had taken over his fath er's job and went around the village giving the men a haircut once a month, in return for which he was paid wo rk points. He worked from west to cast, so that day it was the Taos' turn . He was a shy boy, not much given to talking, and in any case cou ld not understand much of what G rann y Tao was saying. But he had a strong sense of d uty and waited at the Taos' gat e for a whole hour. In the end the Taos did not let him cut their hai r, not because o f Granny Tao's fright but because they were wo rried about catch ing ringworm from his clippers. Later Su Qun bought things lik e cl ippers and scissors in }tongze and taught herself to cut the fam ily's hair, and the barber boy did not come again. Someth ing s imilar happened on one other occasion. Again there was no one at h ome (except for Granny Tao) when a gro up o f vagran ts turned up. They did no t ask the o ld lady for money but lay proppc<] up against the wall of th e Taos' house, su nning themselves and picking !l eas ou t of their clot h ing. G rann y Tao was scared to (kath. Trembling, she bolted herself inside and waited and waited. Eventually Grandpa Tao ca me home, gave each o f the beggars ten ce nts, and finally got them to go .

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"They could have killed me," complained Granny Tao, "and no one would have known. Such a good thing the old man came back and gave them some mo ney and got them to go. You did n't see th em, their eyes were all red, like can nibals!~

4 The two events described above happened in Brownie's time. Brown ie ate at the Taos' and in Ihe eveni ng went back to guard the Youyi famil y. He had no guard dog responsib ilities with the Taos. This meant th at anyone cou ld walk across the bridge and into thei r encl osu re. To set Granny Tao's mind at rest, Tao often invited Mrs. Youfu to come ove r. Sometimes there was no washing, a nd she just sat with the old woman to keep her company. They could not send her home empty-handed, so Grandpa Tao would press a couple of yuan int o her hand. As they spent more tim e in each oth er's company, it became easier for Gran ny Tao and Mrs. Youfu to understand each other. That is, they half understood each o ther, and that was enough fo r th em to carry Oil very lively conversati ons, although often at cross purposes. Grann y Tao wanted to talk , and it was Mrs. Youfu's duty to listen . With ou t tht.'Se conversat ions with Granny Tao, Mrs. Youfu cou ld not have dropped by their house so frequently, a nd even if she had, Grandpa Tao would not have paid her. To please Grann y Tao, Mrs . Youfu talked to her of Wangj i Market in pre-Liberation days; thiS, in turn, sti rred up memories fo r Granny Tao of school meals, red leather shoes, parasols, and s uch. Mrs. Youfu evin ced complete understanding of everything she said . They talked about hair oi l, face cream, face powder, and dress fa bri cs. Mrs. Youfu told Granny Tao that Sparrow Eyes' dark green outfit had been made from a dress s he had once worn, and what a fine dress it was, one of a kind, and how nicely it had showed off her waist! There is a sayi ng that the more you open your mouth, the greater is th e chance of pUlling your foot in it Gradually Granny Tao came to realize what it was that Mrs. Youfu had been doing before she got married. Of course Mrs. Youfu's former profession had been stam ped out in the new SOciety, but Granny Tao's memories of it

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were still vivid. With this in mind, she could not help becoming suspicious each time she watched her husband pressing money on Mrs. Voufu. From then on,she turned against Mrs. Voufu and refused to talk to her. When the latter turned up, she kept a very close eye on her husband. When she did speak, it was to make openly malicious comments in the Nanjing dialect Luckily Mrs. Youfu did not understand much of this sort of talk Anyway, she could hardly answer back when she was taking the Taos' money. Later, when Blackie arrived, Granny Tao felt safer. She absolutely refused to have Mrs. Youfu come and keep her company, so their lively conversations came to a stop.

5 Even after Mrs. Youfu stopped coming over to talk 10 Granny Tao, she continued to come once a fortnight to do the Taos' washing. She stayed on for lunch and received a few yuan to take home. What Granny Tao saw made her blood boil She ignored the faC I that Mrs. Youfu was being paid 10 do the washing. She saw only one thing: her husband pn.'::,sing mOlley onto a common prostitute. She would nOI sil by and let thai happen. Granny Tao began 10 mutter away to herself. The Taos were used 10 this and at first look no notice. Then they began to find her commenlS odd. She no longer wenl on about things like her red leather shoes but began to tell her son and daughter-in-law, Mput your money away properly. Don't lei Ihe old man see where you keep it" She went on and on, and still Tao and Su Qun paid no attention. Finally it dawned on them that the old lady was hinting at something disreputable that she apparently felt could not be said straight ou\. In the absence of any response, Granny Tao began to speak more plainly: "If the old man gets any money, he'll do bad things wilh it. JUSI put il away carefully, and don'l lei him see where you pul it. n Tao said, "Mom, you're going gaga. Vou know what kind of person Dad is!n Su Qun added, "Mom, you've gOI it all wrong! n

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The old lady paid no attention but just kept saying, "Moneys a bad thing. There arc too many bad women out there, and they come knocking on our door to take it from us." For a while, these conversations were a frequent occurrence among Granny Tao, Tao, and Su Qun They must have reached Grandpa Taos ears, but he remained silent and acted as if they had nothing to do with him He would stand with his hands folded across his chest, if anything holding himself more upright than ever, or sit by the stove boiling the kettle or go out and walk along the dyke at the edge of the fields and refuse to be drawn in . His grandson was certainly not invi ted to join in the discussion . On one occasion, he was reading from Gorky's My University and came to the part about the prostitutes of Kazan . Young Tao asked his grandfather, "What arc prostitutes?" "Women who cheat men of their money" was the answer. The boy was none the wiser. Gut then Granny Tao put in, "like Mrs . Youfu cheats your granddad of his money" At this, Grandpa Tao folded his arms and left the room. Young Tao's imagination ran wild for a long time afterward. Finally one day Grandpa Tao could restrain himself no longer. It was early morning, and the Taos were still in bed. The grandfather, alwa~ the earliest to rise, was feeling around for his clothes before getting up to empty the chamber pot. Granny Tao awoke and started on her usual theme, Mrs. Youfu. Suddenly Grandpa Tao let out a bellow: "Damn you to hell : Damn you! Damn you!" Grabbing his clothes, he began furiously beating his wife with them, as she still lay under the covers. "Help!" she wailed "He's killing me! The evil old man's trying to kill me! Wretched, wretched man!" This was the third outburst from his grandfather that the boy remem bered (the first was when he returned from being questioned by the neighborhood committee in Nanjing; the second was the argument over feeding Blackie\ This time was differenL He was beating someone, not smashing an objecL In all their long years together, Grandpa Tao had never hit Granny Tao, and now here he was, an old man beating his wile. So his blows were accompanied by shame at his own behavior, and the "Damn you! Damn you's! " were gradually replaced by sobs. If the first "Damn you! Damn you's!" had been aimed at his Wife, it was obvious that in the end he was damning himself.

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Tao rushed into his parents' room in his undershorts. Grabbing hol(1 of Grandpa Tao, he shouted, "What's all this racket? Haven't we got enough to cope with? Stop getling so worked up! It's not worth it.~ Grandpa Tao fell silent In fact, he never spoke of the matter again. Granny Tao continued to cry quietly, her voice mumed even further by the quilt that she had pulled over her face. Aher this incidelll, there were no more outbursts from Grandpa Tao, and he did not beat Granny Tao again Just as before, he would stand erect, hands folded over his chest, turning a deaf ear to his wife's rebukes. She took up her li tany of complaints more relentlessly than ever. Her son and daughter-in-law could not be bothered to contradict her and allowed her to chatter on without comment. There was no point. Mrs. Youfu still came once a fortnight to help with the family washing. On those occasions, Granny Tao would glower at her and make malicious comments behind her back. And so life went on.

6 II was about six months later that Grandpa Tao swallowed two bottles of oovp and killed himself. The family used the oovp organophosphate in dilution to kill mosquitocs in the house. Grandpa Tao usually had charge of it and kept it hidden away at the bottom of his bedside cupboard. That morning there had been a fight, although "fight ~ is not really the right word . Grandpa Tao was not making a sound; only his wife was grumbling away to herself, perhaps slightly more loudly than normal. Their son and daughter-in-law were so used to it that it did not occur to them to stop her Grandpa Tao reached out for the two bottles, scored the bottle necks with a grindstone, knocked off the tops, and poured the con tents into a clean bowl. He held the bottles upside-down until the last of the oovp trickled Out, cleaned up the broken glass, put away the grindstone, and drank the liquid down. After this he rinsed the bowl over and over and sterilized it with boiling water. Then he cleaned his teeth and rinsed his mouth and sat down very upright on a chair in the living room to wait for the poison to take effect.

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Grandpa Tao was of course rushed to Hongze Co unty Hospit al. All they could do was to administer an enema, a method of treatment that , when you consider how important enemas had been to him previously, was certainly deserved. One hottle of soapy water, and his stools were loose. Then, in the fly-blown toilet of th e hospital, Grandpa Tao had his first really good crap since being banished to th e countryside Perhaps because of his attach ment to enemas, he now evinced a s trong desire to live. Watching his son sigh and his daughter-in-law weep, he could no t help regretting what he had do ne. Then, in the observatio n room, the sto mach cramps returned. He went to the toilet, refUSing to allow his son to go with him . Half an hour passed, and Tao felt something was wrong. He went in and found his father collapsed in the latrin e hole. He was dead, mouth wide open, tongue protruding to one side, covered in sh it fro m head to toe. Traces of it had even got into his mo uth . Yu Youfu and a few of other villagers had helped ca rry Grandpa Tao to the hospital , and Youfu had suggested giving him a spoonful of shit to eat This would surel y make th e old man vomit, a nd if he could vom it everything up, then he'd be fine. The Taos of course refused, but Yo ufu muttered ahout it all the way to the hospitaL Now, looking at th e old Illall lying ill the toilet, Youfu said forcefully, Myou see, he wanted to cat shit. He knew he'd get beller!~ After it was all over, when talking of Grandpa Tao's deat h, Su Q un would say tearfully, "At least Grandpa had one reall y good crap before he went!" Wh y on earth did they constantly talk about shit in con nectio n with Grandpa Tao? Why was his life story inext ricably bo und up with his bowel movements right up until the mo ment he died? Th is is some thing that will no doubt puzzl e my readers as much as it puzzl es me. Poor Grandpa Tao: compulsively dean while he lived, condemned to die in his own excremen t.

7 Tao and Su Qun stayed on in Hongze until Grandpa Tao's cremation two days later. Then they brought his ashes back to Sanyu. They buried the urn in the cemetery to the west of the village, and Tao dug the hole himself. It was an urn, not a coffi n, and the hole

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he dug was no larger than you would dig when planting a tree. But it was deep; Tao dug down until he could see water. They put the urn at the bOllom, filled the hole up with earth, and topped it with a small mound. There was no gravestone or epitaph, so it looked just the same as all the other graves. Most Sanyu villagers were illiterate and did not need gravestones. Each family knew where the family graves were. The Taos knew Grandpa Taos grave because it was the one bare of grass, with spade marks visible on the sti ll damp earth. Since all the other villagers knew that too, there was no danger of confusion . On all the older graves, not only had the grass grown, but also weathering over the years had reduced the height of the mounds, softening their contours so that from a distance they looked like so many waves. It made the Taos, standing in the graveyard, feci slightly seasick. The Taos had believed that Striking Root meant that their son would marry a Sanyu girl and have children and evcntually grandchildren too. Solemn and stirring though this prospect was, there was also something celebratory about it. Now it seemed that this was only the end result and that something came before it. That something was that Grandpa and Granny Tao (and also Tao and 5u Qun) would die here and turn into 5anyu mud . The Taos' ancestral graves would rise out of the cemetery to the west of the Village. Grandpa Tao had become the Taos' old root, now finally buried in the ground. Now it was up to his grandson to put out new young shoots and bear fruit. 50 although Grandpa Tao's death left a void in their lives, it also made the Taos feci more secure . Grandpa Tao had killed himself with DDyr In Hongze County Hospital, the death certificate had been issued with few questions asked This was something else to be thankful for, as there would have been a great deal of trouble if the authorities had made inquiries. In one extended family in 5anyu, two brothers and their fami lies live([ in the same enclosure. One day they fcll out over the rice straw (the older brother's family straw was spread out to dry in the other family'S space). There was an argument and suddenly the younger brother stabbed the older one to death with a pitchfork. The perpetrator did not go to prison. Instead the mailer was settled

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as follows: his sister-in-law found another husband, who moved in and adopted her son, treating him as if he were his own. The guilty man thenceforth treated the newcomer as his elder brother. The new man even inheriled his predecessor's given name, Youcai. II was only after Ihree years in Sanyu Ihallhe Taos learned the strange SlOry of Ihe two differelll Youcais. life and death in Sanyu certainly seemed to come in extraordinary ways Nevertheless, Tao, Su Qun, and young Tao were slill biller when they Ihoughl aboullhe way in which Grandpa Tao had died. They were even cooler toward Granny Tao than before . Granny was quiet for a short while immediately after Grandpa Tao's death, and then she took up her chattering again. She held conversations with herself about her red leather s hoes and her parasol, but there was no further mention of Mrs. Youfu. She was not talking entirely to herself. Sometimes the conversations would be with Grandpa Tao, 10 the conSlernalion of the rest of Ihe family. When Ihey could take no more, Ihey would rudely tell her 10 shu t up. A lear or two would roll down from Granny Tao's old eyes, and wiping Ihem away wilh her hand, she would say, "If the old man was slill alive, you wouldn'l dare talk 10 me like Ihal. ~ This further infuriated them, and they would ask, "How did Dad (or Grandpa) die?" This reduced her to silence. This way they got some peace, but then it stopped working. Granny became as garrulous as ever, complaining that they did not treat her right and chattering on about the trouble she had had raising her son and grandson , all the time weeping forlornly. Then they resorted to threalS: "If you carryon, Mom (or Granny), we'll lake you 10 Ihe police Slat ion! ~ She would SlOp crying at once and look back at Ihem Ihrc-ugh eyes clouded with calaraclS, in such bewildermelll thai one had to feel sorry for her. Such threalS were a deadly weapon Ihat never failed. Granny Tao, it seemed, slill had some memory of police stations. She had no way of knowing Ihatthere was no police Sialion in Sanyu vill ageindec(l in the whole of Wangji communc-and that they were saying that only to frighten her. Taking her to the police station was not a threat that her son and (l aughter-in-law used lightly, only as a last resort . The same could not be said of their son, who teased his grandmother constantly:

