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

Conflict between Commander Yu and Detachment Leader [Pocky] Leng (26-29):  It is Grandma who urges them to fight the Japanese, invoking honor and Uncle Arhat’s blood in the wine they’re drinking (28).  Commander Yu [Zhan’ao] shoots a wine cup off the head of Douguan with the Browning (28-29).

Ch. 1.4

Commander Yu Zhan’ao’s village guerrillas prepare to ambush Japanese convoy on Jiao-Ping Highway (3).  Douguan (“Father”) is 15 years old.  These “troops” begin march to their ambush position (4), traveling after midnight through the sorghum fields on the only path between the village & the Black Water River (5-7).

Ch. 1.1

Father’s impressions in sorghum fields; Mute’s rifle accidentally goes off, wounding “Uncle” Wang Wenyi (9-12).

Ch. 1.1

Commander Yu’s guerillas reach Jiao-Ping Highway at dawn: they number only 40 & are poorly armed (9-12).  Commander Yu positions his men for the ambush, amid the mists and sorghum.  Father [Douguan], called Commander Yu’s “foster-dad’s boy,’” is given a gun—the Browning (25-26; cf. Adjutant Ren, the original owner of the Browning).

Ch. 1.1

The heavy Browning & Father [Douguan]—called “Commander Yu’s seed” (29); Father angered by men’s sexual comments about Grandma, misfires the Browning (29-30).  Commander Yu advises Douguan to shoot the Japanese first (30).  The guerrillas wait in ambush; [Pocky] Leng’s detachment has not shown up to help them (31). 

Ch. 1.4

Commander Yu rages against the absence of [Pocky] Leng’s detachment (37-38); he sends Father, armed with the Browning, to “your mom” [Grandma] to bring fistcakes at noon for lunch (38-39).

Ch. 1.5

Father, armed with the Browning, runs back to Grandma at the distillery, where villagers have gathered.  Sun Five, gone mad after skinning Uncle Arhat, is among them (51).  Douguan tells Grandma to make fistcakes, & reports the Leng detachment never showed up.  Grandma comforts Lingzi (50-52).

Ch. 1.6

Grandma & Wang Wenyi’s wife, having prepared the fishcakes & more, decide to carry lunch to Commander Yu’s “troops” via the road along the Black Water River (59-60).  Douguan rejoins Commander Yu’s “troops” at the bridgehead, and reports that Grandma & fishcakes are on their way (60).  Finally Japanese trucks are sighted approaching the bridge (61-63), and “Just then,” Douguan sees Grandma, arriving at the dike, “ like a gorgeous red butterfly” (63).  “Father watched as two shells opened holes in the breast of Grandma’s jacket.  She cried out in ecstasy, then crumpled to the ground . . .” (64).  Douguan runs to Grandmother: “’…Mom—‘  A single word drenched with human blood and tears, and deep familial love, with the loftiest of causes” (64).  Mute drags son & mother out of machine gun range, as the battle rages on & the “Sorghum stalks wailed in concert…” (65).  Wang Wenyi also mourns his fallen wife (65-66), and the earlier deaths of their 3 sons, killed by a Japanese biplane bombing (66). 

Ch. 1.7

Dying Grandma tells Douguan [Father]that Commander Yu is his “real dad” (66).  Douguan attends his dying mother [Grandma], amid “the warm, forgiving, motherly, nurturing sorghum around her” (70).  Dying Grandma writes “the final page of her thirty-year history” (71):  She entreats Douguan to pull her back from death, and her “sincerity moves the heavens” (72)  The “music of the heavens…emanates from the red sorghum” (73).  Doves grieve over her death, and “She floats up to join them” (73).  Grandma makes her peace and completes “her liberation” (74).  [Grandma is 32 years old when she dies: cf. ch. 4.2, p. 253.]

Ch. 1.8

Commander Yu’s guerrillas attack the Japanese as their convoy approaches & crosses the bridge (75).  Heavy casualties: Granddad is wounded (76) & a “famous” Japanese general is killed (77).  Douguan takes Granddad back to already dead Grandma: he closes her open eyes and he weeps (78).  Douguan mourns his dead mother (79). 

Ch. 1.9

Detachment Leader (Pocky) Leng & his troops finally arrive—too late.  Granddad is enraged at Leng’s cowardice but is prevented from killing Leng.  Then Douguan shoots one bodyguard in “the ass” (80).  Leng’s men gather up discarded munitions & leave.  Father (Douguan) furiously eats Grandma’s fistcakes amid bloody aftermath (81).

