Book Analysis of the Death of Woman Wang - Essay Example

 What goes around comes around The death of Woman Wang published by Jonathan D. Spence gives a picture on how the ancient people from a small County in Northern China lived in the 1670z. Wang was a student at the imperial academy. He came from a wealth family. Individuals with untrustworthy behaviors gathered at Wang’s home. For the poor, Wang use to send brigands to kill them whenever they protest. His son was a replica of him because of his licentious and cruel behaviors. The Ts’ui and Li; Wang’s friend had an illicit relationship with a widowed aunt to Wang’s1. When Wang’s wife tried to stop him from doing heinous activities, the husband strangled her to death. The brother to the woman went to court to lodge a complaint but Wang managed to bribe the judge. In turn, Ch’iu’s brother was charged of lodged a false case. In search for help, Ch’iu’s brothers went to Li but turned them down. Later, Wang and Li differed over treatment of Ts’ui to Li, which made them to part ways days after Li had down Ch’ius’s brothers to help them in a court saga. A few days afterwards, Li made an accusation against Ts’ui, charging him of not rewarding him after three years of hard work. In return, Ts’ui went was unhappy with his move and went personally to confront. During court proceedings, Li became more and more emotions hence jeopardizing with his case. The magistrate was not convinced ordering Li to be beaten and dismissed. Li in revenge broke into Wang’s home during the night and murdered Wang’s father, son and aunt in a cold blood and pinned a paper of his name at the door afterwards he disappeared never to be seen. On realizing this, Wang’s family members accused Ts’ui of being behind the murder of their family members where the magistrate failed to agree with their accusation. It was after some time that Ts’ui realized that it was Li was had framed him into the killing cases. Li’s wants of arrest was issued within and outside the county. During this period, Li Tzu-ch’eng rebellion was raging thus the issue was forgotten. When the Ming dynasty was overthrown, Li Shen came home together with his family and his friendship with Ts’ui started once again. Wang‘s family suffered a great blow after robbers sprang all-over the place. Wang’s nephew by the name Wang Te-jen grouped people who were with his uncle and went to the mountains to train as thieves robbing villages around the area2. In another case, a wife mistreated her mother-in-law by leaving to die of hunger. The son of the old woman use to feed her in secret so that her wife will not notice him. It was after some days that the wife noticed. In addition, she yelled to her loudest. Ts’ui took a bold step to to climb the wall of the house, chopped the nose and ears, and left her dead. The small village in the ancient china was full of cruel acts. The poor went through hell. The county was termed man-eating society. Those who appeared to be for change were murdered in cold-blood. T’an-ch’eng was struck by earthquake on July 25, 1668. This was the beginning of misery in the county. Towns were destroyed, irrigated firms were flooded and many people suffered. For instance, Li Hsien-yu managed to survive after he was swept by flood. He was lucky as he hold on to the edge of the fissures. Other families lost their property including houses which the witnessed sinking underneath. Another person who suffered from the earthquake was Kao Te-mou. Kao was living with his twenty-nine family members; shockingly he was left with only a son and a daughter while the rest perished. Destruction stopped as soon as earthquake subsided. The people that were affected through an analysis of Wang K’-ts’an who later compiled a local history of T an-ch’eng, whom they thought that nature had followed them to throw stones at them despite the fact that they had already fallen into the well. In analyzing the local power manifested in T’ an-ch’eng county, we begin with Wang who had lived in T’ an-ch’eng as a for many years indicated that life was quite unfair to him. It was in 1668 that Wang was posted into the county to work as a magistrate but was later dismissed after being in probation for two years with reason that he did not have the require qualifications to be a magistrate especially when handling finances. Additionally, the way he handled the horses of the imperial proved incompetent. He felt ashamed of himself and went to his hometown with deep poverty in hide from his friends. Wang managed to secure himself a writing job because of what he attained earlier as the only one with the highest degree in literacy in the entire county. In his efforts to improve his like, Wang caught a teaching job and worked as a chief editor. After a couple of years, he moved out to look for greener pasture only to meet with more problems3. No sooner had he arrived at Fukien than the Rebellion of the Three Feudatories begun. Wang was ordered to be among the many literati and former officials to take bureaucratic office together with the rebel forces. He did not accept the demand. Earlier in his youthful stage, Wang refused to read any of his favorite poets such as those of Pi Lo. As a result, Wang run on to the Fukien Mountains on a retreat the weather was not favorable to him thus killing him. When he was a magistrate, Wang had brought into the open social sections which were kept as secret, he had also sympathized with the levels of poverty that is people were facing, the local gentry’s inability to help solve problems revolving the area among other miseries. He regularly went into the county in his efforts to change the lifestyle of the people living in the area but all went futile. The statistics of the earthquake fascinated Wang even more thus visiting regularly. In his findings, the population of people in the county had dropped to quarter of the total population of fifty years earlier (200,000 to 60,000 people). Moreover, cultivated land was also reduced from 3.75 million acres to 1.5 million acres. The worst even occurred as soon as he took office as a magistrate in 1668. The number of townships was reduced to 45 yet in other counties as I-chou had 108. The numbers of people who die in I-choiu because of the disaster were 12000 and 9000 people died in T'an-ch'eng County. As at 1668, T'an-ch'eng county people had already suffered for nearly fifty years. Many people were reported to have died in white lotus in a war that broke out in within Shantung Province in1622; rebels were reported to have allegedly destroyed cities. Many residence of T‘an-ch’eng were forced to flee their homes either on foot, or on cart saving a few of their properties4. Back in the 1630s T’an-ch’eng many people died because of hunger, diseases, banditry, and in 1640s, the same problems struck troubling the residence again. In addition, farmers were not spared as drought occurred during summer destroying wheat; locust invaded the same fields destroying any crop that had been spared by the drought. In 1641, bandits went into T’an-ch’eng County and forcefully took belongings, they further looted Li-chia, –Chung market finally, the put the shops ablaze. Bibliography Spence, Jonanthan. The Death of Woman Wang . Penguin : Penguin Books, 1979. Read More