The next day—Market Day-- Five Monkeys Shan can’t get anyone to fish the Shan bodies out of the river for fear of getting leprosy—until Uncle Arhat volunteers [a/c to Narrator’s informant, “92-year-old storyteller clay pot, 113-114].  Uncle Arhat goes into town to report on the fire & murders at the Shan compound, and finds Magistrate [Nine Dreams] Cao and Master Yan in the middle of resolving a dispute (116-120).  At its closure, Uncle Arhat informs Magistrate Cao that he has “come to file a grievance“ (120).

Ch. 2.5

Grandma is distracted and won’t eat.  Great Granddad wakes from his “drunken stupor” the 2^nd day, recalls the mule that Shan Tingxiu has promised him, & fights with Grandma.  Grandma rebels, cries, recalls the events of the last three days (87-88).  “Grandma had a premonition that her life was about to change in extraordinary ways” (88).  Grandma finally stops crying.  Great-Granddad says, “Time to leave, Little Nine” [Grandma’s childhood name].  Grandma readies herself to go back to the Shan compound of her new bridegroom.

Ch. 2.2

Grandma and Great-Granddad begin the journey back to the Shan compound, & another thunderstorm erupts.  A lightning strike reminds Grandma of her friend Beauty (90), and fills her heart with “desolation and melancholy” (91).  At Toad Hollow, stench of the rotting “sham highwayman’s corpse” [killed 3 days earlier by her sedan bearer Yu Zhan’ao] assails them, and a “man in the field” begins singing a song of bold “Little sister” who strikes & joins them (92-93).

Ch. 2.2

When Grandma returns to the Shan compound, she discovers “that the Shans, father and son, had been murdered . . .” (71). 

Ch. 1.8

Ch. 2.6

Over the next ten days, Grandma, the new owner, wins over Uncle Arhat & the workers of the Shan distillery (129-131): they purify the leprous Shan compound, & she now uses her scissors to make decorative paper cutouts—with inspired “genius”--while dreaming fantasies (131-132).  Then one day, she hears a familiar voice, asking: “Mistress, are you hiring?” (132) . . .

Ch. 2.6

…it is Yu Zhan’ao who asks, when he turns up at the wine distillery, but Grandma loses face when he breaks etiquette, & she punishes him.  Zhan’ao hires on as an ordinary distillery worker, but finds it hard to control himself as the weeks pass (140-141).  One night when drunk, Zhan’ao confesses to the workers that he murdered the Shans (142), tries to get Grandma to acknowledge his status as her lover, but earns only a beating (143-144).  Thereafter, he gets “roaring drunk every day” and, later, when it’s apparent that Grandma is pregnant [with Douguan], he declares that the child is his (145).  Their impasse is finally broken one day when Grandma asks to see the harvest process of turning sorghum into wine for herself (146).  She witnesses the process, the ritual of first harvest wine, and drinks of it herself.  At this point, Zhan’ao pisses into the crocks, kisses her, confronts her about the pregnancy, then cleans the distiller “with such consummate skill that Uncle Arhat and the other men looked on in awe” (148-149).  “From that day on, Granddad and Grandma shared their love like mandarin ducks or Chinese phoenixes,” the distillery workers became his “loyal followers,” and his skills “revolutionized the operation”  (149).  Tasting the piss-enhanced wine [i.e. the “family secret”], Uncle Arhat’s“joyful news” that it is wonderful tasting (150).

Ch. 2.8

Meanwhile, after Great-Granddad has been publicly repudiated by “Nine” (Grandma), he returns home cursing his daughter as a “misbegotten ingrate” (150).  But on Great-Grandma’s advice, two weeks later he tries to visit his daughter, now rich new owner of the Shan wine distillery. After being turned away 3 times, greedy Great-Granddad files a complaint with Magistrate Cao (Grandma’s newly declared “foster dad”), claiming she has conspired in the Shans’ murder with Spotted Neck, the bandit, —but gets only 50 lashes with a shoe sole & 10 silver dollars (152-153).  Still Magistrate Cao believes Spotted Neck is with Grandma & sends Little Yan to arrest the bandit (153-154).  Mistakenly, they arrest Granddad (Yu Zhan’ao) instead, and beat him, but Grandma (self-declared “foster-daughter” of Magistrate Cao) gets Granddad released (155-157). 