Ch. 1.9

“Father finished his fistcake . . .” (93) and surveys the bloody battle scene.  Granddad is sobbing, but Douguan urges him not to give up, to seek revenge on Pocky Leng (94-95).  They find their comrades dead, & put dying Fang Seven out of his misery (96-97).  Douguan relives the surreal day & falls asleep on his feet (98). Commander Yu picks him up, driven on, sees a Dragon vision on the dike—the lights of the villagers coming to find them (98-99).

Ch. 2.3

Granddad’s “dragon”—the villagers with torch lights—find Douguan and Commander Yu & celebrate him for winning the “battle” (132-133).  Weeping, Granddad orders them to collect “our fallen comrades,” including Grandma (134-135).  After the dead Japanese general is mutilated, the other Japanese soldiers are also carried away (136-137).  After salvaging what’s useful, the villagers also dispose of the remains of the Japanese convoy (137-138).

Ch. 2.7

Plotting revenge on Pocky Leng, “Granddad [Commander Yu] and Father [Douguan] return to their razed home,” retrieve 50 silver dollars that Grandma had hidden, dress as beggars, go into town to buy 500 bullets.

Ch. 2.11

[On the 10^th day of the 8^th lunar month:]  After Douguan and Commander Yu “had buried the Japanese machine gun with the twisted barrel,” they search their ruined home for the 50 silver dollars that Grandma had hidden there (227).  Finding the money, Granddad resolves to go into town to buy bullets so he can “settle scores with Pocky Leng” (227).  They bury the Browning (227-228).  Disguised as beggars, they get past the Japanese and into town, and manage to buy the bullets from one of Granddad’s former lovers.

Ch. 3.9

Granddad and Douguan hide out for “several days” in the village.  Six days after the ambush and battle at the Black Water River Bridge—the fifteenth day of the eighth lunar month in the year 1939—Granddad and Father drove a billy goat, nearly dead from the dung building up inside of it, to the sorghum field at the western edge of the village.  More than four hundred Japs and six hundred of their puppet soldiers had encirculed our village…” (165). 

Ch. 2.11

At Mid-Autumn Festival, one of the big market days of the year, Granddad and Father smuggle the bullets out of town in the sewed up rectum of a billy goat.  With the ammunition, Granddad and Father begin a snipe attack on the Japanese, who had surrounded the village; engaging them in “a solemn and stirring battle in the sorghum field” (165), killing dozens.  This diversion draws “puppet soldiers” and Japanese cavalry after them into the sorghum fields.  Their lives are saved by the “dense sorghum” (234).  They hear the Jiao-Gao regiment also attacking the Japanese.

Ch.
2.11
&
Ch. 
3.9

[That afternoon before the Mid-Autumn Festival village massacre,] Douguan—desiring revenge for Grandma’s death--hurls his empty Browning pistol & disables the warhorse of a charging Japanese cavalryman in the sorghum field (170-171).  The Japanese rider is injured and pinned beneath his horse.  After the charge, Granddad shows up, confronts the fallen Japanese officer, & uses his sword to cleave in two the officer’s wallet, containing pictures of his wife and son.  Weary of war and killing, Douguan begs Granddad not to kill the young Japanese officer, but hardened Granddad accuses his son of cowardice and slices the Japanese officer in half.  Douguan takes off “running blindly through the sorghum” and Granddad catches him.  Douguan shrieks: “…Take me home!  I don’t want to fight anymore….I saw Mom!  I saw Master!  I saw Uncle!” (175).  Granddad slaps his son.

Ch. 3.1

The Japanese cavalry charge separates Douguan from his father (234-235).  After he regains consciousness, Father witnesses villagers being “mowed down along with the sorghum stalks,” as the Japanese enter the village (236).  Under a blood-red moon, Granddad and Father are reunited.

Ch. 3.9

Badly outnumbered , hundreds of villagers are killed [the “Mid-Autumn Festival Massacre”] when they try to break through Japanese lines surrounding the village.  The Japanese & their puppet soldiers burn the village before withdrawing.  The full moon is “blood-red, but the war below turned it pale and weak, like a faded paper cutout hanging grimly in the sky” (165).  Douguan asks: “Where to now, Dad?” (165).