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MHow did Grandpa die? He was in such good shape, he sho uld havc livc(IIO be a hundred!" And if his grandm olh cr allcmplcd 10 argue, hc said , "Granny, I saw a policeman ycslcrda y!" Hc gOI away with terrorizi ng his grandmother because his paren ts condon ed it. They fe ll he was telling the truth , that Grandpa might have lived to be a h u ndred if h e had not taken th e DDYP So young Tao dealt with the old lady with the case and cen ailllY th at he dealt with their cat and dogs_

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~

TWELVE

The Author I Tao wrote and published sto rics a ll his life, but the on ly book of his thai was published was the Co llecled Works of Ta o Peiyi. Tao himself never even saw this hook, with its black cover and name design in th e top left-hand corner. Its publication w as arranged after his death by th e Writers Association_ The book was a littl e over 300 ,QOO characters long_ Gathered at th e back, in the lengthy appendixes, were memoirs and cormncmoralive articles wrilten by relati ves and friends_ There was also a play that Tao had co-written with someone c:lse, also quite lengthy. It

was o nl y the rest of the book that was Tao's own wo rk. Sixteen shorl siorics-in all abou t 250,000 characters. Tao had begun wrilingjusl aft er Liberation a nd co ntin ued un til his death in 1977, about twenty-five years in all. For a writer h is ou tpu t was very meager, a mere ten thousand characters per year on average_ NOI only was he nOI prolifi c, bUI he did n OI live long, and Ihus h e was un able 10 make up for Ihis deficiency. Another poi nt to nOle is thai his book was ordered chronologically. When I read it, it felt like I was reading Ihe a nnals of th e People's Republi c_ For example , Ih e first story is about la nd reform, th e second about Ih e mutual ai d teams, th e third about village elections, followed by stories on the state grain mo nopoly and rural coope ratives. Then there was a hiatus fo r a couple of years; Tao an d fell ow writers had se t up a journal for "kindred spi rits," Th e Explorer, and this was immediately condemned as a n an ti-party publicati on. T his naturally mad e the "Explorers~ members of an anti-party clique, and they were either banished to thei r places o f o ri gin or cond emn ed as rightists_ By comparison, Tao got off quite

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lighlly, wilh only his parly membership being suspended. Bul Ihis pul h im in a Slale of considerable anxiely, and, u nsurpris ingly, he sloppe(l wriling for a few years. This interruptio n did not last long. The longest gap in his writing was during the CultRev, when Tao and his family were banished to 5anyu and h e did not put pen to paper for n earl y ten years. Of course I am speak ing figuratively Whil e in the country, Tao never stopped writing, but what exactly he was writing, only he knew. In any case, it was not stories, and even ifit had been, they were never published . Calcu laled in Ihis way, Tao's wriling ca reer was o nly len years long. In len years he wrOle 250,000 characlers o r, on average , somelhing over 20,000 characle rs a year. He was stil l nOI prolific, bUI thai cou ld nOI be helped When Tao look up his pen again, he wrOle Ihree stori es sl raigh l off. One was aboul fi sh farmin g among the fish er folk of Hongze Lake; an other was about a scien tis t persecuted by the Gang of Four; and the lasl was about a persecuted democrat who fina ll y got redress. II was o nly three stories, but they were nearl y as long as the previo us th irteen . Clearly years of repression had given a boost 10 Taals creative urges. II looked as ifh e was making up far h is previo usly meager o Ulput. Bul Ihen he gOI cancer. Lei us rel urn 10 Tao's book. As 1 have sa id , il reads like Ihe annals of posl-liberalion C hina. "Se rving polilics~ was more Ihan jusl somelhing Ihal general ion of wrilers believed in; il was a principle Ihal they were obliged 10 respecl, a kind of trade regulalio n thai had the force of law wilhin ce rlain spheres. Only by working within these confines was it possibl e to talk abo ut freed om Any irresponsible talk or action or artistic activity outside of those li mits was naturall y against th e law There was only one choice: if }-'ou worked as a wriler, yo u h ad 10 stay with in the law. Olherwise. you did not work as a wriler. II was nOI possible for all those poor writers who were devoted 10 li le ral u re not 10 believe in "ser . . . ing politics .~ Their o nly oplion was 10 do Ih eir very besl 10 inlernalize this order from above and make illheir heart's desire. Once Ihis transformation was complele, Ihey allained freedom---or alleast felt thai they were fre e. So it d id nOI mailer whelher "serving politics" was an exlernal command or o ne's own desire. T he o nly thing thai mallered, a nd mallered a

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great deal, was that this was the single overriding credo from which there were to be no deviations.

2 I had belter get back to Taos book After reading it through, I realized Tao was a writer on rural life and only rural life (the one exception was the story of the persecuted scientist). And there was the language that characterized Tao's writing, the so-called ~lan ­ guage of the masses," which was extremely vivid . His stories were full of local slang, proverbs, and folk adages. For example, ~lf you use a teapot to boil dumplings, you won't be able to pour them out"; "A dog with a mouthful of scalding taro root can't spit it out and doesn't want to either"; and "When people arc cold, they put a jacket on; when fish arc cold, they take refuge in the reeds." (I've selected a few at random .) It was not only his characters who spoke like that, but the writer Tao di d too. Since Tao was a city boy, this must have taken him a considerable amount of time to learn, but it was what was known as "immersing oneself in life. ~ Immersing oneself in life was considered at the time a prerequisite 10 being creative, and although it was not a statutory requirement (like "serving politics"), it was still the goal sought by Tao and his generation. China was an agricultural country, with over 90 percent of the population living off the land . So immersing oneself in life meant, self-evidently, immerSing oneself in village life. Writers from peasant families were naturally advantaged since they were already "immersed" in "life," so they were not so keen o n this process. They were far more enthusiastic about ~serving politics" City-born writers were in a different position. Even though they were alive, they did not have a life. Their life was not really life, or, to put it another way, it did not count. So one after another they arrived in the villages to muck in with the poor peasants and make pages of notes on their experiences The results of ~irnrners­ ing oneself in life" were stories that gave off the smell of the soil, the kind that made country-born writers blush at their own inadequacy. Tao was an outstanding example of such writers. Tao's meager literary output was connected with his feeling that he was not sufficiently immersed in life. Hc worked hard at it all his life: in his youth, he threw himself into the hurly-burly of thc land

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reform movement. He made many fri ends among the peasants (h e live(l with them for seve ral months, even as lo ng as a year) and kept in touch after his ret urn to the city. During the CultRev, he went to a May 7 Cadre School. Alth ough this was forced on him, it at least took him to the country to work as a peasant Later still, he took his family to Sanyu. Even so, until his death Tao had a serious inferiority complex about what he perceived as his insufficient immersion in life, and nothing could change this. If we accept that his meager li terary output was linked to this perception, then his industrio usness proves the point. He scrib bled away ceaselessly, even while living life. He may not have been very prolifi c, but he had so many notebooks that had they all been piled up, they would undoubtedly have been taller than he was. Although some of them had cloth covers, others were eovered in paper and stil l o thers in plast iC, and they were all different shapes a nd s izes, so stacking them up wo uld have been no easy task. Luckily Tao was lying nat by this tim e, and by simply lining the notebooks up in a row, o ne could compare them to his height. These were on ly some of th e no tebooks he had filled, dati ng from after his banishment to Sanyu The ones befo re that had all b\..>t.'"n confiscated during th e CullRev wh en his house had been searched. If you collected all of them, they would have measu red the length of another o ne o r two Taos. In fact, you co uld describe Tao as head -to-toe notebooks, eve n two o r three times over. I can almost sec Tao, scribbling away, standing in the fields, or seated in the light of the kerosene lamp. But what was he actuall y writing? When I leafed through th ese notebooks after his death, I discovered just local slang, proverbs, and folk adages. There were also notes o n farming in Sanyu's Number I Production Team and o n its acreage and populati on. Th en th ere were minutes of meetings and notes summarizing documents that had corne down from above. But the notebooks mostly consisted of local slang, proverbs, and folk adages. Tao was painstaking in organizing his material For exampl e, all the sayings were lis ted alphabetically under the Roman alphabet spel ling of the first character of the phrase-A, B, etc. Things he had jotted down on odd occasions were compiled , edited, and copied into another notebook. This was all quite understandable when you consid er that he was city-born and writing about the countryside. But there is still something that puzzles me.

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In not one of his notebooks is there a trace of what he personally felt-that is, there is no expression of emotio n o r calm reflect io n. Not a hint of the subjective, not a trace of the Taos' life in 5anyu. In fa ct, his notebooks have no t been any help to me in writing Banished! There is an advantage in this: I can fill in the gaps left by Tao exactly as 1 like. If Tao had fill ed his notebooks with personal and fam ily in fo rmat ion, t hen my no vel, Bani shed! , would have been su+ perfluous. Tao never planned to use this material as the basis fo r a great lit erary work. If he had done so, then my novel would just have been plagiarism. In my view, plagiarizing sou rces is even mo re shameful than plagiarizing creative work since plagia ri zing so urces is plagiarizing anot her person's life. In any even t, I gained from Tao's gaps. But if Tao, dee p under the earth , knew about it, he would definitely despise my way of do ing things. What was very important to him is wo rthless to me. Conversely, what 1 treasure, he fo und quite useless. Perhaps these are dilTerences be tween different generations of authors. For the whole of Tao's life, he imm ersed himsel f in life, and u ntil the day h e di ed, h e believed he was not immersed enough. He never kn ew that his life and all that had befallen him made a great story with a far-reaching lm.."Ssage. 50 there is no conflict at all between us, nor wou ld there be even if Tao were st ill alive.

3 When Tao took up his pen again, his first story was about the lives of fish farm ers, the result of the months he had spen t in the lakeside com mun e. The story was not quite twenty thousand ch aracters long, although when the notes were added to his draft, it came to over two hundred thousand Normally he destroyed his draft when h e completed a story, but this tim e was different: some wh im made h im add a cover page to it and write the following lines o n it: I dedicate this to those bright sparks who dash off lheir lines, as proof of how torturous the life of a creative writer is! O ne of those "bright sparks~ was of course yo ung Tao. The latter was then in the second yea r of Hongze Lower Middle School,

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making a name for himself with his compos iti ons and of course cock-a-hoo p about his success. O ne o f his composit ions was ca ll ed "An Unfo rgellable Event n and went like this: O ne day, during the summ er harvest, a producti on team water buffalo, which has been hauling a stone roller over the threshi ng ground, lies res ting. They have forgotten to unharness the beast during the midday break, and now it gets up and heads for the river, probably intent on cooli ng off It already has its front legs in the water, and the ro ller appears to be s liding down behi nd it. If the ro ll er breaks the buffalo's hind legs, the consequences (for the prod uctio n team har vt'"St) will be d ire . Quick as a flash, Yu the team leader strides ove r and s tops the roller. The buffalo is u nharm ed , bu t Yu's leg is broken. We know that Yu was a real person. It was also no lie that water buffa los wallowed in shaded streams in the heat of the day, and it was common to see th e beasts pulling a roller. But pulling all these clements together was young Tao's creati ve effort. The teacher read th is o ut in fro nt of th e whole class as a model essay. Young Tao took it home and gave it to his father to read. Tao criticized his son's careless writing but realized that he had a talent for telling stories. Tao had mixed feelings. In the end he could no t rt.."Sist taking a red pen to the story, squeeZing so many correct ions (written, like his no tes, in tiny handwriting) into the remaining white space that they were length ier than the o riginal compositio n. After that, he marked all o f young Tao's composi tio ns, target ing his son's chief faults, h is sel f-satisfac tion and cockin t.'Ss. Yet he harbored hopes too. Now Tao added correcting hisson's compositi ons to his own constant note taking. He even made young Tao take notes, and he corrected those too. His notes on young Tao's notes outnumbered young Tao's own. Goingaround bare-chested in summer, with a towel slung around his neck, or h olding a hot cup of tea in winter to warm h is hands, h e never stopped taking notes . He had never worked so hard, yet during this peri od not a single story of his was published. The c hildren of banished cad res all practiced thei r special skills in those da ys. Some s ketched and painted; some learned to play the Chinese violin, the erhll; some spent their lime taking bicycles and semi-conductors apart and reassembling them. Ot hers did calligraphy. The parents had no hope of their children going back to

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Nanjing, but there was the possibility that they might get work in Hongze County Town or, if no t th ere, th en in Wangji Market. Being registered as a town resident would be much better than working as a peasant for the prod ucti on team They all set their sigh ts on th e county town rath er than Wangj i Market since it had a cultural center, a Ch in ese opera troupe, a machine factory, and roads one could bowl along (at least on a bicycle)_ The erhu players could join the opera tro upe, the painters could get work at the cultural center, and the ones who were good with bi cycles and semi-cond uctors might get work in the factory or, failing that , set up a cycle repair stall at the e(lge of the dusty highway. But the young people cou ld acqu ire these skills on ly if their parents had wo rked in the trade before them and could coach their child ren until they had become competen t. HaVing done it before, the parents wo uld also know the right people a nd could wangle th eir ch ildren a job With these two conditi ons met (the children acq uiri ng the skills and their eld ers knowing the right people), th e parents' hopes fo r th eir children's future would redoubl e_ Writing was all Tao kn ew how to do Infected by the general mood , he fo und himself carri ed away by wild fancies _ Young Tao was getting such good marks for his school compositions that he cou ld probably make a living as a writer, like his father, and he would not have to strike root in Sanyu, marry a local girl, and work on the land. But Tao was also painfully aware that wriling was not li ke having a regular job. If you did not do well, you did not cat, and you might not even be able to keep your family together. The risk was too great. Should he let his son lead the simpl e life of a peasant or train him to become a famous author? And what if he did not measure up? Tao was to rn_ The barber's son, standing outside th eir house, carne to mi nd: he was following in his father's footsteps_ It would have been so simpl e if Tao had bee n a barber. Then he thought of their plans to help the team buy a walking tractor. If that had succeeded, yo ung Tao could have become a tractor dri ver. Sadly, aft er Tao's expulSion from th e party, he could no longer be involved in managing the prod uction team . Then there were yo ung Tao's "medical studies,n when hc learned acupu ncture from his mOlher, practicing o n a piece of pigskin . Even tho ugh Su Qun had started late in lifc , the fact was that Sanyu now had its own barefoot doctor. Then there werc their

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plans for young Tao to be a soldier, to work in Wangji Farm Tools, teach at Sanyu Primary, and so on. For a while, Tao's head teemed with all the various plans they had had for young Tao's future . He finally reached the conclusion that if he was to make a real attempt to help the boy, then all he could do was to teach him to write. Writing is the noblest of callings, but at that moment in time, Tao's train of thought was more ignoble than noble. It was, I believe, when his thoughts on writing were at their most realistic. In Tao's time, it was only by reducing the literary life to a means of subsistence that it became feasible. There was no room for any kind of personal freedom, so all that remained was to hone the skills laid (Iown in trade regulations-that is, to compete in using local slang, proverbs, and folk adages. Forget young Tao and his prospects; personally, I think the truly pitiable figure was Tao himself.