Ch. 2.9

[Winter 1923:] On the 23^rd day of the 12^th lunar month, Grandma is kidnapped for ransom by Spotted Neck’s bandit gang (157).  Granddad has Uncle Arhat take them twice as much ransom as they asked for, and he is repaid by Grandma safe return that night and a promise that the bandits won’t bother them again.  Although Spotted Neck had felt her breast, Grandma says she has not been raped and the baby is safe (157-158). 

Ch. 2.10

[Late Spring, 1924:  Douguan – “Father”-  is born.]

Granddad plots revenge in Spring-Summer, 1924:  He buys pistols, practices shooting endlessly, and finally perfects his “seven plum blossom skill”(158). 

Ch. 2.10

[Narrator foreshadows: Two years after the Shans’ murder in 1923,]  Spotted Neck will die by Yu Zhan’ao’s hands (104). 

Ch. 2.4

When Yu Zhan’ao [Granddad] has perfected his shooting skills, he goes in search of Spotted Neck & finds him (158-161).  Granddad tricks Spotted Neck & his bandits into thinking he cannot shoot or swim, and then kills them all (161-164).  The next day, Granddad and Grandma pay a revenge visit to Great-Granddad: Yu Zhan’ao terrifies him by shooting silver dollars off his head, Grandma tosses 100 silver dollars on the floor, and they leave her greedy father a “blubbering heap” (164).

Ch. 2.10

After killing Spotted Neck and his men, and “nearly paralyzing my greedy great-granddad with fear,” Granddad leaves the distillery and becomes a bandit (273).

Ch. 4.5

In early 1926, seeking vengeance on Gaomi county Magistrate Cao for the lashes he once gave him, Granddad and his bandits kidnap Nine Dreams Cao’s 14-year-old son for a ransom of 10,000 silver dollars (274).  Little Yan takes Douguan and Grandma hostage in return.  At hostage exchange point, Nine Dreams Cao promises to reward his foster-son-in-law for killing Spotted Neck.  At gun point the exchange is effected.  incident presages end of “the golden days of banditry in Northeast Gaomi Township” (277).

Ch. 4.5

[When Father [Douguan] is two years old-?] “…Grandma’s servant Passion became the third member of a triangle” and “the ‘skinning alive’” phase—cruelty—of their love begins (273).  The Narrator recounts the situation in spring-summer 1926: sorghum wine permeates the atmosphere, giving “courage to face danger fearlessly and view death as a homecoming,” and inviting abandonment to pleasure.  Granddad had left the distillery and become a bandit by then, after killing Spotted Neck and his men, and “nearly paralyzing my greedy great-granddad with fear…” (273).

Ch. 4.5

[In the 3^rd month of 1926,] Great-Grandma dies, Grandma takes Douguan to her old Dai home to make the funeral arrangements, and a violent rainstorm delays their return (277).  The rain forces Granddad and his bandits to return to their homes, and he is surprised to learn that Grandma has gone to perform her filial duty since she had hated her parents.  “Chaos reigned,” as Granddad whiles away days and nights drinking and sleeping—and the story of how Granddad and Passion become lovers unfolds (277-279).

Ch. 4.5

“Passion and my Granddad made wild love for three days and nights…(280).  On the 4^th day, the rain finally ceases, the wall separating the east and west compounds collapses, and Grandma and Douguan return home.  “It’s all the fault of the damned rain!” (281).  Suspicious, Grandma lies and says that she is going back to the Dai home that night to burn incense for her dead mother.  Instead, she returns in the night, hears Granddad and Passion making love, bursts in upon them and creates an angry, violent scene.  Granddad slaps Grandma and leaves, taking Passion with him.

Ch. 4.6

[When Douguan is 4 years old – ca 1928?], Father is ready to weaned, even if Grandma isn’t, and bites her nipple (177-178).  He learns later that in this same year, Granddad falls in love with Passion, a hired girl, though he still loves Grandma dearly (178).  Tired of Grandma’s jealousy, Granddad has begun living with Passion [= 2^nd Grandma].  [Later in 1939 Granddad recalls his anger earlier] when “he abandoned Grandma and moved to another village to be with his new love, Passion.  “He had learned then” that Grandma had taken up with Black Eye,” leader of Iron Society (181-182).