Ch. 2.11

“Granddad and Father were exhausted” (178).  [Father remembers earlier memories including Uncle Arhat & the one time before when he had seen “autumn water”=flood - (178-179)].  Granddad is confused, but Douguan reminds him: “Mother’s dead.  But we’re still alive, and I’m hungry.  Let’s get something to eat” (179).  They see eyes in the shadows, begin to shoot village dogs eating the human corpses until they run out of bullets (179-180).  Then they return to the village, where most of the fires had burned out.  That night, Father and Granddad watch the roof of their family home collapse (181).  Father and Granddad come across an old man looting the village.  In anger, Granddad threatens to kill the old man, identifies himself as “Yu Zhan’ao the bandit!” (183); Granddad punishes the old man.

Ch. 3.2

[After the Ambush and “famous” Battle of Black Water River:] 300 villagers of Northeast Gaomi Township lie dead (4-5)

Ch. 1.1

“Clay Pot” [2^nd Story-teller, later identified as lame “ woman Liu”] is one of the few villagers who survives the Mid-Autumn Festival Massacre of ’39.

Ch. 1.2

Few survive the Mid-Autumn Festival Massacre--Father [Douguan], Wang Guang, Dezhi, Guo Yang, Blind Eye, Mother [Beauty], and the woman Liu [who must therefore be the Second Narrator, “clay pot” of Ch 1.2]—in addition to Granddad (193-194).  They survey the carnage and salvage weapons (194-195).  Then packs of hundreds of masterless village dogs, led by the three family dogs, appear, & shortly thereafter so do 80 soldiers of the Jiao-Gao regiment (196), who had hid in the sorghum fields and sniped at Japanese during the “massacre” the day before.  The leader Little Foot Jiang hails Granddad as a hero, but Commander Yu [Granddad] greets them  coldly and demands to know where they were during the massacre (197-199).  They try to bury the dead but end up battling the “crazed dogs,” and they are out of ammunition—most taken earlier by Pocky Leng’s troops (199-200).  Then Detachment Leader [Pocky] Leng’s “mobile platoon” shows up, at whom Granddad is livid with anger (201-202).  Granddad vows revenge (203).

Ch. 3.4

The massacre not only decimates the village, but turns “hundreds of [village] dogs into homeless strays.”  The pack is led by “our family” dogs: Blackie, Green, and Red.  That night, three hours after the retreating Japanese burned the village, Granddad and Father lie in wait at the bridgehead and shoot many of the “crazed, corpse-eating dogs” (169).  Granddad’s wound, from the ambush, festers.

Ch. 3.1

After the Japanese troops burned, then withdrew from the village, Granddad’s wound gets worse (175).  Douguan tries to tend the wound.  Granddad is like a “robot,” “benumbed,” a “problem” that would become “more pronounced over the coming decade” (177).  Weary, unable to walk, Douguan thinks back to when he was 4 (177). 

Ch. 3.2

After a warning that the Japanese have surrounded the village, the

Narrator’s 15-year-old “Mother” [named Beauty] & her 3-year-old brother  [named Harmony =the Narrator’s uncle] are hidden in a well by their parents [the Narrator’s maternal grandmother & grandfather].  In the week since the ambush & battle of Black Water River, Zhang Ruolu the Elder had led the villagers in reinforcing the village wall and gates against the coming Japanese (184).  Her parents urge Beauty to take care of her younger brother Harmony down in the well, and promise to return for them after the Japs are gone” (185-186).  Down in the well, the children do not know that their parents are killed by the Japanese the next day (187).  In the dark well, Mother would be terrorized by fear--of a toad, a snake, dirty water, and mushrooms—and experience her first menstrual period.  After three days of terror in the well, her baby brother Harmony dies (193). 

Ch. 3.3

“I was fifteen then” (205).  [Douguan’s future wife & the Narrator’s] Mother [Beauty] recalls the events in the well, her brother’s death, her terror, and how she was rescued by Douguan [Narrator’s “Father”]. 

