Reading Notes W9: Liu E, Part X

Liu E, “The Travels of Lao Can” (602-611)

Liu E:

·         1857-1909

·         “Dedicated to unmasking government corruption and cruelty at expense of the people…” (602).

·         Liu E is also known as Liu Tieyen.

·         Liu was born in a midsized city in Jiangsu province on east coast of China (1857).

·         Attacked both corrupt government and stultifying tradition.

·         Novel reflects the authors own life

·         Many of the corrupt officials in the novel are disguises of historical people

·         Author’s main character: is considered to be well-meaning and brave/ seeks justice, but is also considered to be rather helpless.

·         Liu E uses long traditions of Chinese storytelling and novel-writing

·         “It is also groundbreaking in its exploration of an individual psychology, mixing novelistic conventions for the first time with passages of private meditation traditionally rendered through the voice of lyric poetry” (604).

“The Travels of Lao Can”:

·         “Spiritual nature gives birth to feeling; feeling gives birth to weeping. There are two kinds of weeping. One kind is strong; one kind is weak” (605). He expresses the nature of weeping/feelings. Like how he states a girl crying over simply losing a hairpin is consider a weak weeping. Now, a strong kind of weeping is a woman, like Qi Liang of Qi; whose tears brought down the walls of the city due to crying over the loss of her husband.

·         “I hear that if he happens to see a man who doesn’t please his eye, he simply puts him in a cage and chokes him to death; or if somebody talks unwisely and falls into his hands, he is a dead man too” (606). He immediately goes on and questions the injustice in the corrupt government, like easily putting people to death for the simplest of things.

·         Talks about crying a lot in the story.

·         People often in fear of the corrupt government and have to watch what they say. Otherwise, their lives would be in danger.