Ch. 3.2

In late fall 1928, Nine Dreams Cao successfully conspires to wipe out Granddad’s bandits, and Granddad unwittingly leads 800 men into Magistrate Cao’s trap and to their deaths outside Jinan City.  Granddad escapes and, afterwards, feels “remorseful, horrified, vengeful,” and “fed up with a life that was little more than an unending cycle of kill-or-be-killed, eat-or-be-eaten” (285).  At first he wants  to go home to Grandma, but the memory of her slap and curses “had created a barrier between them, like a cruel river” (286).  No woman had ever treated him so, and the humiliation drove remorse over his affair with Passion from his heart, replacing it with “a powerful drive to avenge himself” (286).  So he goes instead to Saltwater Gap, where he and Passion had made their new home.  There he stays for two months, never stepping outside.  Then Passion tells him that after he was taken prisoner, Grandma began living with Black Eye, leader of the Iron Society, & has lived with him in Saltwater Gap for months (287-288).  Granddad demands his pistol and vows to kill them.

Ch. 4.8

Autumn, sometime during Father’s childhood, Uncle Arhat Liu takes him crabbing along Black Water River; they & Grandma eat crabs until they are sick (7-9)

Ch. 1.1

Granddad, armed, rides a donkey to Saltwater Gap, finds Black Eye chanting before an altar to an “iron ancestor” demon on a tiger, with Iron Society members.  Granddad’s resolve to kill Black Eye weakens (289).  When the ceremony ends, Granddad shoots instead the painting, and the society members surround him.  Black Eye thought Granddad was dead, who demands the return of “the bitch” [Grandma] (290).  Black Eye asks whether she would consent to return to Granddad:  “A widow is like a masterless dog—they both belong to whoever raises them” (290-291).  Grandma emerges and curses Granddad.  Granddad challenges Black Eye to a fist fight on the banks of the Salt Water River.  They fight by rules for a “civil fight” (292).  After Black Eye’s third punch, Granddad leaves, vowing to “see” him again “in ten years” (292).  Grandma, holding Douguan, runs unsteadily after Granddad, sobbing “Zhan’ao” (293).

Ch. 4.8

[In early Winter 1939, Granddad recalls when] he fought Black Eye to a draw on the bank of the Salty Water River (272).

Ch. 4.5

After Granddad had been tricked into going to Jinan police station, he nearly lost his life, then escaped and went to Passion in Saltwater Gap.  Eventually he learns that Grandma has been living there with Black Eye.  After Granddad’s fight with Black Eye to a standstill on the Salty Water River, Granddad “touched Grandma so deeply that she followed him home, where they ran the distillery with new vitality.  Granddad put his rifle away, bring his bandit days to an end, and began life as a wealthy peasant, at least for the next few years” (314-315).  

Ch. 5.4

“In 1929, the year Granddad was reported murdered and Grandma ran off, the hired hands” left the family distillery to find work elsewhere “but Uncle Arhat stayed behind, like a loyal watchdog, to guard the family property, convinced that the dark night was nearly over and a new dawn would soon be breaking.  He maintained his vigil until Granddad cheated death, escaped from prison, and was reconciled to Grandma.”  When Granddad, Grandma, and Douguan returned home, Uncle Arhat tearfully welcomed them.  “He was such a decent, devoted man that Granddad and Grandma treated him like their own father . . .” (326).

Ch. 5.5

“[S]ome seven or eight years earlier” [ca. 1930 or 1931?--before Uncle Arhat’s death in 1938], Grandma begs Uncle Arhat not to leave distillery: “You can have me, if you want…”(9).  Father [Douguan] “watched” Uncle Arhat push Grandma away and go “mix fodder for the two large black mules who, when we opened the distillery, made us the richest family in the village” (9).  Uncle Arhat stays, becomes distillery foreman, “right up to the day the Japanese confiscated our mules to work on the Jiao-Ping Highway” (9)

Ch. 1.1

The rivalty between Grandma and 2^nd Grandma [Passion] for Granddad’s divided attentions, make these troubling years for the triangle.  They reach a “tripartite agreement” in which Granddad would 10 days with Grandma, then 10 days with 2^nd Grandma.  “He stuck to his agreement since neither woman was an economy lantern, someone to be taken lightly” (315).

Ch. 5.4

Sometime later, 2^nd Grandma [Passion] sees a black-mouthed weasel one day, swoons screaming, and remains in a “deranged state for a long time,” believing she is possessed by the weasel (318). Granddad brings in Taoist exorcist Mountain Li to rid 2^nd Grandma of her demon.  Later when she sees a weasel trying kill a village rooster, 2^nd Grandma runs into the yard stark naked and beats the black-mouthed weasel to death (317-318, 319).  Her desire for revenge is satisfied, and madness leaves her.