Ch. 3.6

The “lame woman Liu” [i.e. “clay pot] nurses Mother [Beauty] back to health.  Beauty and Douguan [Father] become very close.  Granddad comes town with typhoid fever, but the woman Liu nurses him and he recovers by “mid-October” (208).  While Granddad is ill, Douguan leads Wang Guang, Dezhi, Guo Yang [AKA: “Gimpy”], Blind Eye, and Beauty in battle against “the corpse-eating dogs” (208).  1000 corpses are being raided by a dog pack of 600, led by Red, Green, and Blackie.  This new “battle” and a growing rivalry among pack leaders Red, Green, and Blackie, is detailed in Ch. 3.7, pp. 209 – 220.  Dezhi is killed by the dogs when he heroically tries to save Father [Douguan] and Mother [Beauty] (219).  Red attacks Father in his crotch, but Red is shot and cracked over the head by Granddad, just recovered from his bout with typhoid (220). 

Ch. 3.7

Red’s bite causes Father to lose a testicle, and Granddad is inconsolable, believing that Douguan will never be able to father children.  Granddad calls in Dr. Zhang Xinyi to heal Father, who suggests that Douguan might be “all right with just one” (223).  Granddad is in a sad state, “war having destroyed nearly everything he owned” and loved (224).  Then the woman Liu, then in her 40’s, reassures him about Father:  “Single-stalk garlic is always the hottest” (225).  Granddad begins sleeping with the woman Liu, who prompts Beauty to “Try playing with Douguan’s penis” to see “if it gets hard…” (225-226).  When it does, Granddad is ecstatic, fires 3 shots in the air and screams, “Heaven has eyes!” (226-227). 

Ch. 3.8

In the Winter of 1939, frozen corpses of dogs and people litter the landscape; “Granddad, Father, Mother, and the woman Liu hibernated in their dilapidated village through the endless winter” (270).

Ch. 4.5

Winter 1939 – Spring 1940:  During one of the coldest winters in history, Father and Granddad hunt dogs to supplement their diet.  By spring, Father grows tall and healthy, and Northeast Gaomi Township again stirs with recovering life.   

Ch. 4.5

Spring 1940:  One day Father and Granddad see cavalry of the Iron Society, led by Black Eye.  Black Eye stops at Grandma’s grave and is confronted by Granddad [Commander Yu].  Black Eye accuses Granddad of causing Grandma’s death.  “A noble man gets his revenge, even if it takes ten years!” Granddad warns Black Eye (279).  Black Eye asks Granddad to join the Iron Society and fight the Japanese.  A handsome young Iron Society soldier [Five Troubles] honors Commander Yu, asks him to join; Granddad is intrigued, reflects upon their signifying mark—shaved foreheads (279-280).

Ch. 4.5

Granddad and Douguan join the Iron Society, but his motives are personal--Granddad cares nothing for national politics—Communists or  Nationalists.  Glib Five Troubles argues for reinstating a Chinese emperor after they’ve ousted the Japanese invaders, citing the heroic novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms.  He confides his loss of confidence in Black Eye as leader and articulates dreams of the Iron Society starting its own nation (283-284).  Granddad is inspired by the young man’s dreams.  Then they catch up to Black Eye at the Salty Water River.

Ch. 4.7

Interested in joining the Iron Society, with Father in his lap, Granddad rides with Five Troubles along the Salty Water River.  He can’t stop thinking about his earlier fight with Black Eye on the bank of this river (288).  [See 1928 above]

Ch. 4.8

Granddad and Father join the Iron Society, shave their foreheads, and perform rituals before the demon ancestor and his tiger mount (294).  Granddad becomes 2^nd-in-command to Black Eye, after a “revolt” led by Five Troubles. After training, the Iron Society initiates its first battle, against a regiment of Chinese “puppet soldiers.”  When Black Eye’s sorcery fails, Granddad saves the day and establishes himself as “unchallenged leader of the Iron Society” (297).  Granddad cements his standing by kidnapping first Little Foot Jiang, then Pocky Leng, and ransoming them for weapons and warhorses (297).  After these coups, the Iron Society became “the most powerful force” in Northeast Gaomi Township.  Granddad then resolves to stage a grand funeral for Grandma, and begins to accumulate wealth to support his plan.