4 Tao corrected his son's compositions, but at the same time he told his banished cadre friends that he ~could not let young Tao become a writer" Later, when young Tao formally started to write a shan stOlY, his father felt compelled to weigh in with heaps of i(leas for revisions, but he never le t on to outsiders. To them he simply said, "Taotao will never follow in my footsteps and become a writer." But then the story ··Lian the Duckherd~ was published in the Xinhua supplement, and all the banished cadres dropped by to offer their congratulations. ·'Like father, like son," they said . "That's wonderful news. Your lad has a great future!" Tao behaved as if it were the first he had heard of it. He took the copy of the supplement, which they had brought with them, and glanced cursorily at it. ~It'sjust a bit ofnonsense,~ he said, "a hobby of his. No way am I going to let him go down that roadl" The cadres had imagined that young Tao had achieved publica. tion only through his father's good offices, but it seemed no\. Young Tao must be some kind of a prodigy. It was of course through his father's pulling strings that young Tao got his story published. An old friend was a deputy editor at Xinhua . Not only that, but also almost every detail of the story had been discussed by father and son, and the Taos' house was the scene

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of fierce arguments, with both of them scarlet with rage and refusing to give way. Tao of course was the autho rity o n writing, and his o pin ions prevailed. He marked young Tao's draft to with in an inch of its li fe, filling the space between the lines with correct ions and revisions. Then he made his so n take it back and rewrite it. After repeated allempts, young Tao was ready to give up. His furious fat her nearly gave him a beating. ~ lian the Duckherd" went through seven drafts befo re it fin ally passed muster (with Tao). Young Tao made a fresh copy a nd took it to the Hongze pOSt office. Tao had added a personal note add ressed to the deputy editor. On June I , Children's Day, "Li an the Duckherd n appeared in print. The story was about a young girl call ed Lian and her fight against an "upper-middle" peasant. During the su mm er holidays, Lian is helping one of the upper-middle peasants by herd ing her ducks. The woman gets up at daybreak and drives the ducks down to the river. Seei ng her apparently working so hard, Lian feels a lillie asham ed of herself Gradually, however, she realizes someth ing is not q uite right. Ducks norm ally lay their eggs in their pens at fi rst light , but if they are driven out too early, they have to lay in the river Li an, feeling puzzled, gclS up early one day, hides in somc bushes o n the riverba nk, and d iscovers the farmer's secret: she sees her wading in, gWing completely soaked, to fish out the eggs fo r herself. Lian publicly accuses the woman of theft from the team and is backed up by the ot her commune members. The wom an has to give back the eggs and do a self-criticism. Lian earns the gratitude of the team . It is not hard to see s imilarilies between this SlOry and Septem ber's duck-herding activiti es, but there were several differences: September was o n his own, and th e story in volved two duck herders. Also, September'S ducks belonged to individual villagers, whil e lian's ducks (and their eggs) were th e property of the production team as a whole. Fin ally, September was selling his eggs to the Taos, whereas the woman in the story was selling hers in the market. Tao could not help pOinting out the pa rallels to his friends . The banished cadres chorused in o ne voice, "It's rooted in life, but it transcends life! Anyone with any education knew this creat ive princi ple, even those who merely painted, played music, were mechanics, o r worked H

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in an office (before the banishment) and had never written a short story. It was not enough to immerse oneself in life; one's stories had to be rooted in it yet transcend it-all with the ultimate goal of serving politics. And so the whole system was tightly meshed together, a seamless whole. A dog that winds up biting its own tail. In 1976 the Taos finally left Sanyu and moved to town. Not to Nanjing, of course, but to Hongze County Town. Tao got a job as a writer in the cultural center; Su Qun, in th e Hongze department of commerce. They moved into a nat in the compound of Hongze Foods, a subsidiary of the department of commerce. At the tim e of their banishment, there had been five of them; now there were only four. Grandpa Tao was buried in the Sanyu cemetery. The Taos discussed whether to dig up his urn and take it with them but decided it was best not to. It was possible young Tao wou ld have to return and st rike root there when he finished middl e school Even though he had published "lian the Duckherd" and had hopes of becoming a writer, he would still have to immerse himself in life--even more than before in fact. Leaving Grandpa behind, as Tao put ii, meanl keeping a base where young Tao could live~r ralher, il wo uld be more accurate 10 say, where he could be buried. In any case, Grandpa Tao (10 be precise, his urn) stayed behind. Gratifyingly, his grave was already ca rpeted in green grass. Before their departure, the Taos began to drive Blackie away from the house. This was quite easy now that the dog no longer had Grandpa Tao's protection. They invited September around and encouraged the two to make friends. Then they gave Blackie to the boy, the o nly conditions being that the dog should live o ut his days in Sanyu and Ihat September should not kill and eat him. Their household furniture was once again packed up, tied with Iwine, and carried by the production learn to Xiaodunkou. There it was loaded o nto a truck and driven 10 HOllgze County Town, a journey that look just over half an hour. The Taos made the same tri p uneventfully by bus Some time later, September took Blackie to visit them in Hongze Foods. Blackie wagged his tail but clearly did not recognize them. His friendlim.'Ss was just a means of self-prot ect ion in a st range environment. The Taos gave him some bones to cat and sprinkled anti-inflammatory powder on his mange. Then September, a basket on o ne arm, sct off for home, with Blackie limping along behind.

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The basket conta ined presents from the Taos-medicine and some old clothes, a thank-you for taking the trouble to feed Blackie. Young Tao wrote another story after "Lian the Duckherd ." It was aboUi a banished cadre family leaving th e production team to return to town . The neighbors wept copious tears at their departure, and their black dog chased their bus right down the highway. As young Tao wrote, "The dog shot after us and ran right into my story" Hand on heart, I swear that never happened. Young Tao just invent ed it, no doubt as a way of putting the "rooted in life, yet transcending life " principle into creat ive practice.

5 Before young Tao's "Lian the Duckherd" came out, Tao published his story about the fish farmers. Compari ng this with "Lian th e Duckherd," I cannot help but be struck by the sameness of th e structure of the two stories. even though the background and the characters differ. A devotedly loyal "poor and lower-middle" fisherman, convinced that "when people are cold , they put ajacket on; when fish are cold , they take refuge in the reeds," insists on planting water weeds so that th e coll ective can catch more fish. An upper-m iddle peasant of great cunn ing and selfish ness obstructs his work. Finally, with the support of the local party secretary, the weed planting is successfu l. The upper-middle peasant has failed miserably but at the same time has been educated by the experience, enabling her to be transformed by it. I shall attempt to draw parall els between the two stories below. The lian of "Lian th e Duckherd" "" th e poor and lower-middle fisherman of Tao's storyThe upper-middle peasant of "lian the Duckherd" =: the upper-middle fisherman of Tao's story. The ord inary commune members in "lia n the Duckherd" == the ordinary commune members in Tao's story. Each story revolvcs around particular events: in "Lian the Duckhen!," the ducks lay eggs; in Tao's story, the weeds are planted and the fish arc caught. The upshot is that the "positive characters" (lian in "Lian the Duckherd" and the poor a nd lower-middle fisher-

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man of Tao's story) are victorious. The "people in the mid dle» (t he upper-middle peasant in "Lian the Duckherd~ and the upper-mid(lIe fishe rman of Tao's story) necessa rily fail but are truly educated by the experi ence, and this enables them to be transform ed . O f course the out come described above would not be possible with "negative charac t ers . ~ It would be impossible for such cha racters to be transformed The logic of negative characters was: "Make trouble- fai l; make tro uble again- fail again, until we di e" So what kind of people were "negative characters~? They were o bvio usly innately negative-for instance, those whose class stat us had been ([dined as landl ords, rich peasants, and fishermen-tyrants. The "people in the middle" were upper-middle peasants o r fishe rmen, also so defined by their class status. It was not possible fo r these people not to be selfish, but it was also impossible for them nOlto be transformed after being educated by the truth a nd hel ped by ord inary commune members and party cad res. Of course this process was not straightfo rward and th ere were upsets, all of wh ich enabled the storylin e to evolve. Tao's story was the result of the months he had spent in the lakesid e comm une coll ecting material from a wide range of sou rces. His S\(try was about twenty thousand characters long, but his notcs and (1raft version totaled two hundred thousand cha racters. He kepI his draft and gave it to "that bright spa rk who dashes off his lines,~ young Tao. One reason he did so was that the constant praise of the lat ler's work had unaVOidably made him a bit frivolous. I a lso cannot rule ou t another reason : that Tao th ought very highly of this piece of wo rk. After all , it was the first story he had published after a ten-year hiatus. Leavi ng aside young Tao's frivolity and Tao's self-satisfaction, when I read thro ugh Tao Peiyis Collected Works, this sto ry leaves me feel ing sad, although I cann ot explain why And Tao's enormous satisfaction with the story just inte nsifies this sad ness. Tao's story was clearly very similar to "Lia n the Duckherd " and also very sim ilar to oth er stories of that period (young Tao's Chinese language course book had two stories of struggles with selfish and self-seeking middle peasants). The only difference was that it was wrillcn by Tao. I have said that Tao's stories read like the annals of the People'S Republic of Ch ina. He wrote about land reform , mut ual a id teams, village elections, the state grain monopoly, and the coopera tives.

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Nonetheless, each story was unique. Witho ut going so far as to write in set fo rm u lae, Tao did not forget for a single instant the creat ive principles of servi ng politics and immersing oneself in life. Did Tao's work fall in the trap of being formulaic? Was this indeed the only way fo r writers then? Of course obeying those creati ve principles and writing in formulae were not quite th e same thing. Following the princi ples meant that o ne fun ctio ned strictly within a circumscribed domain. whereas wri ting in fo rmulae led directly 10 results----absol utely hard and fast results. When the circumscribed domain became increasingl y con fined so that all room fo r maneuver was eliminated, writing in for mu lae was the o nly avenue left. So we can say that they amou nted to the sa me thing or that at least there was a slri ctlogical link between the two. In Tao's Collected Works, there was on e sto ry of a different kind (1 shall not nam e it, just as J have not nam ed others of his stories). I wou ld guess th at Tao was dru nk wh en he wrote it. so drunk that he fo rgo t him self and threw his principles to the winds. That sto ry had ~politi cs" but no ~se r vi ng " ·, ~ Iife" but no ~immersion"; and it was "rooted in life" without ~ tran sce nding life.~ He must have been intoxi cated either by win e or by the story he was writing. At any rate, I sensed his intoxi ca tio n, his happiness when he wrote it. ! cou ld even hear his cackles of laughter. like his story about the fi sh farmers, this sto ry was an exception . h won him no plaudits and was never once ment io ned by the literary cri ti cs. Even though it was includ ed in his posthumous Collected Works, it seemed an embarrassment, just slipped in as a ~s k e t ch" But it is just these stories, put in to pad the collecti on, that sadd en me. The fi s h farming SlOry saddens me because it shows that Tao had finally und erstood th e reality of his profession. He had woken up and was no longer troubled by the ambitions of h is youth. He now rightly defined writing as a way of putting food on the ta ble. So in my sadness, I am happy 100. At least it meant he had left suffering behind and was at peace with himself. I feel sad about the story th at echoes with his cackl es of laug hter because I feel in my heart that he had been born at the wrong time, had fo ught bravely but reached a dead end. And in my sad ness there is o nl y sadness, no happiness at all.

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Tao's other stories fell somewhere between these two , between formulaic writing and forgelling himself. Reading them, I can sec how he was driven and sustained by his principles, and I can spot touches of lightness, glimpsed in a word here or a line there, a cer· tain paragraph or a !Urn of phrase_ Tao's distinctive, cackling ~ha­ ha - ha-has ~ were reduced to a ~ha" and then faded OUI in a single cheep_ The second SlOry Tao wrote after he regain ed his right to write (about the scientist persecuted by the Gang of Four) had no laughter in it at all, only fury. In the third, about an innocent democrat who finally achievt.'S redress, Tao begins to laugh again, but it is not the unbulloned "ha-ha-ha ha-ha-ha!" and only ranks as a three-ha laugh. Just when I expected Tao to break out into unreserved laughter, in his next story, he fell silenl. A dead man can not laugh, no r can he be angry; st illl css can he write stories.