Ch. 5.4

Father [Douguan] recalls visiting 2^nd Grandma and his “favorite” little sister with Granddad, against Grandma’s wishes, wondering “why Grandma and Second Grandma hated each other so” (334). 

Ch. 5.6

Father [Douguan] recalls visiting Dead Baby Hollow with Grandma to weigh a dead baby in order to guess the right flower name for the Flower Lottery.  It is a macabre scene accompanied by the terrifying, angry screeching of an owl (334-336).  Afterwards, Grandma becomes “gravely ill” (336).

Ch. 5.6

During the time Commander Yu is recruiting village men for the anti-Japanese resistance, Lingzi, a pretty 17-year-old, falls in love with Adjutant Ren, while he is training Commander Yu’s local recruits (52-53).  After Lingzi is raped by Big Tooth Yu, uncle of Commander Yu [Grandpa], Adjutant Ren demands his execution, joined by Grandma (54-55).  Reluctantly, Grandpa orders Mute to execute his uncle (56-57).  After the funeral, Grandpa shoots at Adjutant Ren (original owner of the Browning), who calmly walks away singing the revolutionary song, “The sorghum is red…” (59).  [cf. Ch. 1.1, pp. 5-6; &*references to Big Tooth Yu’s death: Ch. 2.4, p. 111; &  Ch. 1.6, pp. 54-57].

Ch. 1.1

When the Japanese occupy Gaomi, “panic-stricken villagers could only wait for the calamity that they knew was coming” (311).  Only Old Geng and Pocky Leng are unfazed.  When the Japanese demand information about a Chinese Nationalist sandal-maker, Pocky Leng leads them to all the sandal makers in town.

Ch. 5.3

“Old Geng,” a skilled hunter of Saltwater Gap, shoots a red fox (308).

Ch. 5.1

Old Geng is reluctant to shoot the red fox: it is a betrayal for they had a kind of “friendship” (310).  Japanese pounce, bayonette Old Geng repeatedly [18 times, hence he is called Eighteen Stabs Geng], and leave him for dead.  At his screams, the wounded fox emerges, licks his wounds, and the fox’s miraculous tongue—Old Geng believes—saves his life (310). 

Ch. 5.2

After pointing out all the village sandal maker shops, which the Japanese grenade and destroy, Pocky Leng is consumed with guilt (345).  Returning home, he finds his wife and daughter dead; later he finds his 8-year old son dead in a water vat.  He is prevented from hanging himself by teenaged Chungsheng, who urges him to join the Jiao-Gao regiment and get revenge on the Japanese (347),

Ch. 5.8

Narrator: “In 1938, Japanese soldiers murdered this young aunt of mine [Little Auntie Xiangguan] with a bayonet, then gang-raped Second Grandma—this, too, I’ll clear up later” (178).

Ch. 3.2

Gunfire [Japanese gunfire of 1937 or 1938, after the invasion?!?] awakens Second Grandma [=Passion] from a dream of fighting with Grandma (314).  Her 5-year-old daughter Little Auntie sleeps by her side.  “Eight years had passed since Grandma had kicked” Passion out of Grandma’s house [i.e. since 1926?? – see Ch. 4.5 & 4.6-- 8 years later would make it ca. 1932?!?].  Second Grandma, 3 months pregnant, hears more gunfire.  Rumors of the brutality of the approaching Japanese have frightened her so badly that she would have moved back to the distillery and put up with Grandma’s abuse, but Granddad refused.  Granddad “would come to regret this decision,” and the next morning sees “the tragic consequences of his mistake” (315).

Ch. 5.4

Little Auntie [=Xiangguan] wakes and asked to be dressed, as explosions rock Saltwater Gap (315-316).  Her mother, 2^nd Grandma bolts the door and “climbed on the kang…to await the coming disaster.  She longed desperately for Granddad, but she hated him, too” (317).  He is due to come tomorrow for her allotted 10 days.  Hearing women screaming, 2^nd Grandma smears ashes over her own and Little Auntie’s faces to “appear as ugly as possible” as Japanese soldiers break into their house (317).

Ch. 5.4

2^nd Grandma shrieks at the sight of dried weasel blood on the white wooden door bolt; when the alerted Japanese soldiers leap into her room, they are “transformed into the black-mouthed weasel” demon in her eyes & her madness returns (319). Little Auntie is terrified; a Japanese soldier prepares to rape 2^nd Grandma.  When her head clears momentarily, she undresses, lies back “resolutely,” pleads for her daughter’s life (322).