Ch. 4.9

Spring 1940 is cold and hungry, Gaomi villages lay in ruins, and the Jiao-Gao Regiment, camped near Saltwater Gap, suffers (347).  Commander Little Foot Jiang and his troops have come to trust new recruit Pocky Leng, a “fearless fighter” with bold strategies: they steal Granddad and Father’s dogskins and armaments, hidden in a dry well (349).  Jiao-Gao Regiment’s first battle against the Japanese puppet commander Zhang Zhusi’s 28^th battalion at Ma Family Hamlet is successful, but afterwards their weapons are reallocated to the Binhai Independent Battalion (350-352).  And Pocky Leng’s brilliant grenade attack on the Japanese causes him to despair:  “instead of satisfying his sense of vengeance, this re-enacted scene [reminds him of the Saltwater Gap sandal shops’ destruction and] causes him such anguish that his heart felt as though it were being sliced open” (351).

Ch. 5.8

Winter 1940:  Father and Granddad left the village for training with the Iron Society, and, three months later, “when they returned, their huts were empty and their loved ones gone” (249).  “Beauty, who would one day be my mother, and the tall, robust woman Liu, who should rightfully be considered my third grandma” had disappeared (249).

Ch. 4.2

(Early Spring 1941?):  Leng Detachment & Jiao-Gao regiment had been worn down by frequent clashes with & kidnappings by the Iron Society, & by a Japanese annihilation campaign (240).  The Iron Society, led by Granddad and “his erstwhile romantic rival” Black Eye, grows in force, but its movements are secretive and “shrouded in religious superstition” (240).

Ch. 4.1

Twenty days before Grandma’s funeral in Spring 1941 [the “cruel”4^th lunar month], Father, Granddad, and Iron Society soldiers go to dig up Grandma’s grave in preparation for her funeral (262).  Natural signs bode ill along the Black Water River.  According to Father, “Grandma emerged from the resplendent, aromatic grave as lovely as a flower, as in a fairy tale,” although the soldiers describe the corpse as “hideous” and the grave smell a “suffocating stench” (263).  Afterwards, they run to the river to vomit, Douguan tries to pick up Grandma’s skeleton, but it disintegrates and Father runs away howling with grief (264).

Ch. 4.3

Granddad, who had earlier joined the Iron Society & eventually replaced Black Eye as its leader, was about to give Grandma a proper funeral nearly two years since her death (239).  Her funeral is set for the 8^th day of the 4^th lunar month, a day of rest for farmers.  By noon of the 7^th day, regional folk from far and wide had assembled, filling the village for Grandma’s funeral.

Ch. 4.1

On the evening of that 7^th day, an herbal physician and his mule ride in for the funeral, and tour the great tent housing Grandma’s bier. His “crazy ramblings and furtive behavior” attract the suspicion of Iron Society soldiers, who seize him (240-243).  Grandma’s “scarlet bier” and “host tablet” are described; the funeral master leads the evening ceremony, interrupted by the entrance of the soldiers and their hostage (242-243).  Black Eye demands the physician’s immediate death, but Granddad wants to question him first; Black Eye and Granddad quarrel (244).  Good comedy provided by the crazy physician, his farting mule, and his magic potions (244-247), until suddenly the herbal physician attacks Granddad: the wounded mule crashes into Grandma’s spirit table and starts it on fire; then Black Eye kills the physician.  Grandma’s coffin is seared but saved from burning (247-248).

Ch. 4.1

Granddad‘s injury is tended and he refuses to postpone Grandma’s funeral.  Douguan sleeps fitfully and awakes the next day feeling “desolation” (248).  On the morning of Grandma’s funeral, Grandma’s coffin shone in the early-morning light, “hideous and scary” (249).  The area had been cleaned up, the dead physician and his mule taken away to the inlet.  The history of the coffin (249-250): it had been “confiscated” for “a hero of the resistance,” over the owner’s violent objections.  As the funeral begins, the crowd of 1,000’s gets out of control, and Iron Society soldiers quell the riot with difficulty.  Grandma’s “host tablet,” or “spirit tablet,” is reprinted: see p. 253.  To Father [Douguan], Grandma’s coffin seemed “hideous beyond belief” (254).  He has a nightmarish vision and relives her dying, while performing “his complicated filial obligations to the deceased” (254-255). 

Ch. 4.2

Father, in mourning clothes, sings the “send-off song” to guide the spirit of his beloved mother “to the southwest paradise,” but breaks down in grief (261).  “But Grandma didn’t want to go there”: instead of the southwest, “the wisp of ‘Mom’ turned and headed east after a momentary hesitation…,” follows the dike, “taking fistcakes to Granddad’s troops, turning her head back from time to time to signal her son, my father, with her golden eyes” (261-62).