6 Tao often spent a month or two at one of the lake communes, in order to "immerse himself in life" When he came home , it was only for a break of a day 01 two and to collect fresh clothes, and then he was off again. But the Taos had moved back to town. Why would Tao want to go down to the communes again? The explanat ion lies in Tao's profession: he was a writer. He was certainly not going to the countryside to put down roots now. Besides, one could not strike root in the billowing expanses of Hongze Lake. The most o ne could do was pl ant a bit of pond weed to feed the fish So Tao got in a boat and drifted across th e lake, and its waters rang with his hearty laughter, echoing th e call of the wild ducks_ In summer the Taos ate out of doors as before_ The old bamboo bed base still served as their tabl e Now when they sat around the table, tall, lanky Grandpa Tao no longer sat bolt upright beside them, and they made more of an evenly sized group. (The bcd-table was so low that their chairs were higher than the table .) Behind them, they of course no longer had a traditional mud-brick cOllage bUI a real brick-and-lilc modern house. And Iheir new home was nOI their own bUI was part of the accommodalion block of Hongze

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Foods. They had a two-room fl at on the west side of the building, and at dinnertime , three o r four families would have small tables li ned up in front of their doors, so everyone could see exactly what everyone else was eating. The Taos still ate as well as th ey had in 5anyu. There were fewer vegetabl es, and they were no t as fresh (compared with the o nes th ey used to pull from their own garden). Gut they had meat in abundan ce, especi all y pork. After all, th ey were living at Hongze Foods. And unlike in 5anyu , th e Taos oft en ate game: wild duck and ot her waterfowl and sometim es even goose, all of which Tao brought back from the lake. He always arrived ca rryi ng a gunnysack, which he upended, shaking the wild fowl corpses onto th e grou nd . 5u Qun then boiled the water (ajobshe had inherited fro m Grandpa Tao), and you ng Tao, constantly reminded by his father to dean out the shotgun pellets, did the plucking. Young Tao had not kill ed these birds with hi s own hands; they had been shot, and th ere had been no tim e to drain th e blood from them . The resulting duck soup was th erefore as muddy looking as the waters of the lake they had come from, but it still tasted excellent. As they sat around the bamboo bed drinking duck soup, Tao would tell th em stories of life on th e lake and in the lake commune. The fishermen worked waist-deep in the water, quietly pushing a sm all boat through the reedy s hallows. A shotgun was mounted on th e prow of the boat (the villagers call ed it a "scalier gun "). This was not the sort of shotgun you could hold in yo ur hands, as it was too big and heavy-mo re like a small canno n, with th e power to match. One shot could kill large numbers of wild d ucks. Sometim es they used a fl otill a of small boats and fired salvos from different directio ns, thus bringing down a whole !lock. Tao talked about th e haidongqing, or peregrine falcon, that li ved o n the lake and that , although quite small , was feared even by other birds of prey. lIS plumage was a beautiful blue-gray colo r. Tao joked, "TaOlao's going 10 be like th e haidongqing\~ So in addition to General Yue Fei; the Marxist revolutio nary Fang Zhimin; and Uncle Hou, his fat her's best friend , young Tao had a new role model . On ly this o ne was a bird, one that yo ung Tao had not even seen, so it was going to be even harder to emulate. Tao told hisson,"1f you hear sha sha , then it must be a d rake; but if it's quack quack, then it's a duck. The call of the curlew is zhuyou

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And the yellow-legged button quail soundsjust likesomeone trying to play the emu very badly and making a hideous sound." It was the scenery of the lake th~t really elated Tao. Summer and winter were qui Ie different, he said 10 his son. With the autumn winds, th e walers were covered in fine rippl es and looked light green, like bamboo leaves. Hongze Lake turned kind and gentle then. The tasseled heads of the rushes st reamed in the breeze, and there was crab roe and lotus root 10 be had. Willows dropped their leaves on the muddy shore, the rushes bloomed, and among their stems you might come across a clutch of grayish-green mallard eggs. In summer, on the other hand , the waters were yel low and beat against the shores. The rushes and the willows were almost subm erged , with on ly their tips shOWing. High winds a nd waves kept the steamers and tugboats close to the shore. Tao turned to Su Qun and exclaimed, "You just ca n't imagine whal it's like being in a lillle boat The lake scenery is so beautiful, especi ally at dawn and when the sun goes down. One night I slept in the boal and woke up al dawn. I looked out. A soft night mist still covered the grassy banks. I heard a distant splash of oa rs. A fishing boat appeared on its way to empty th e fish traps. It glided past in almost complele silence, like in a dream Then the birds woke up and started twittering in the rushes." A description like this never appeared in Tao's stories and certai nl y not in his notes. It would have been lost forever had I not recorded it here. So did Tao make his frequent trips to the lake in o rder to help him write stor ies about the fish farmers and the struggle against the upper-middle fisher folk? Even Tao himself probably could nOI answer thai question. If thai was why he went, his tri ps were com pletely un necessary "Immersing himself in life~ was most likel y just an excuse for living on a fishing boat and enjoying the beautiful scenery. Tao's lyrical description of the lake made his wife and son long to go there. Tao promised faithfully to take them . But Su Qun was working, young Tao was at school, and it was never the right moment. Even had they found the time, they would have bee n unable to get away. Since their move to Hongze, Gran ny Tao had gone rapidly downhill and cou ld no longer look after herself. She lay in bc(1 all day, muttering away about things long pas\. Zhll)'OIl.

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"If on ly Dad were st ill a liv e,~ said Tao. He did not of cou rse mean that they would all have gone to live on a fishing boat; that woul(l have been like banishment all over again. But had Gra nd pa still been ali ve and well, he could have looked after Granny Tao, and Su Qun and young Tao could have gone with him to the lake. He just wanted th em to experien ce things they had never experienced before. Sadly hi s wish was never fulfilled.

7 Tao began to return to Hongze Foods more often. This was not because he fel t he knew enough about life at the lake com mune or was tired of the lake scenery but because he had fall en ill. His attacks of bronchitis had become mo re frequent, a nd there was littl e medicine to be had in the commune, so he ca me back to the cou nty town fo r treatment Now wh en Tao arrived, it was with out his gunnysack. He staggered into the house looking fri ghtfull y pale The cheerfu l chatter and laughter of fonner days was replaced by Tao's hacking cough. It penetrated next door and beyond and told the neighbors he was back. Once hOl11c, Tao wcnt to bcd and rarely got up. A salinc drip was poSit ioned by the bcd, with many hundreds of tho usands of units of penicillin running through it. His colo r would gradually improve, and his wheezing would subsid e. A day o r tWO of bed rcst, and he woul([ be off to the lake again. At firs t, Tao made his own way ho me from the lake. Later he needed people to come with him to suppo rt him . First it was o ne , the n two people, one on each sid e to hold him up. Tao would arrive home with his feet sca rcely touching the ground. Finally, he was brought home on a stretcher, with just two people, as before. They disembarked at th e quay and trotted straight home with him. Run ning was no tro uble since Tao by now weighed very lillle, but it was also an indication of the gravity of the situation . They were worried that he might di e o n the way. 11 was his fishermen fri ends who brought him . Strange to say, even though he seemed to be at death's door, a couple of bottles of peni cill in fro m the sa line drip resto red him immediately and even put him in beller spirits th an before his departure for the lake. o f

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course he needed a much higher dose of penicillin now, a million units aticast , to achieve the sa me results. Sometimes streptomycin was adde(lto the mixture. After all, doubling up on the a ntibiotics would surely only speed his recovery This drug regim en was prescribed by a doctor at the county hospi tal for Su Qun to admini ster. She was allowed to give Tao his IV drip at home. When th e penicillin dose had increased to eight million un its, Su Qun could not help but worry, but the doctor reassured her: "If th ere's a problem, I'm th e one responsible. Gut there won't be. Penicillin is a much-prized drug. Most peoplc j ust can't get hold of it !" The results proved the doctor right You could see Tao's checks becoming rosy aga in . He of course was o n the doctor's side. The way he described it , eight million units of IV pe nici llin felt as good as a cold drink on a hot su mmer's day. He asked for more . The doclor replied, "Nex t tim e You ca n have some more next time.~ As for penicillin being hard 10 get, the Taos knew a bit aboUl that. Wh en th ey had first arrived in Sanyu, the villagers were in supe rstitious awe of Ihe drug. Of course they did not waste it on themselves but kept il for their pigs. Th e word was that with a single jab an animal would be jumping around again. It was no exaggeration to say th at it could even bring a dead pig back to life . It looked as though Tao's fate was no different from that of the Sanyu pigs-a few milli o n uni ts of penicillin would bring him immediately back to life. At th e beginning, thc Taos had laughed at the ignorance of the locals, but now they were , if anythi ng, in even greater awe of the powers of penicillin . After all, it was Tao's lifeline. Tao was becoming terribly thi n. He now weighed only around nin ety pounds, alth ough you did not no ti ce it so much in his face, which had always been rather gaunt, with a prominent mouth, cheekbones, and nose and a large, bony forehead, rather skeletal in fa ct. His hair, whi ch he combed back, was still as black as eve r; his thick eyebrows were st ill linked by the same crease. Thc others we re so used to the way he looked that they saw nothing unusual in his appearance until suddenl y one day they noticed his s unken checks and dark eye sockets and we re ho rrifi ed. From a distance it was like looking at a sku ll. They could not hel p being rem inded of

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Tao's best friend, Hou Jimin, after his year in prison, with the difference that the laller had been deadly pale, whereas Tao's skin was now greenish-yellow. Tao had always been solidly buill At Sanyu he swam every day in the summer. He went out ba re-chested, with a towel slung over his shoulder, and you could quite clearly see his pectorals. His son, following behind, watched with envy as his calf muscles bulged with each step. His weight then was about 140 pounds. He was a short man, at only five feet, six inches, but stocky, with a body perfectly adapted to working the land. Now, possibly because he coughed so much, his figure was bowed. He clasped a large glass jar half full of water in his hands, an inch-decp layer of phlegm noating on top. He would open the jar after a bout of coughing, expectorate into it, and screw the lid back on again. The jar became as indispensable as his thermos mug had been, and he took it everywhere with him, even to the lake. Tao coughed and coughed Stooped and slight, clasping a jar that looked enormous by comparison, he wore a padded jacket even on a warm May day when everyone else was wearing only a sweater or shirl. The jacket concealed the frightful truth from his family When he finally removed it in summer, they were horrified. He could no longer go down to the canal to swim, towel slung ovcr one shoulder. He never even went swimming in the watery expanses of Hongze Lake. The change in him was dramatic, yet it had not happened overnight. The family had simply been slow to notice because they saw him every day. In the space of two or three years, Tao, middle-aged and sturdy, had turned prematurely into a frail old man. Yet the family accepted the change as normal and saw nothing remarkable in il. It was only when he came home after a long spell at the lake that they noticed the difference in him They were always very shaken when he was carried home, seemingly at death's door, but within a day or two grew used to even that. In any case, on those occasions, with the help of the penicillin, Tao recovered from the crisis. So they accepted that he suffered from bronchitis, which led to a difficulty in breathing but improved with treatment. Later Tao was diagnosed with emphysema, a logical outcome of bronchitis but nothing to be alarme(] at.

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I am not trying to say that the family paid no allenlion to Tao's symptoms----quite the contrary. In fact, they paid too much allention to some of them, to the point of neglecling the changes in his appearance and his increasing frailty. They concentrated all their efforts on gelling the right medicine to treat his cough and ignored his dramatic weight loss (he was now fifty pounds lighter than before). Su Qun and young Tao believed that Tao caught chills because of the hard life and rough weather that he endured at the lake. As he grew sicker, their desire to go there lessened and was even repl aced by a degree of trepidation. Because Tao left home each time hale and hearty and returned at death's door, they could not avoi d making the connection between Tao's life at the lake and his illness. But it was pract ically impossible to dissuade him from going. The on ly reason he came back for treatment was so that he could get well enough to return-and begin his sufferings all over again . It was hard for them to understand What was there at the lake after all? Apart from the waterfowl and the sunrises, there was nothing but a few decaying old fishing boats and end less, lonely expanses of water

8 Although stooped and hollow-checked, Tao showed no other signs of aging. His skin had no liver spots, and there were no bags under his eyes. He had not a Single gray hair, and though he was thinning on top, he was definitely not bald. His teeth were still good, though they were blackened from continual smoking. When he smiled, it was with a fearsome grimace True, he was nothing but skin and bones, but even in the old days when he had been plumper, th ere had never been any sign of a beer belly or dewlaps or other supernuous nesh. He was not old; he was sick. He was only forty-six, but when he walked around Hongze County Town, people respectfully greeted him as ~Grandpa . ~ One could hardly blame them for that: as far as death was concerned, being sick and being old amounted to much the same thing. Imagine Tao as he might have been were he still alive today: no teeth of his own (but most likely filled with a clean white set of (!cntures); grizzled beard and eyebrows; rosy-checked, with a few

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lucky liver spots scallered over his pink complexion; kindly looking pouches under the eyes; an authoritative paunch . No, it is quite impossible to conjure up such an image. Tao persisted in remaining skeletally thin, just as he persisted in "immersing himself in life," until he died. One wonders why he put himself through it. His weight fell to eighty pounds, and he did not lose any more. He was also coughing less His family believed that this was the penicillin working. Gut now $u Qun had begun to restrict his trips to the lake. This caused frequent quarrels, and when you consider how the two of them had spent so many years together with scarcely a cross word, these were quite out of character. Each time he got ready to go, Su Qun would stand in the doorway, blocking his exit. In his enfeebled state, he was unable to push her out of the way, especially as young Tao stood at his mother's side, lending his support Tao would shout furiously, which would bring on filS of violent coughing: "You have no right to put me under house arrest!" and ''I'll go to the lake and not come back again!" This last made $u Qun even more determined not to let him go. Tao's cough was earth-shattering. The effort of bringing up a gob of phlegm tullled his face the color of a pig's liver and almost choked him. When he had such coughing fits, there was no need for $u Qun to stand in his way: he did not have the strength to leave. Afterward, when his labored breathing had calmed a bit, he woul([ apologize: he had a feeli ng that he did not have much time left; he had some things he stil l wanted to write; he was anxious. His words brought tears to $u Qun's eyes. Sometimes she bumped into his colleagues from the cultuml center or banished cadre frien ds (who had now largely moved to Hongze County Town) When they asked after Tao, she always said, "Please, try and talk to him! He's so changed" By this she meant not physical changes but his disposition, and here there had indeed been enormous changes. He swore at his wife for stopping him from going to the lake, swore at his son for dashing off his articles, and swore at the people who ran the cultural center fo r their ignorance. He swore at the doctor for not upping the doses of penicillin. He cursed the Gang of Four because it had persecuted Premier Zhou Enlai and Deng Xiaoping. Rumors about the Gang of Four had spread through the

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county town , but no one dared talk about it publidy---cxcept fo r Tao, who named names and cursed them all roundly. This was anot her cause of dissension between husband and wife. One day thcy had a visitor. Thc dcputy cditor of Xinhua, which had published young Tao's first story, "Lian the Duckherd," was passing thro ugh Hongzc and made a point of coming to see Tao. This man had had smallpox as a child , and his face still borc some faint pockmarks. Tao read his ncwspapcr every day, and it always put him in a bad mood. It was "too lcft-wing, compared to what thc public nowadays felt!" As the edi to r approachcd his bedside and bent down with a concerned look, Tao was inspired to new heigh ts of abuse: "You r newspaper's as bad as the pockmarks o n yo ur face!n His fr iend nushed deep red, which had the unfortunate effect of emphasizing the whitish scars. So Tao's friends, who had shown him kindness, who had hel ped and cared about him , also camc in for abuse When thc weathcr got wanner, Tao could go out for a s troll. Sometim cs he s topped by th e vegetable market and bought garlic sprouts o r o th er greens, but this alm ost always ended in angry exchanges, wi th Tao accusing the peasant of shorting him a nd cheating ordinary customers. With luck Su Qun or young Tao would arrive in tim e to soothe ruffled feathers and thus save Tao from being beaten up. By this time, th ey were keep ing an eye o n him, not to stop him from going to the lake, but to prevent him from gelling into tro uble. He was too frail to take a blow and needed his family's protec tion. (Wi th regard to th e lake, he had finall y admi lled defea t, vanquished not of course by his wife but by his own healt h. After just a walk around the streets he arrived home panting and exhausted . A trip out on th e rolling waves of Hongze Lake was o ut of thc qucstion.) So Tao swo rc at people he did not know, just ordi nary people in the stree t. Despite his physical weakness, Tao's energy seem ed inexhaustible, and it found its ch ief ou tlet in outbursts of tem per. He may havc weighed only eighty pounds, but he showed no trace of weariness. If anything, he seemed more excitable than ever. When not confined to bed by his illness, he spe nt his time roami ng the streets of this sm all town, st icking his nose into everyth ing a nd looking for an excuse to have a good rant Behind him, Su Qun o r young Tao

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followed stealthily. Tao announced himself with a hacking cough so that people could warn each ot her that "Gra ndpa Tao's here! n and make thei r getaway.