Ch. 5.4

The Japanese soldiers are transfixed for a time, but when 2^nd Grandma moves, the spell is broken, she is gang-raped, Little Auntie is killed, & 2^nd Grandma finally loses consciousness (323-324).  At this point, our Narrator adopts 2^nd Grandma’s point of view, then speaks for her unborn child, and sings a war song (323-325)

Ch. 5.4

Granddad, drinking with Uncle Arhat, hears artillery fire from the northwest, “and his heart nearly stopped” (326).  Later Granddad hears more gunfire and wants to go immediately to 2^nd Grandma in Saltwater Gap, but Uncle Arhat advises him to wait, goes to investigate, then returns at noon with news that the village is surrounded and no one knows what’s going on inside.  Some Saltwater Gap refugees show up, including a large-eared child whose bawling caused the family to leave the village the day before the Japanese arrived.

Ch. 5.5

Alarmed, Granddad rushes to get his pistol, but Grandma has hidden it and they quarrel viciously, but Douguan intervenes.  Both are tormented by jealousy, but reconcile, and Granddad agrees to wait until tomorrow to go to 2^nd Grandma:  “Let heaven watch over mother and daughter and keep them from harm!” (329).

Ch. 5.5

The following morning, Granddad arrives in Saltwater Gap and finds carnage everywhere.  At 2^nd Grandma’s house, he discovers her senseless and Little Auntie Xiangguan dead (329-330).  Grievously deranged and seeking revenge, Granddad beats his mule wildly on the wrong road.  Uncle Arhat catches up to him and brings him to his senses.  They take screaming 2^nd Grandma and dead Little Auntie home, as Uncle Arhat sobs curses.

Ch. 5.5

The next day, Granddad and Uncle Arhat arrive home with 2^nd Grandma and dead Little Auntie.  Grandma is remorseful, Granddad vengeful, and Father [Douguan] recalls happy childhood memories of his “favorite” little sister Xiangguan (333).  Her gaping open mouth reminds Douguan of the gaping mouth of the baby in Dead Baby Hollow and he hears the owl’s screeching song again (336).  Granddad’s anger softens against Grandma’s genuine remorse; 2^nd Grandma begins owl-like screeches of terror, and Uncle Arhat takes Little Auntie’s body away (338-339).

Ch. 5.6

2^nd Grandma stops screaming after Grandma washes her body (352).  A Pingdu doctor tells them to prepare for 2^nd Grandma’s impending funeral, Grandma has funeral clothes made, and Uncle Arhat has a coffin built.  A screeching black cat is an evil omen: demon-possessed 2^nd Grandma hurls curses at all, foretells Uncle Arhat’s horrible death, and spews a fountain of river water 2 feet high.  Uncle Arhat insists she is already dead; Mountain Li is again brought in to exorcise her demon.  The night’s exorcism is legendary in village stories: stories disagree on whether 2^nd Grandma finally breathed her last or was still cursing and kicking when placed in her coffin for burial (356). 

Ch. 5.8

Uncle Arhat is tortured & killed during the building of the Jiao-Ping Highway (9).

Ch. 1.1

Japanese invaders & “their puppet [Chinese] soldiers “conscript” local Chinese forced labor & “confiscate” their draft animals to build Jiao-Ping Highway across the region’s “marshy plain,” covered with “ocean” of sorghum fields.  Peasants of Northeast Gaomi Township await sure “calamity” (14-15).  Uncle Arhat Liu & the family’s two black mules are taken (15-16).  Uncle Arhat tries to protect the mules from abuse & is himself beaten (17-18).  He is counseled by a mysterious “middle-aged man,” who inspires him to try to escape (18-19).  But turning back for Grandma’s mules leads “to a grand tragedy” (22).  When the mules prove stubborn, Uncle Arhat irrationally attacks them (23-25).

Ch. 1.3

The Night after Uncle Arhat is taken:  Grandma’s rituals: she kowtows before blooded wine vat; makes Father [Douguan] kowtow & drink too; Grandma holds vigil that night (32-33).  After hearing gunfire, Father, Grandma & other villagers are herded by Japanese to the dike (33-34) to witness already battered Uncle Arhat’s public punishment for attacking the mules in his aborted escape attempt.  Sun Five is forced to skin Uncle Arhat alive (35-37).  Uncle Arhat is defiant to the end; “a heavy rain” purifies the site that night (37).

Ch. 1.4