Ch. 4.3

At noon, the funeral procession begins:  see description, pp. 264-265.  Then 3 li from the village, the poorly armed Jiao-Gao regiment attacks the procession, primarily with grenades, intent upon stealing the Iron Society soldiers’ superior weapons (266-268).  The Iron Society is routed, retreats toward the Black Water River, and Five Troubles is killed.  Granddad wounds Little Foot Jiang, leader of the Jiao-Gao regiment, but he and Black Eye cannot get the remaining Iron Society soldiers to stand and fight (269).  Then, at the Black Water River Dike, machine gun fire opens on both the Iron Society and the Jiao-Gao regiment . . . (270).

Ch. 4.4

At the Black Water River dike, the machine gun fire ceases, after mowing down both Jiao-Gao regiment and Iron Society soldiers (293).  They become allies against this new common enemy:  it is Pocky Leng’s Detachment (294).  Then the machine gun fire resumes (297).  A heroic grenadier of the Jaio-Gao regiment manages to disarm Pocky Leng’s machine gun (297-298).  Granddad regrets that when he ransomed Pocky Leng back in 1940, he did not demand machine guns instead of light armaments.  Granddad pulls corpses off of Father, drags him up, and orders the other men to get out.  As they retreat, Granddad is wounded and Black Eye is killed (299).  That night, the Pocky Leng Detachment surrounds the Jiao-Gao and Iron Society soldiers.  Pitted with bullet holes, Grandma’s coffin had served as cover during the gunfight.  Granddad’s men surrender.  Pocky Leng charges them with “the monstrous crime of disrupting the war against Japan on the Eastern Jiao battlefront!” (300).  Sleeping in Granddad’s arms, Father [Douguan] has an erotic dream, awaking with a sense of loss and that he is “almost sixteen!”  (300).  At daybreak, Little Foot Jiang, Granddad, and Father are tied up near the grave mound of Big Tooth Yu (300).  Argument breaks out among tied up men about the futility of fighting each other over weapons & ransom payments, when they should all be fighting the Japanese invaders (301-302).  Pocky Leng considers what to do with Granddad and Little Foot Jiang (303).  Then all are attacked by the Japanese, Leng Detachment guards free the prisoners and they all ally in fighting against their original common enemy (304).

Ch. 4.9

Pocky Leng hangs himself (352).

Ch. 5.8

Father [Douguan], “after untold hardships,”  emerges from “the burrow Mother had dug for him,” without “philosophical depth” and with “the same look as in his youth: lively, perplexed, capricious.  He never did figure out the relationship between men and politics or society or war, even though he had been spun so violently on the wheel of battle” (177).  In this burrow, dug under the floor of the family home, Father recalled his “past in the unrelenting darkness,” reliving the falling of his homestead roof hundreds of times, and wonders what his father [Granddad] is thinking  (181). 

Ch. 3.2

When Granddad returned from a trek to Hokkaido [Japan], he was barely able to speak.  The village welcomes him back as a war hero; he responds: “Woo—woo—gun—gun.”  On walks, Granddad takes his grandson (Narrator, who is 2 years old at this time) back to the scenes of the ambush & Grandma’s death.  One day Granddad digs up a tin box & chops up the rifle inside (79).

Ch. 1.9

Granddad’s “benumbed” “problem” lasts til the end, increases over time-- he returned from visiting “the mountains of Hokkaido with an unfathomable depth in his eyes, gazing at things as though he could will them to combust spontaneously” (177). 

Ch. 3.2

Narrator is 4 years old when the Shandong Peninsula [where Northeast Gaomi Township is located] suffers famine (181).   

Ch. 3.2

Narrator is later told—“but I don’t know”--that he was the “bare-assed little boy” goatherd who urinated & sang “The sorghum is red—the Japanese are coming—compatriots, get ready—fire your rifles and cannons—“ on the grave of his Father [Douguan] (3-4).

Ch. 1.1

In winter with snow falling steadily, Eighteen Stabs Geng celebrates his 80^th birthday (339).  Having trouble starting a fire, Old Man Geng burns his treasured “fox-spirit tablet,” recalling how he believes the fox had saved him when he was bayoneted by the Japanese during the war.  But good fortune has left him now: the branch secretary had canceled his eligibility for the “’five guarantees’ of food, clothing, medical aid, housing, and burial” (341).  This branch secretary was the same big-eared child refugee of Saltwater Gap that Granddad had seen back in 1938 (see Ch. 5.5), and was later responsible for several deaths during Mao Tsedong’s Great Leap Forward [1958-1960] (341).  The fox spirit-tablet burns slowly and heats Old Geng’s water.  Then he decides to go seek the branch secretary and demand his pensioner rights back.  Turned away in his quests, Eighteen Stabs Geng finally dies in snow that seems “to scald him” (344).  A young Communist bureaucrats finds him dead, “like a crucified Jesus,” the next day (345).