9 In 1977 university entrance examinations were resumed Young Tao graduated in the arts from Hongze Middl e School in that year. He and a girl (also from a banished cad re family) were the only o nes who passed the exams. The "physical" took place in a primary school. Young Tao jOined a group of s tubble-chinned older men in a class room set aside for the examin atio n. Apart from being nea rSighted, he was perfectly health y and , with his gl asses on, his vision was satisfactory. He passed without any problems. When th ey were to be weighed and measured, they were told to remove every stitch of clothing and lin e up. A white-coated doctor had them march down th e room, "One, two, one, two!" They were drilled to hah , stand at ease, turn left, turn right , and aboutface, eyes right and number off Then a doctor came over to eaeh of them and with icy fingers gave their balls a squeeze or two. Then he went behind them, parted their bUllOCks, and had a good look. As each was examined, the eyes of all the others were drawn to watch. Young Tao was mortified to discover that all the others had a proper "fi reman's helm et,H with an abundance of black hair down there. He felt thoroughly embarrassed by the spa rseness of his pubic hair. The age differences among the candid ates were not surpris ing; it was the fi rst uni versity enrollmen t since before the CultRev, and people had been hanging around waiting for many years . Candidates in cluded urblings from th e countryside and those who had returned home, primary school teachers, and even teachers from Hongze Middle School, where }'oung Tao was studying. Generall y teachers refused to use the same toi let as students, a nd yet here they all were , stripped naked in front of each ot her. The sexually mature men were as embarrassed as you ng Tao. They were at least ten years older than he was. Then young Tao thought about the girl in his class . Did she have to strip for her phYSical too? He was unable to verify this wit h his o wn eyes si nce males and fema les were exa mined separately. Later

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he heard that the doctor had felt the girl's belly with the heel of her hand, put away the stethoscope, and said, "Call your mother here. n To the mother she sai d, "Your daughter is pregnant. n Being pregnant meanl, of course, Ihal Ihe gi rl could nOI go 10 universily. So young Tao was Ihe o nly one of his class 10 go. Lei me pass o n some gossip aboul Ihe girl studen\. Her family, like Ihe Taos, had been se nl down 10 Wangji commu ne , 10 a differenl production brigade. They kepi th emselves 10 Ihemselves and had no soci al contaCI wilh th e Taos or oth er banished cadre fam i ~ lies. The girl's parenls were divorced, and they were se nt to differen t brigades. The girl went with her mother. The parents had probably (livorce([ for the sake of their daughter's future s ince her father had bee n condemned as a rightisl. In fact, the divorce appeared to be in nam e o nl y. In secret the couple saw a lot of each other. Otherwise, they would not have chosen neighbo ring brigades. So they were still a family of Ihree, albeit a rath er strange one. One day Ihe girl was playing with th e three sons of the production brigade leade r (aged eight een, fifteen, a nd thirteen) at the entrance 10 Ihe village The girl was eleven, the sa me age as young Tao. Th ere was a squabbl e, and the girl said , "If you don't stop, I'll tell about those dirty Ihings you didl n A young woman, one of the urblings sen t to the village, happened to be passing by and overheard . The girl's words struck her as odd, and she squatted (lown and asked what "dirty things" she was talking abo ut. They sat under the poplars and willows on the banks of the st rea m, and the young woman fin all y coaxed the girl into telling her that the boys had "slept with her. The urbling was well aware of th e gravity of what she was hearing and hurried off 10 Iell the child 's mother The upshot was that the eldesl son got a jail se nlence, while th e o ther two escaped punishment because Ih ey were younge r. Th e production brigade leader remained in his post, so mOlher and daughter had to move away. Eventuall y, afler some difficu1t}~ th ey got themselves transferred to Ho ngze County Town. The girllransferred to Hongze Primary and thence to the Middle School, to you ng Tao's class . [t was com mon knowledge in Wangji Market what had happened to her, especially among the banished cadres and urblings, but no o ne knew in the cou nt y town except Tao and Su Qun, who kept quiet. Onl y when the girl had the physical and was found to be pregnant did Su H

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Qun tell her son the story. Tao responded with a stream of curses when he heard the news, o f course this could not have been the baby of the productio n brigade leader's son. The dates were wrong All that had happened four o r five years before. But if the girl had not suffered that experience, she might not have been sed uced so easily in Hongze. Tao was right to be furious The culprit turned OUi to he the physics teacher. Just before the university entrance exams, there had been an earthquake scare in China. The school set up an earthquake warning group, headed by the physics teacher. The girl was part of the group, and in a phys ics lab overflowing with bottles and jars (the "instruments ~ for measuring earthquakes) the pair frequently had sex. The waters of Ho ngze Lake, the dyh-s, and the ferliJ.::: fields around the lake remained unruffled . Mother Earth stood firm, and there was no earthquake. In the physics building, however, there were frequent small shocks that regularly shook the upended bOllles onto the floor. The physics teacher got a prison sentence , while the girl went to the county hospital for an abortion. The news quickly spread through the town and included what had happened in Wangji Market. Mother and daughter coul d not move \Q the county town this time since they were already there. Their only refuge was Nanjing, but it would be extremely difficult to get there. Tao now had a new object for his wrath . He cursed the production brigade leader's so n, cursc<j the physics teacher, and cursed the earthquake. Yet generally speaking, Tao was much calmer these days. It would not be exaggerating to say that he was happy. After all, his son had obtained a place at university, so he no longer needed to strike root in Sanyu or even stay in this wretched county town

10 For his son to get a place at university exceeded Tao's every expectation. They could forget all the different possibilities they had envisaged for young Tao's future, He would not need to drive a tractor or become a barefoot doctor, still less settle down with a Sanyu girl and work the land . He did not even have to follow in his fathe r's footsteps as a writer and produce more tales of "Lian the Duckherd." A university place meant that he would be regis-

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tered as a city resi dent and become a cad re after he graduated. Tao could not in his wildest drea ms ha ve imagined such a happy o utcome. Urblings had had to endure many yea rs in the countrys id e before they could appl y to university, and now many of them had not made the grade. It seemed too much good luck that young Tao had arrived at that exalted position in one easy s tep. Tao s till could not quite bel ieve it, so he put his son's success down to his being in the right place at th e right tim e and maintained it had nothi ng to do with his hard wo rk. He broke out in a sweat of anxiety when he thought what "plain sai ling" it had been. When he and Su Qun were young, it had also been, as Su Q un was fond of saying, "such plain sa iling! ~ Not so in later years. There were now moves afoot to allow the banished cad res and thcir families to return to Nanjing. Tao, as a well-known writer, could hope to go in the first group. He hesitated , discussed it at length with Su Q un , and decided to stay put. What if their son had a problem at university? Then he would have someplace to corne back to. He would not have to rely on a map, as they had when they had come here. So it seemed th ey had to contin ue Striking Root; only th e result would nOI be young Tao's senling down in Sanyu, but Tao and Su Qun growing old in Hongze Going home was possible o nl y when there was a home to go to. Home was where your roots were. Su Qun and Tao would be those roots for young Tao, wou ld pl unge them deeply into th e ea rth , so that one day, when thcir son was old and gray-haired, he could ret urn home . BeSides, Grandpa Tao's ashes were slill in Sanyu, and this was an other reason for them to stay. The old man was the root that bound his son and daughter-in-law here , and they in turn would be young Tao's roots. They would provide him with deep roots in a real '" native place,~ winding through Hongze County Town, Wangji Markel, and Sanyu vi llage, and including ancestral graves, graveSlo nes, an d their house as proof. PUl ting his thoughts in o rder gave Tao immediate peace of mind, and hc cven found breathing easier. He insisted that he would accompany you ng Tao for the first part of his journey to univers ity, in spite of Su Qun's efforts to dissuade him . And so father a nd son boarded the lo ng-distance bus to Nanjing. There was one bus daily, which left from the Hongze bus sta tion. 11 was tightly packed with travelers going to Nanjing, a nd young

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Tao and his father had to stand. This was the first time since Tao's illness that he had been in such a crowded space, and young Tao could not help worrying. Sure enough, no sooner had they set orf than his father picked a fight with a fellow passenger. A white-haired old man was standing next to him, while in front a sturdy youth occupied a seal. Tao tried to persuade the youth to give up his seat, and when the }'outh turned a deaf ear, Tao started swearing at him, coughing away at the same time. This resulted, perhaps not completely accidentally, in the young man's face and hair being sprayed with drops of spillie. He leapt up. not to give up his scat but to hit Tao. The Jailer shouted, "Don't you dare! n If the lad had intended at first simply to scare Tao, this decided him . He grabbed Tao by the collar and almost lifted him off the ground . The young man was more than six feet tall. Tao had always been short and now weighed around eight)' pounds. Pinned against his opponelll's chest, he struggled and cursed. It was a farcical scene. His son pushed past the other passengers and arrived at his father's side, but even though he was young and healthy, he was still no match for the other youth He gripped the young man's wrist in a desperate attempt to force it down enough so that Tao could put both feet on the floor of the bus. More than this he could not do. Fortunately in the general hubbub, it was Tao who gained the most sympathy and the young man who got the blame, so peace was restored. The white-haired old man was eventually seated in the young man's scat. It must be said, though, that apart from his white hair, he gave the impression of being extremely hale and hearty and considerably more robust than Tao. Young Tao was filled with indignation, not toward the youth, nor even toward the rosy·complexioned old gentleman, but toward his father. He found the whole scene utterly humiliating Tao, in high dudgeon, con tinued to mutter vituperatively to himself until the other passengers told him, "That's enough of thaI. He's keeping quiet now, so you should pipe down too. n And young Tao added, "Dad, can't you please shut up?n Tao duly lapsed into silence. A lillie while later, he turned to his son . The laller expected a lecture, but his father struck up a conversation in unexpectedly mild tones. Young Tao grunted in answer and gazed steadfastly out the window. Tao's demeanor became even

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more humble. He avoided any mention of the fight and restricted himself to small talk. His son's attitude did not change; he continued to strap-hang and to stare out the window. The broad expanse of Hongze Lake dwindled to a narrow strip, glinting as il receded inlO the distance and progressively concealed by the trees that lined the dyke The clumps of trees revealed the water in sudden nashes, and then even Ihese were extinguished and the lake disappeared completely behind luxuriant trees. Finally, even when there were no trees, il was nOI visible at all Their journey lasted about four hours. Tao, snubbed by his son, fell Silent, clamping his lips tightly together. The only sound to be heard above the drone of the bus engine was a whistling like that of the north wind coming through the brickwork. It was Tao breathing.

11 A cousin of the Taos awailed them at the bus station with a pedicab. Young Tao's bags were loaded on, and he peddled off to Nanjing train station . Father and son rode there on a bus_ They checked in the bags, and then the: cousin lOok them home in the pedicab for dinner. It was all arranged. Young Tao would leave Nanjing on the night train a little after ten o'clock for the long journey toJinan and his new univerSity. Tao would stay the night with their cousin and go home the next day to Hongze. The Tao cousins were full of enthusiasm at dinner. What a clever boy young Tao was, with such a brighl future The Tao fami ly was through the worSI now. Tao, in high spirits, drank two small cups of grain spirits and immedialely went bright red in the face, but at least hedid not gel into a fight with his cousin, to young Tao's great relief. The young man, worried sick that thai might happen, sat slOny-faced and silent As soon as it was eight o'clock, the family tactfully urged them to make a move. The bus stop was just opposite and Ihe journey 10 the train station took no more than twenty minutes, but Ihey were sure father and son must have a lot to say to each other before parting. Tao's cousin left them at the door, telling Tao, "When you're back from seeing Taotao off, we'll have another drink and really cele-

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brate his success." His wife added, "['11 leave dinner on the table until then ." The two descended into the street without a word from young Tao. They stood waiting at the bus s top Still young Tao refused to open his mouth. This was how he had been since they were on th e Hongze bus. It seemed hard to change just like that. He realized that this was a good way of keeping his father under con trol: since his refusal to talk, Tao had not on[y held his temper but had also become positively genial Standing in the shade of th e tree by the bus stop, Tao almost begged to be allowed to go with his son to the train station. Young Tao firmly resisted. In fact he refused to allow his father to wait with him any longer. "What's the point? This isn't the last time we'll sec each other!n Thus berated by his son, Tao obediently walked away. Leaving the shadows of the parasol trees, Tao walked back to the street lights of the main road. From behind, his frail stooped figure looked like that of a twelve-year-old boy. He made his way hesi tantl y across the main road, narrowly avoidinggening knocked down by a speeding truck As the glaring headlights passed, his sligh t figure could be seen again, making its slow way to the other side of th e s treet. Once there, he vanished under the trel"S. He di d not turn his head to look back. The bus came. Young Tao, holding a bag of fruit and bread rolls, pushed his way on beh ind the other passengers. Father and son never met again.

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THIRTEEN

Conclusion

, Shortly after you ng Tao's departure fo r un iversity, the remainder of the family (Tao, Su Qun, and Granny Tao) moved back \0 Nanjing. BUI had Tao nOI wan ted 10 strike root in Hongze? The decision, however, was no longer up \ 0 him. He was now ext remely feeb lc. $u Q u n fe ll that he wo uld gel better m edical treatment in Na njing, so in spit e o f his prOleslS she decided that they sho uld move. Tao was transferred from Hongze Hospital directly to Nanjing Provincial Hospital of Ch in ese Med ici nc. Su Qun and Granny Tao moved in with rdat ives for the time being. Immediately after Tao was admitted, the Nanjing docto rs diagnosed him with advanced liver cancer. Su Qun was the only o ne of the fami ly who knew. Granny Tao was completely gaga, and even if she had been tol d , she would not have understood . And Su Q un kept the bad news from her son. Instead, when she wrote to him, she told him the good news: they were now in Nanjing, and she and his fa ther had been given their old jobs back Best of all , Tao h ad been given back his part y membership. His father's health was still poor, and h e was being treated in the Hospital of Ch inese Medicine (th is she di d not hide from her son), but "it's a much better hospital than Hongze." Young Tao beli eved that his father had suffe red another attack of emphysema, and he had seen enough o f Ih is nOI 10 worry too much. With regard to Tao himself, Su Qun's li ps were even more lightl y scaled . She talked 10 relatives, friends, and se nio r colleagues who visited him in Ihe hospital, and Ihey all agreed Ihal for Ihe lim e bei ng he sh ou ld not be told. Accordingly, Su Qun was a model of ch ee rfuln ess at Tao's bedside. Perhaps sh e even overd id it. But her

m

spirits sank as she went home every day, and privately she shed many tears. The only person she could tell at home was her fatherin-law, Grandpa Tao. "Tell me what I should do," she begged him. "If Peiyi is really going to die, what should I dor Of course Grandpa Tao was unable to answer her, and for the same reason it was also not in his power to reveal the truth to his son. Right up until Tao died, $u Qun avoided talking about his liver cancer to her husband. In fact she never even mentioned the word. Tao believed he was suffering from another attack of emphysema. He (]ernanded that the doctors give him penicillin, but they flatly refused . He asked for it several limes, until a doctor said impatiently, ·'It's the penicillin that has damaged your health!" Tao asked again, but the doctor refused to say anymore. $u Qun and the doctor agreed to keep it a secret from the patient. The doctor called $u Qun into his office and asked exactly how long her husband had been injecting penicillin and how much. His reaction, on hearing about doses of eight million units, was, "Garbaric! Absolutely barbaric! That doctor was no better than a vet!" He explained to$u Qun that the function of the liver was to make blood and filter out toxins. Eighty percent of the body's toxins were expelled through the liver. An overuse of penicillin put too much of a strain on the liver, toxins built up, and pathological changes occurred. $u Qun remembered, and mentioned to the doctor, the two hundred sleeping pills Tao had swallowed ten years previously. "No wonder," he said, nodding. "That's like a two-pronged attack on his body. The cancer was almost inevitable ." One wonders whether Tao really remained in complete ignorance about his illness After he died, a book entitled Early Diagnosis and Treatment of Liver Cancer was found under his mattress. No one knows how it came into his hands or why, but the book tells its own story. He obviously hid it to keep his knowledge from anyone else, especially his wife. I have mentioned what a happy face $u Qun put on at his bedside, perhaps even too happy. Tao was the same: he was cheerful about his stay in the hospital, perhaps even too much so. Dejection usually overcame $u Qun after she left the hospital. Tao too, when left alone, was forced to reflect on his future. Gut when they were together, it was nothing but happiness and good cheer.

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2 There was much to be cheerful about. Tao's new stories received national critical acclaim He and his family were allocated a new house. Young Tao was making new friends at college_ In the country as a whole, things were looking up_ With the smashing of the Gang of Four, China was slowly gelling back onlO the righl track,

and normal business was being resumed. Large numbers of those who had been banished \0 the countryside had returned to the cities. Measures to compensate those who had been wronged during the CultRcv were being taken 311he nationallcvcl. Tao: "The only thing I ask is to live lhTce more years and do another three years' hard wor k !~

He was not juSt being provocative; to the despair of his listeners, he actually sounded vcry excited Perhaps this shows that although he knew something of his medical condition, he was trying to comfort his wHe. Three years meant a postponement of sentence. Finally they had a clear objective in life, a successor to Striking Roo!. Without further discussion, husband and wife reached a laclt understanding. Su Qun went around looking for doctors and gelling mediclne so that Tao could live three more years; Tao expounded on his three-year plan, the short stories and novels he would write, and his time in Sanyu and at the lake. His eloquence would have made the angels weep. He already seemed to have the stories in his belly. The only thing stopping him from pUlling pen to paper immediately was his need to bargain with the Almighty. Tao: Give me three more years. God: No. You can have another three months. Tao: Then I won't write another word, and rll take lhem up with me 10 show Marx. God: Have it your own way Tao: Alii ask is to livc threc more years and do another three years' hard work These words left the Almighty unmoved. BUlthey were a great encouragement to Su Qun and Tao's friends and colleagues. When Tao had led his family to sell1c in Sanyu, he had said, ~We're going

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to Hongze Lake to cat fish !" as if there were no fish to be had in Nanjing and they had to travel a hundred miles to Hongze to cat fish . It was not a serio us remark, yet the family repeated it as if it were a slogan and instantly felt th ei r courage redoubled. Similarl y Tao's friends repeated to one another, "He just wants another three years to do his work," and their eyes fill ed with tears. Right up until he died, Tao had a great way with words. Tao was now the center of atten tion. He had been moved into a room rese rved for high.ranki ng cadres a nd was attend ed by top consultants. There was a constant st rea m of important visitors fro m all the organ izat ions with which he was associated, and his s ickroom overnowed with nowers. Lellers from readers and comm issio ning editors rained down on his hospital bed like co nfelli. The Party Ce ntral Commillee was j ust then in the process of recom pensing Ch ina's intellect uals, and Tao was one of Jiangsu's most fam ous writers. As such, he was as rare a species as the giant panda, th e more so because he had not yet written any of the promised new books. Only o ne person kept his distance, and that was you ng Tao. Si nce he had gone away to uni versity in Shandong, he rarely wrote home. To begin with , he wIOte the odd lin e hut less frequently as tim e went by. Su Qun wrote every week with cheering news from home. In young Tao's rare replies, he mad e litlle errorlto inquire abou t his father. No doubt he was still angry about the fight on the bus. Tao was upset by his sons neglect. Each lime Su Qun arrived at the hospital, he asked, "Any lell ers from Taotaor Su Qun said no, but Tao did not give up until he had rin ed through every last one of the big pile of publi cati ons and letters that his wife had brought with her. Finall y he believed her,sighed, and was quiet for a couple of minutes. This sce ne was repeated every day, with Tao asking Su Qun, "A ny letters from Taotao?" Su Qun wrote many tim es to her son, asking him to write. She hinted that his father was concerned about him and that a leller from him would be a great comfort But she could not bring hersel f to say, "Your Dad's got advanced cancer of the liver. I'm afr aid he hasn't got long to live ." She cou ld not get Tao to write to his son eit her. Tao no longer wrote anything. Even the previously unin terrupted now of notes had come to a stop. Now instead he talked of

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writing. His conversat ion with his visitors was a constant st ream of storylines and plans. To Su Qun he just talked about yo ung Tao, abou t when he was a little boy, about what he would do in the future. Tao's view was Ihat "you can see the man in the child. " "That boy has always had staying power, a bil like me. But lets hope he won't have such a tough tim e as I did," he said . He had a good grasp o f his son's past and future, th ough he was a lillIe vague about his present. To sum up, Tao's urge to write gave way to talking. He lost in terest in national events and literary fortunes and fo cused all his feel ings on his son. But Tao could still not be persuaded to write to his son. Both kept a lid o n their feelings, and Su Qun, the go-between, even tually gave up. She knew that if he r son was told the whole tru th, he would return immediately, but she also knew that Tao would be livid , as it would mean an interruption of his son's st udies. If Su Qun did nOI tell young Tao, th en he would bla me he r later o n. The best time to lell him wo uld be when Tao was dying, when h e slipped into a coma. So Su Q un wa ited . She had evcn composed the lelegram in her head: Fath er gruvely ill; come immediately . Finally, the day appoinled by the Almighly arrivcd. In the small hOUlS, Su Qun was propped up against the wall of Tao's sickroom, asleep, when he sl ipped into a coma. It was half an ho ur before she awoke with a start and called the doctors. Ten minutes later the hospital's emergency resuscitation learn arrived, and she was se nt to wait outside. When they call ed her back in , they had stopped trying to resuscitate him , and the nurses were tidying up their equipment. Su Qun, poised to send a tel egram to you ng Tao as soon as his father entered his last ho urs, had gOI her liming wrong. It was not realisti c to go to the pOSI office while she was waiting outside Tao's sick room. The post o ffi ce was no t yet open, and the city's only Iwenty-four-hour lelegra ph o ffi ce was too far away. The earl y morning buses had nOI started 10 run, and walking there and back would take h er about two hou rs So il was inevitable that she would ge t it wrong. But now Tao was dead, and there was no hurry. She could take her time in se nding the telegram with its terrible news that Tao had passed away. It did not matter whether she walked there or took the bus. In the end she chose to walk. Sh e walked cast, toward the first glimmers of d awn, and sent her t elegram to you ng Tao from the

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telegraph office. It read as s he had planned: Father gravely ill; come immediately. Then she se nt telegrams to their famil y and friends. Th ey read: Peiyi dead.

3 Young Tao was called into the department office by his tuto r and given th e tel egram: Father gravely ill; come immediately. In th e afternoon he went to th e train station to buy his ticket. Shortly after eight o'clock he boarded th e night lrain for Nanjing. The trai n was very crowded, and young Tao, who had been tOO late to get a reservation, had to sta nd . In the space between the carriages, there we re comic books fo r rent , and if you rented a co mic, you gOt a free s tool to s it on. Young Tao sat down and read half a dozen . o f the passe ngers milling around him , he saw only a fo rest of legs and shoes of all types. He fo rced himsel f to focus on the comics. He had o th er books in his luggage, but com ics were the only thing he was capable of reading. It was still dark when he arrived in Nanjing. Young Tao made his way home to the address Su Qun had given him in her letter. This home was not a Sanyu mud -walled cottage or a modern brickand-til e building in the Hongze Foods compound; st ill less was it their ol d Nanjing home at 96 Hongwu Road. Ho me was now a place he had never been to. Added to that, he had been in the cou ntry for so many years that he had torgollen his way aro und Nanjing. It was dark, and there was no one about to ask fo r directions. Map in hand, you ng Tao went looking for home. Finally he entered a courtyard and stopped outsid e a single-storied house. He knocked at th e door, and an unfamiliar woman's voice called OUt , "wh o is it?" In some embarrassment he responded, "Could yo u tell me if th is is Tao Peiyis house?" No sooner had he asked the question than there was an o utburst of weeping from insi de. It gave you ng Tao goose pimples. He stepped into the pitch dark room and was immedi ately s urrou nded by the sou nd of women sobbing. Arms reached out fro m the bcd, seized him, and pulled him toward them . The wo men told him tearfully, "Taotao, your father's go n e!~

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The words made them cry even harder. There were three or four women in the bcd, and the twO who had seized him were his father's sisters, who had arrived in Nanjing before him . The house where the family was staying was tiny, and the women were crowded into one bed. The male relatives were still asleep in a room at a nearby hostel and did not yet know of young Tao's arrival. Su Qun and Granny Tao were also in the bed. SU Qun had not mad e a sound, but her mother-in-law was keening loudly, almost operatically A chamber pot stood beside the bed. and the stink of urine assailed young Tao's nostrils. After the clamor had subsided, Tao went out into the courtyard to allow his mother and aunts to gCl (Iressed. It was light by now, and in the brick parterres the cockscomb flowers had turned from black to the most brilliant of reds. Young Tao was sent to the nearby farmers' market to buy food, mainly meal. So many relatives were expected that it was quite a business to provide enough food. This was the responsibility of one of young Tao's uncles, from whom he was to take his orders. Now he headed for the butcher's, green plastic basket in hand. He bought three pounds of well-marbled pork As the man weighed it, Tao looked on fascinated The butcher wore a shiny leather apron. rrom the iron hooks behind him hung two halves of a pure white pig carcass, and his gleaming meat cleaver and the deep grooves that it had made in the chopping block were all so brigh t and fres h that young Tao seemed to see them for the first time. Young Tao made his way back through streets busy with people cycling to work, jingling their bicycle bells. The sun was up, the bicycle frames glillered in the sun, and the streets looked dazzling. Young Tao went into a public toilet, putting his basket full of meat on top of the wall. The urinal wall reached only to his chest, and as he urin ated, he looked out at the street He was in a relaxed mood: a morning like this in a city like this had long been denied him. The only thing that troubled him was that his father was dead. On this bright, bustling winter's morning, it was hard to take in.

4 After lunch, the uncle took youngTao to the hospital mortuary to pay his respects to his father. The rest of the family had already been.