Ch. 5.7

Granddad dies - Father (Douguan) closes his father’s unseeing eyes (78). 

Ch. 1.9

Narrator returns to Northeast Gaomi Township, in order “to compile a family chronicle, focusing on the famous battle on the banks of the Black Water River that involved my father and ended with the death of a Jap general” (13).

Ch. 1.2

[2^nd storyteller:]  92-year-old woman “clay pot,” survivor of “the Mid-Autumn Festival massacre of ‘39” [the same lame “woman Liu” of Ch. 3.4 - see 1939].  She knew Grandma’s history (13).  [Clay Pot’s song story, with bamboo clappers:] Narrator learns that ambush plan was Grandma’s—Dai Fenglian—she is celebrated as “a national hero,” & learns Uncle Arhat Liu’s role in the family’s history (13-14)

Ch. 1.2

2^nd story-teller “clay pot: “She told it exactly as it was”(14).

Ch. 1.3

Narrator muses: “What turns the sorghum of Northeast Gaomi Township into a sweet, aromatic wine that leaves the taste of honey in your mouth and produces no hangover?” (85)  Narrator then reveals the “family secret” about the wine—but also other secrets about the murder of the Shans (85-86).

Ch. 2.1

The Narrator is “home on summer holiday,” when “All-Souls Grave had opened up…”—a mass grave where “Communists, Nationalists, commoners, Japanese, and puppet troops were buried” (203).  This is the same “spot where Granddad, Father, and Mother had fought a heroic battle against a pack of dogs led by the three from our family—Blackie, Red, and Green” (203).  Narrator discovers “the skulls of dozens of dogs mixed in with the human heads in the grave” (204).  Narrator’s Mother [Beauty] performs a ritual to “calm the frightened souls of the dead,” noting that 46 years ago she had been only 15 years old (204).

Ch. 3.5

Because the “woman Liu” had “looked after” Granddad, Douguan, & Mother [Beauty] during the “trying days” of winter 1939-1940, the family “remembered [her] even decades later and “added [her] to our ‘family scroll,’…just below Passion, who follows Grandma, who is second only to Granddad” (270).

Ch. 4.5

Passion = 2^nd Grandma is buried in “the black earth of her hometown,” & Narrator cannot forget his illusion of her “blackened, blood-shiny corpse” (307).

Ch. 5.1

After having been away in the city for 10 years, Narrator now stands before 2^nd Grandma’s grave and eulogizes her “short but magnificent life” (356).  Then her “eerie, supernatural death” awakens a strong “mysterious emotion, and Narrator is frightened because “my eyes, too, have taken on that crafty look” [the “boundless desire” in the red eyes of pet rabbits], and “I have begun to utter only the words that others have spoken . . . . Have I no voice of my own?” (357).  Second Grandma leaps from her grave and forces the Narrator to look into mirror.  She advises him to “Come home!” and to purify himself of “the pet-rabbit odor” he brought from the city by soaking himself 3 days and nights in the Black Water River (358). He notices the sorghum around the grave.  Only hybrid sorghum now grows in Northeast Gaomi Township’s rich black soil, a “source of rampant constipation,” and Narrator hates it (358).  The Narrator feels loss as he thinks “of surpassingly beautiful scenes that will never again appear: In the deep autumn of the eighth month, under a high, magnificently clear sky, the land is covered by sorghum that forms a glittering sea of blood” (358).  The Narrator feels shackled and despairs.  “A desolate sound comes from the heart of the land” in the voices of his family; “The ghosts of my family are sending me a message to point the way out of this labyrinth” (359).  The voices urge him to soak in the Black River Water; then find “a stalk of pure-red sorghum” and “wield it high as you re-enter a world of dense brambles and wild predators.  It is your talisman, as well as our family’s glorious totem and a symbol of the heroic spirit of Northeast Gaomi Township” (359). 

Ch. 5.10