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The uncle knew the area well and quickly found the place. A white-coated attendant opened the door to them, and young Tao followed his uncle in. They were in a large, empty room. The afternoon sun shone in through the open door, making a diamond shape o n the floor. Trolleys lined the walls, their occupants swathed in white sheets. The uncle knew straightaway which one was Tao and called young Tao over. They pushed the trolley over to the door so that they could sec better Although Tao was covered from head to toe, the shape of his body was still visible. The sheet was knotted over his head, and the uncle struggled for some lime to undo it. At last they cou ld see Tao's black hair. At the instant when the uncle pull ed the white sheet away, young Tao saw a nlament of spittl e drawn down with it from the corner of his father's mouth . [t sho ne in the sunlight like silk from a spider's web . Young Tao seemed to see his uncle's hand on the sheet pause fractionally in a movement so slight that the uncle himself was unaware of it. Perhaps it was just an illusion. And then th e sheet was 01T. Tao had weighed scarcely eighty pounds when he died and was now even smaller, almost like a baby His face was pinched, as if in great distress. His protruding mouth was open in a grimace, and spael'S betwecn his tceth weTI.' filled with black tarry deposits from his smoking. His head rested o n a pink pillowcase with paddling mandarin ducks embroidered on it. 11 was an old one, and the sunl ight showe([ up a layer of black grime that a head had rubbed into it. This could not have been Tao's head, si nce he could no longer move it. In fact, the pillowcase definitely did not come from the Taos. lis appearance here startled the sensitive young man Everything else was white: sheet, pillow, bcd, even the surrou nding walls. ~ We should bow to your father," said the uncle. Young Tao took two steps back until he was in line with his uncle. The latler straightened his clothes and bowed from the waist toward Tao's body Young Tao followed sui t. Once, twice, three times they bowed and straightened up again. After a moment, the uncle said: ~OK. n They went out, and the wh ite-coated attendant came back in. The uncle gave young Tao a cigarette, and the pair walked slowly away, smoking. A sound came from the mortuary behind them, probably the attendant pushing Tao's body back against the wall. Then there was a bang, and the mortuary door was shut.

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5 Young Tao s tayed at home for three days_ The funeral was on the third day, and immediately afterwa rd, he traveled through the nigh t back 10 th e university There is li llIe 10 say abo ut Tao's funeral except that it was ex·

trcmely grand . There were four or nvc hundred guests. The fune ral parlo r was ralher small, so on ly a few could fit inside, and the majo rity stood around in the courtyard. Loudspeakers broadcast funeral music, and there were piles of wreaths. There were speeches by the heads of all the organizati ons to which Tao had belonged. The eulogy was given by no less a personage than the head of the provi ncial government propaganda department, a Mr. Yu. Tao had known this man, who had achieved his position as a result of his revolutionary fervor during the Cult Rev Tao had despised him and refused to allow him to visit him in th e hospital. So Su Qu n a rgued with Tao's friends about allowing him to give the funeral eulogy_ Finall y Hou Jimin said , "We're no t doing this for Tao; it's for Taotao, for his future. If his father could know what we were dOing, I'm sure he would not be aga inst it. ~ And with this Su Qun let he rself be persuad ed . Begi nning with their banishment to Sanyu, Su Qun and Tao's ch ief concern had been young Tao's future prospccts. It was Su Q un's secret anxiety, her weak spot. Hou Jimin had to make the point only very gently for Su Qun to agree immediatel}'- Now that you ng Tao was at university, those "prospects~ seemed limitless_ The faCI that he was studying in Shan dong, far away a nd well outside Mr. Yu's jurisd icti on, d id not occur to Su Qun, for whom concern about yo ung Tao's prospects bad become a habit. So Mr. Yu, dressed in a dark woolen worsted Sun Vat-sen suit, walked to the microphone and, in a voice expressive of deep emotion, delivered the funeral eu logy His oration was accompanied by the freq uent dabbing of his eyes w ith a handkerchief. Inside the funeral parlor, the ceiling was hung wi th newly written valedictory scrolls of every size and style . Tao's scholar fri ends had se ized the opportun ity to display their writingskills, vying with each olh er to express their admiration, their sympath y, their loss, and th eir grief. Altacks o n social evi ls and digs at those in authority were mixed in too_Tao was a lucky man . All this glory was heaped

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on him because, as a novelist, he had for many years moved in cultured circles. After the funeral, the scrolls were bundled up and sent to Su Qun. She cleared out a large trunk, put them in, and turned the key, saying to young Tao, "These were written to honor your dad. Look after them carefully!" Coverage of the funeral ceremony also appeared in the nex t day's ed iti on of Xinhua In the months that followed, many tributes to Tao appeared in other newspapers and literary publications. He was described as a sword , a name, a plant in full bloom, a fallen fighte r. Most came from the pens of Tao's literary friends and were written in such glowing terms that they brought tears to the eyes of the reader. Su Qun cut each one out and pasted it into an album . Even young Tao, fa r away in Shandong, sometimes came across tributes to his father in local literary journals. Su Qun insisted that he cut them out and send them home. All in all , Tao's death brought him much honor. It was only then that people realized what an important man he had been and how difficult it would be to fill the gap he had left. It was not just the literary world, but Su Qun and young Tao too, who were struck by this realization. Even Tao, had the news reached him beyond th e grave, might have had to look at himself in a new light and would surely have been more than a little flattered.

6 By way of compensation, the Taos were soon given a new home. By th e time young Tao came home for the summer holi days, his mother and grandmother had moved out of their borrowed room. Once more young Tao had to find his way home with a map, arriving only after an hour of wandering around The family was now on the th ird fl oor of a new prefabricated building. The flat gleamed with white paint, and the smell of it hit him in as he went in . A brand-new Sony TV in an o range case sat on a chest of drawers th at they had brought from Sanyu. Some of the books and Tao's (!rafts and notes, confiscated during the CultRev, had now been returned. They had not been sorted and lay piled up on the floor in a corner.

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This was Tao's new home. The space that he actually occupied in it was limited to a small rectangle on the wall above the TV There hu ng the framed photograph displayed at the fu nera l ceremony and also used in Tao Peiyi:S Collected Works_ Tao's face in black and wh ite peered through th e glass, wearing a furti ve, even enigmatic, expression _ There was no place for Grandpa Tao in th eir new home_ Su Qun probably fe lt that there was no need since he was long dead_ In facI, he had died o nly three years before_ Sometim es one's feeling that something is long past is linked to where it happened . Sanyu seemed like a different world. That night young Tao dreamed that he went back to Sanyu . The place looked completely different, but the Taos' old house, with its mud walls and tiled roof, was just as before . The five of them were inside, each going about his or her own business. The bean-si zed flame of the oil lamp lit up the mailing that covered the rafters_ Afterward young Tao had the same dream a number of ti mes_ Each time he managed wi th great d ifficuity to get back to the vill age and to that fami liar house In the dream his father and grand father were still alive, looking exactly as they had when they had lived in Sanyu_ Time passed, and young Tao graduated, married, and had a child . But in the dream Tao and Grandpa Tao never grew older, and he was always a boy. Young Tao nevcr dreamed that they were dead, nor did he dream of his father as a frail old man. Even when young Tao himself was older than Tao had been when they were ban is hed to Sanyu, in his dream the latter wasslill in the prime of life, as hale and hearty as any peasant. His dreams were frozen in a particular moment of time_ The strange thing was that the Taos had spent less tha n six years in Sanyu, after which they had moved to Hongze County Town_ Then young Tao had gone to university in Shandong, returning to Nanjing d uring th e holidays_ On graduation he was given a job in yel another area, where he had now li ved for nearly twenty years. Six years was not an especially short time when compa red wi th tim e spe nt elsewhere, but nei ther was it particularly long. But you ng Tao never dreamed of the by now somewhat dilapidated block of fiats that was their home in Nanjing, nor did he dream of the brick-and-tile building in the compound of Hongze Foods, nor

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of96 Hongwu Road, where they had lived before being banished. In forty years, young Tao had been to and lived in many different places allover China. But in his dreams, he had only one home, and that was the mud -brick house designed and built by his fathe r in Sanyu. So he had some difficulty filling out forms with his personal details. He had been born in Nanjing and had been banished with his parents to Ho ngze County as a child; his grandfather had been born somewhere in Hunan . He had no particular mem o ries of Nanjing, as he had left at the age of nine. Although he returned frequently in later life , his visits were brief. He had passed thro ugh Hunan only o n business trips and had not stopped . Young Tao did not know where in Hunan his grandfather had come fro m, and he had never heard from any of their Hunan relativcs. Even his father had been back o nly o nce, as a refugee during the Anti-Japanese War. So in the "place of birth" box, young Tao truthfully put "Nanjing. ~ "Place of family o rigin " gave him more of a problem: sometimes he wrote Nanjing, sometimes Hunan, sometimes Hongze. Later he ad opted a compromise: "place of birth: Nanjing ~; "place of family oligin: Sanyu, Hunan " Of course thele was no such village as Sanyu in Hunan, at least not his Sanyu, but young Tao felt safe in the knowledge that no o ne would ever bother to look it up. So that was how he sellled the matter from then o n. You ca n go and check his records. "Sanyu, Hunan": was young Tao just playing with words? Was it a harmless joke as he reached middle age? Perhaps. Yet those uninvi ted dreams were very real Did they not hold the real meaning of Striking Root? Perhaps Striking Root did not mean living in a place, getting married, having a family, and establishing that place as your fami ly's ancestral residence (as Tao had put it) Nor did it mean being buried in a place, as had happened with Grandpa Tao. (Actually the latter's ashes had been removed from the Sanyu graveyard, transferred from thei r mulberry wood container to a marble o ne , and reinterred in a cemetery on the o utskirts of Nanjing.) The Sa nyu grave was now empty. But you ng Tao continued to dream of their mud-walled Sanyu cOllage.

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Young Tao would never go back there. Sanyu was no longer the refuge that Tao had made it. Times had changed mo re than Tao could pOSSibly have imagined . That world, with all its preoccupations fo r Tao, no longer existed Even their house, seemi ngly so solid with its concrete purlins, had fallen into ruin and been pulled down. In its place stood th e poured-concrete building of the Sanyu Leath er Factory The house, whi ch th e Taos had showed off to the vi llagers, appeared only in young Tao's dreams No one else remembered it.

7 Most of young Tao's memories of his father centered o n the tim e of their banishment and so were ad milledl y somewhat parti al. Those si x years in Sa nyu were of cou rse impo rtant fo r the son (they launched him on th e road to adult life), but for the father they presaged the end, his rush toward death Tao's li fe had begun in an earl ier era; his son was neve r witness to how hard he had worked or the fam e it had won him Young Tao, limited by the narrow confi nes of his own experi ence, had a fixed image of his father at a parti cular moment in tim e. He was. moved by his own feelings. and who was to blame him ? His memories, his dreams, were those of a son; that was the way he looked at things. O ther people looked at things in their own way. For example, there were four or five hundred guests at Tao's funeral, but no ne had come from Sanyu. The head of propaganda, in his add ress, had not said a word about Tao taking his famil y to the co untry In the nowery verbosity of the valedictory scrolls, there was not the slight est mention of th eir life in Sanyu And those memoirs and commemorati ve articles about this estimable and illustrious writer ignored Sanyu. So easil y were six long years of Striking Root erased. Tao had lain behind a row of plasti c sacred lilies, wearing a darkcolo re([ woolen worsted Sun Yat-sen suit (the same as the one the head of propaganda was wearing) and a cap of the same materi al, receiving the respectful bows of the guests. His face had bee n ligh tened with cream and the lines of suffering s moot hed oul. Bright lipstick had been applied to his lips and the tarry depOSits in the

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gaps between his teeth concea led. The result, altho ugh it elicited sighs and tears from the guests, was abhorrent to young Tao. Once a year young Tao went wilh his mother to the Nanjing cemetery to sweep his father's grave. Each tim e they were accom· pan ied by a friend o r by an official from one of the o rganizations to which Tao had belonged They laid nowers on his grave, adjusted th ei r clothing, stepped back one step, and made three bows. Sometim es they brought gardening tools and weeded around th e grave. Or they came with paint and brushes and outlined afresh the inscription o n the tombstone. Young Tao racked his brains in an effort to imagine how he would do these annual dulies in his own way, but it was on ly some years later, when Su Q un was not well enough to go herself, that it fell to him to perform this duty. Young Tao called a friend in Nanjing (his own friend, no t one of his parents'), and they cycled into th e sub urbs . The buslle of th e Qingmi ng festival , when graves were traditionally swept, was over, and the cemetery was alm ost deserted. Young Tao had prepared th e paper money to be burned for the dead, as well as the gardening tools and the paint, but th ey did not use any of them The grave was so choked with weeds that it too k young Tao and his friend some considerable timc to locatc it. Cut th e), made no attempt to dear away the concea ling undergrowth . Young Tao felt that he wou ld like it to be even more overgrown so that , id eall y, one day no one woul([ be able to find his father's grave at all. The inscription on the graves ton e had naked off, but young Tao did not retrace it. He would have liked to sec it even mo re discolored, until one day the characters were impossibl e to make oul. He and his fr ie nd also fai led to make th e customary three bows. Their way of comm emorati ng Tao was to sit on the gravestone, smoking and chatting about this or that fri end , just like a pair of travelers wh o happened to be passing by and were taki ng a resl. Young Tao's fri end asked, "Did your dad smo ke?~ "Yes." The friend lit a cigarette and put it on top of the concrete gravestone. There was a puff of wind , and the faint red at the tip of the cigarelle sudden ly grew and retreated up the cigarelle leaVi ng behind a head of white ash,just as if someone were smoki ng il. "Your dad sti ll likes his smokes!H sai d the friend And only when Tao had finished his cigarelle did they get up and walk down the hill.

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Excerpts from the Glossary in the Chinese Version of Banished!

Banis hment, Sometim es Glori ous Banis hm ent ft5Rr~ Describes a lop-down movement. The "lOp» was the city; the "down was the village. Banishment \ 0 city dwellers mean t their being reduced to the level of peasants o r even lower, a fa ll in social status that was deeply demoralizing. While the effect on the banished was largely psychological, there was also, for some H

cadres, a very real drop ill li ving standards that ultimately led to their deaths_

Barefoot Doc tors ~";~~1: Conj ures up images of someone with trouser legs rolled up, carrying a medicine ch est, and striding barefoot across the field s, handing Q UI medical treatm cn t to the peasants. In reality, the H

"profession of barefoot docto r in the cou ntryside was much sought after for k'Ss heroi c reasons . Although barefoot doctors werc given wo rk points like o ther peasanLS, they werc cither wholl y exempted from labor o r given a lillIe symbolic ligh t work, depending o n local ci rcumstances. This position was such a good deal that everyone wa nted to be appointed to the job. O f course, barefoot doctors had to have so me elementary first aid knowledge, but only a lillie When th ey were successful in c uri ng mino r ailmenLS, it made them very popular. More serious cases were selll to th e commune hosp ital , so it was no co ncern of the barefoot doctors whether th e patients lived or died. Communes, Producti on Brigades, a nd Producti on Teams i~U, 1\. ~,'ti'"

Where did the banished go? To a production team. Ovcr the team was the production brigade, and over that, the commune. The communes of those years were equ ivalent to a modcrn xi ang, I the brigades to a village, and the team to a Villagers' Small 10"" n and its surrounding countryside. ITruns.]

H I

group. The banished were of course sent to the most basic level, the production team The team had just two omcials: the head (for example , Mr. Yu in Banished!) and the deputy head . Th e brigade had a few more officials . It was led by the local Commu~ nist Party secretary; then carne the deputy secretary, followed by the head and deputy head of the brigade. There was also the militia commander, who was quite powerful. At the commune level, the head was the secretary of the Communist Party Com+ millee, followed by the deputy party secretary, the chair of th e Revolutionary Commillee (RevComm), and ot her officials. Th e Sanyu villagers always addressed these people by their titles: secretary, chairman, accou ntant, or officer. (Sometimes they addressed outsiders that way out of respect, even if they were none of tht.'Se things.) Banished cadrt.'S had as a mailer of principle been removed from their positions within the power structure and were sent to the production teams as ordinary commune members. Cultural Revoluti on, C ultRev! Jtf.t:k1p:-6tr The "Ten-Year CuhRev" was an extraordinary episode in the history of China, indeed of the world . It was a harsh yet fan tasti c period; there was much cruelty, yet it was also an inspi+ rational experience. There were moments of great rejOicing and great sorrow; freedom and despotism both reached new heigh ts. The young revolted, and at the same time the old went mad . It would be true to say that the CultRev had no precedent in history. Its complex origins, together with the confusion it created and the lack of reference materials that would allow for a pro per assessment, make it virtually impossible to explain the CultRev in the limited space available

516 1i- /\ One of the countless mass organizations that sprang up during the Cult Rev, 516--0r rather 5. 16--was named after the Com+ munist Party Central Committee directive ofMa)' 16 , but, shortly after its appearance it was condemned to the eighteenth level of hell as a counterrevolutionary plot. The movement did not l The word commonly tr.inslated as "cuiture/cuitur"l" [Jtftl needs ex planation Sin ce it has a broader mC""ning. encompassing additional nohons of "<;i,·iliz.ation/ civilized" and "education/educated." [Trans.]

Hl

Glossary

spread over the whole of China. In fact, because it was banned so soon after coming into bei ng, its influence was extremel y lim ited . But that did not stop the crackdown o n 516 from being both extremely harsh and widespread As a result, large numbers of people who may never even have heard of 516 were mercilessly attacked as "5 16 elements," making this crackdown o ne of the biggest injustices of the CultRev period. loyalt y Da nce ,m * ~ A group dance, common during th e Cult Rev, that expressed person al loyalty to Mao Zedong. The participants usually wore arm y uniforms, fastened with belts but without badges or caps, and held the Little Red Book in their hands. They were accompanied by drums and slogan shouting. The dance was performed at gather ings, on journeys, and on commemoration days. On any day when Chairman Mao's latest directive was issued, on every street and in every square, there had to be an e nth usiastic performance of the loyalty Dance to welcome it. At the beginning of th e CultRev, the loyalty Dance was practically the only dance permi tted . May 7 Cadre Schools 1i -t=f ~ Cadre Schools were Ilaill ed after Mao's May 7 Directive but, irrespective of the contents of the direct ive , they were s im ply farms where cadres were sent to live and do hard labor intended to toughen them up. Some of the May 7 Cadre Schools had originally been labor camps, and after the schools were abo lished , some of them had iron fences put up around them and were again turned into labor camps. Conditions were so harsh that the detainees (cadres, teachers, and other educated people from all over China) some tim es even suffered starvation. They also continued to be subjected to interrogations, st ruggle sessions, and o ther physical and mental torm ents while they were there. Morning In strucli on, Eve ning Re pOrLback ..!f! i'J.~:iR , ~i[* An act of worship to Mao Zedong and lin Siao. In practice, it took the following form: eve ryone gathered every day, before beginning work or study, and made three bows to Chairman Mao's portrait. Then someone would recite loudly, "We wish our great leader Chairman Mao ten thousand years of li fe without e nd !n And the others would repeat, "Ten thousand years of life without end!" Then someone would recite, "We wish Deputy

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Chairman Lin good health!" and the rest would answer, "Eternal health! Eternal health!~ Then all would open their Quotalions from Chairman Mao and together would recite a part of them Then each person would say what he or she was going to do that day or, for the evening reponback, say what he or she had done. On e Strike, T hree Antis - rr=.'& The One Strike, Three Antis campaign was short for "Strike down counterrevolutionary elements; oppose embezzlement, profiteering, and waste." Th is was just one of the CultRev's innumerable campaigns (noteworthy only in that it targeted criminal rather than political activity) . Yet 284,800 people were arrested as One Strike, Three Antis elements, and 9,000 of them were executed. Reeducatio n -Nflff If one's first education was through schools and book learning, then the second, reeducation, was achieved through the hardships of rural life. This second education necessarily began after the firsl. That is, only the already educated qualified for reeducation. Those doing the educating were not teachers and professors (these had turned into the ones being educated) but the poor peasants. More than 90 percent of these peasants had not received a first education, so reeducation was being given to the educated by those who had no education. Striki ng Root tLm A key concept in the novel. Trees and plants strike root, enabling them to survive. The term was used metaphorically during the CultRev period to refer to cadres banished from their jobs in towns and sent to the countryside. There they were to resettle with their families and produce new generations. What this meant in the Taos' case------or rather in young Tao's case- was that he should marry a Sanyu village girl, raise children, and spend the rest of his life laboring in the fields. Later on, Grandpa Tao died and was buried in the cemetery to the west of Sanyu village , thus becoming an '·old root.~ "Striking Root,~ therefore, can be seen to work in two directions: upward, putting out sturdy fruit (a string of chi ldren and grandchildren) and also thrusting vigorously downward, before turning to dust.

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Urbling l ~n1~ Urblings were middle-school students from urban areas who were sent to sell1e in the counlryside Some went singly, others in groups_ They were accommodated in either peasalll households or ~collective households," small groups of up to a dozen or so_ Like banished cadres, urblings lost their town residence status and were registered thencefonh as village residents_ They supponed themselves by working in the production brigades, but because they could count on the economic support of their fami lies back home , they did not live too badly. Their anxieties were largely about their futures since most did not want to spend the rest of their lives working on the land. Their sexual and emotional needs were directly related to their future prospects: falling in love and marrying a local youth efTectively desnoyed any hopes of ever returning to the city_ This dilemma caused most of them immense suffering, and the years of abstinence that it imposed is the key to unlocking the secrets of the urblings' lives_

J . I am indebted for thi S invented term to Rachel May and Zhu Zhi yu, the trans_ lat oTS of Yu Lllojin's A CI'itlc$~ Witl/ers utk All Au/ooiogn",hiC
Glossary

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Han Dong and the World of Chinese Literature

HA N DONG. born in 1961 in Nanjing, has been a

major player on the modern Chinese literary scene since the 19905. He is known primarily as one of China's most important avantgardc poets, one of the "Misty" group, and has for many years contributed to "unofficial" poclry journals, including Today and Them, which he edited. He is also an essayist, short story writer, and novelist. Banished! (entitled Striking ROOI in the original Chinese) is his firs t noveL

Much of contemporary Chinese literature reflects the hectic energy that powers post-reform China today, and it is by turns extra vagant , brutal, cynical, nihilist, and erotic, be it in its depictions of the liv(.'S of young city dwellers or the lives Oflhc peasants who still mal(e up the majority of China's populat ion. One bestsel li ng novelist was recently quoted as saying, "My stories may be extreme, but you can find all of th is in China. During the Cu ltural Revolution we lived in a closed society, and everything was c razy; everything was black and white, and if you were on the wrong But pursuing economic growth is also side, you were dead. crazy Every evil has come out. Chinese society has found emptiness. After people get money, they don't know what to do. ~l Han Dong's writing shares certain characteristics with that of his contemporaries who consciously renec! this social "craziness~ and "emptiness": there is the same rejection of socialist idealism and a focus on realistic detail (which permeates, for example, his descriptions of country life) and the same delight in the scatological.

I Yu Hua, quoted in Da,· id Barboza. "Ch ina's Hit Novel: Tremendous or Trash?" Iniemlllionul Herald Tribune. September J, 2006. Available o n hUp J/www iht.coml arhdesl2006lO9IOJ/newslyu.php?page: I , accessed <Xtober t6. 2007.

In other ways, however, he stands in contrast to them. Han Dong studied philosophy at Shandong University, and his continuing interest in philosophy and religion colors his writings (for example, in the Buddhist referenccs in the later pages of 8anished!). He has criticized the extremes to be found in some contemporary writing and says that he strivcs for balance, tranquility, and humor. Outwardly simple, direct, and transparent, his work is characterized by a delicate observation of the minutiae of ordinary human life and a measured narrative pace leading to carefully crafted, if sometimes enigmatic, conclusions. We see in his writing a desire to creatc meaning out of the chaos of life that is distinct from the writings of his contemporaries. Han Dong's reticent style does not always make for an easy read. The dispassionate style of the narrative in Banished! begs many qucstions, and he makes the reader work for the answers. Husband and wife are scarcely "heard" to say a private, let alone an emotional, word to each other, and thei r mutual rcspect and affeclion only gradually become evident in later pages. One could regard this as a child's-eye view of their banishment except that the story is told from several different points of view, including that of the adults, Tao and Su Qun. Nor is the realism of his descriptions of country and family life quite as straightforward as it seems. Elements of the surreal are introduced especia ll y, in this novel, in the ~comme n ­ taryn of the nameless narrator, who, among other things, speculates on the concepts of fate and impermanence (the Buddhist anitya) and the way in which language (of the CultRe\') shapcs the world (of the CuhRev). Han Dong's fiction also has a warmth and gentleness absent in the work of many of his contemporaries I n Banished!, for example, there are descriptions of nature where the serene s tillness (of the lake) is contrasted implicitly with the mad world of the CultRev. Thcse pages of the novel echo a tranquility to be found in Han Dong's poetry too--for example, the following poem: Thc Softcr Part I havc led a lonely countrf life lt formed the softer part of my character Whcncvcr a mood of weariness descends on me

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Ha n Dong a nd th e World or Chinese wte mture

There comes a liberating breeze At least I am not so ignorant I know where our food comes from Sec how I endured the days of poverty to the end But could still find happiness in them And the habit of going out early and returning late In reverting to it I am still as deft as with the hoc Its just that I can no longer harvest anything Can no longer rehearse each of those trivial aClions Here I am always haunted by a genuine anguish Just like a peasant who weeps bitterly for his crops.l Throughout his writing career, Han Dong has posilioned h imself in the literary opposition camp and has fiercely maintained his independence. Political contro l over Chinese writers was tight from 1949 up until the 1980s, and some degree of pressure is still exerted today. Mao Zedong famously pronounced in his 1942 Yan'an Talks that a rt and literature should "serve the people- that is, be an expression of lhe ruling ideology. This policy remained in force throughout the 1950s and 1960s, and the stifling impact that it had on writers like Tao is vividly depicted in Banished! China's writing and publishing world has been transformed since the 1980s, as the market becomes an increasingly important force in determining what and how writers write. Creallve writers are no longer required to uphold the "party line." However, political pressures still remain, a nd the relationship between the authorities and Han Dong and fell ow independent writers is com plex. Han has made his opposition to party control of writing plain: he has refused to join the China Writers' Association, and in 1998 he was one of the leaders of the Ruplure survey project, which gathered opinions from Chinese writers on the current state of their art. The results, published in book form in 2000, give a resounding thumbs-down to "institutionalized" literature . Some of Han's poClry has fallen foul of the authorities: the journal Them, which he l

Reprinted wi1h kind permission from Na ikan Tao and Tony Prince. Eig/II COIII"",-

pomry Chinese Poels {llonolulu: University of llawai·i Press. lOOn .

llan Do ng and the Wo rld of Chin ese Literature

H9

edited, was closed down twice, O n the other hand, Banished! won a prest igious national prize, th e 2003 Chinese Novelist Prize, th e award of which implies at least a degree of offi cia l acceptan ce. Speaking recen tly at a conference in Paris, Han described th e posilion o f writers in China as completel y different from thaI of wrilers in the West He mailllains that the dominant polilical ideology is always, and unavo idably,:it factor shaping artistic expression. This is true wh ether auth ors consciously wrile what the government would like them to write, consciously write what they know the government will not like (haVing o ne's book banned increases sales both internall y and overseas), o r sim ply ai m for success in th e mass market. And the market itself, while liberating writers from rigid id eologi ca l constrain ts, has been criticized as a double-e(lged sword, a corr upting influence on artistic standards, by writers and criti cs alike. In whi ch direction will contemporary writing develop in a society wh ere past literary traditi ons a rc no longer relevant and (almost) anything is possible? Th ere are no easy answers. Han again: "We all deeply feel that we have no trad ition to fall back on: the great Chinese literary or wrillen tradition seems valid no longer. We have become o rphans in the literary tradilion.~ )

J , Q uoted (i n 1ransla1ion) in De~crtHi Q>I$? The PO;;!ics of Ha" DOllS a"d Y"Jia11. Pa ri ","'0. by Maghicl van Crewl, Lcidcn Uniwrsity: available on hllp:/lwww.isp,msn.edu/ sludiesonasials3 _v 2_n1l3~~VanCreveUJ .pdf.

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Han Dong and the World or Chinese wte mlure

About the Translator

NICKY HARM/\ N is becoming increasingly well

known as a translator of Chinese fiction and other literature . Her

publications include a previous novel (K- The Art of Love by Hong Ying, 2002), a work of non -fiClion (China along the Yellow River by Cao Jinqing, 2004), and an oral history (China Witness by Xinran, 2008). Harman lectures at Imperial College London on translation

technology and Chinese-English translatiOIl. In 2006 she was a visiting fellow

al

the Research Centre for Translation at Chinese

University Hong Kong

Proo uClion Notes for HIli! I B