讀書筆記 Dagger in the Dark ( The Good Deed)

 I read the third article of the book ‘ The Good Deed’, “ Dagger in the Dark”. This article told the story of the CPC army assassinating a doctor who is respected by the people but didn’t thinking about politics.
1) In a small town Taipo in northern China, there was a Liang family. Each generation had been outstanding, and many descendants had gone to various parts of the world. In the town this family now, there was a famous traditional Chinese physician, Old Doctor Liang and his eldest son, Liang Yu. Liang Yu went to the United States to study surgery. After studying surgery, he returned to China to treat people with his father.
After the Lugouqiao Incident, 1937, Japanese troops occupied this town. The Liang family also take seriously the treatment of Japanese wounded soldiers, and therefore received the respect of the Japanese occupiers.
Shortly after Japan’s surrender, Old Liang passed away. Liang Yu also learned some knowledge of internal medicine of traditional Chinese medicine from his father. So he worked at both internal medicine and surgical diseases. After another year, Liang Yu's wife gave birth to twin sons. Liang Yu sent his two younger brothers to study in the United States, one studying medicine and the other studying pharmacy.. A year later, Liang Yu's wife gave birth to another daughter, and Liang Yu’s mother died of old age.
Then there was the Kuomintang Communist War. Many wounded soldiers from the Kuomintang came to the hospital, and later many wounded soldiers from the Communist Party. Liang Yu treated them same.
At this time, many wealthy families were afraid of the Communist Party and fled to Hong Kong. Liang Yu's wife also wanted to escape, but Liang Yu believes that he is a doctor, he  only cares about treating the sick and saving the people, whether they are the Kuomintang or the Communist. Liang Yu did not want to escape.
After the Communist Party entered the town, they treated the Liang family well. They didn't occupy Liang’s home. The commander went to see Liang Yu, affirmed his work, and invited him to join the Communist Party. But Liang Yu said he does not care about politics, just treating diseases.

2) One day, two non Communist wounded soldiers arrived, seriously injured, they were left behind by the Kuomintang Army retreat, requiring amputation. After treatment, the wounded soldiers said they should leave immediately, otherwise Liang Yu would be punished. But Liang Yu believed that he would not. Later, the Communist commander came and asked Liang Yu to hand over the two wounded soldiers of the Kuomintang army. Liang Yu refused. The commander said, " No more wounded soldiers of the Kuomintang Army shall be admitted in the future. Otherwise, the hospital will be confiscated.” Liang Yu replied, "Everyone here supports me. You dare not confiscate it.”  “Everyone in the world is a brother”。
In the following days, Liang Yu admitted several wounded soldiers of CPC party. One early summer evening, a man came and said that his father was seriously ill and asked Liang to go for treatment. Liang followed this man. When they went to a remote place , the man stab Liang Yu to death with a dagger.
These were seen by a woman passing by. She went to the Liang family and asked Mrs. Liang to take the children and run away quickly. Mrs. Liang took her children and fled to another city by boat. 
Then the villagers know. Someone wrote a letter to Liang's younger brother in the United States telling them not to come back! The Taipo people solemnly buried the Liang Yu.
3）I think:
A) There had been many assassinations in history, many of them for political reasons. For example, in 1946, the Kuomintang assassinated Li Gongpu (李公樸)and Wen Yiduo. (聞一多). In 1971, Lin Biao's (林彪）son attempted to assassinate Mao Zedong. Ruth sent me a paper”Brief Timeline Of America History” referring to the assassination in the United States: " 1865 Lincoln assassinated, 1963 JFK assassinated, and 1968 Martin Luther King assassinated”. I think: with social progress, towards democratic harmony, assassination will be less and less!
B) In times of war, treating the wounded equally, regardless of the enemy or ourselves, is ostensibly humane, but it is not practical. We should recognize the nature of war, support the just side, and oppose the aggressive side!                      

Dagger in the Dark”—Tentative Prompts

Introduction: “Dagger in the Dark” is a very short story, only ten pages long, but in addition to its rather compelling plot and characters, it presents several historical and cultural bits of information that deepen and enrich our understanding of the story and its author.  And on top of that, we have the added element of its being identified as a true story by the narrator.  

?1.  What above all interested you, grabbed your attention in “Dagger in the Dark”?

2. Look carefully at the opening and closing paragraphs.  What does the narrator/author want us to understand about this particular story? How does he/she describe the usual literary creative process? Do you think that it might describe the author’s usual process for arriving at a subject for a new story, how inspiration comes to her? Why might she insist that this story is different? Does her insistence affect how the story is written, its style, how you read it?  

3. The second paragraph provides the setting in the northern city of Taipo , where the Liang family (not their real name) have lived for generations and ends with :”In these times it is not safe to speak the names of noble men.”  What time is the writer referring to ? Why change the family name

4.  Also on the opening page, we are given information regarding the noble origins of the  Liang family and the long tradition in China that “…nobility has never been inherited as an estate….It was believed that in each generation a  man should make his own mark, and therefore no son could properly take his father’s title as though it were a velvet robe or a coat of ermine” (91-92).  Why introduce this information at the story’s beginning?  What might its purpose be?

5. The Japanese invasion of China, which began as an official war in 1937 with the battle of the Bridge at Marco Polo, not far from Taipo, and the conflict between the Nationalists and the Communists for control of China serve as the time frame for this story.  Which of these two groups, the Japanese invaders or the Chinese Communists, seems to be seen in a better light by the citizens of Taipo?  How might we explain this?

6.  Does this story reflect what we’ve read before regarding the peasants’ treatment under the Communists and how they really felt toward Communist leaders and landlords?

7. Who are the heroes in this story, the most admirable characters? What are they like? What motivates them to behave as they do?

8.  Did the elder Dr. Laing’s decision to end his life surprise you?  What does it signal in the story

9. To whom are the last lines of the story addressed?  What seems to be the message?

       

周泰 发表评论于
A few of Pearl S. Buck’s Thoughts on Character Development and Style in Fiction:
In his revised edition of his work Pearl Buck (Twayne Pubishers 1980), Paul Doyle provides a concise summary of the author’s 1933 speech “On the Writing of Novels,” delivered at Randolph Macon Women’s College. In it, she tells her audience that she is more obsessed with character than with plot. “Characters continually appear in her mind,” she says, “and call out to her to put them into a book. Such characters must be controlled and used to unify a book, although these individuals frequently want to dominate the author. The major characters direct the plot and shape it as it develops” (Qtd. in Doyle 84-85).
In this same address, “Buck chooses some words from Virginia Woolf as the best definition of style: Good style consists of the use of ‘the far side of language.’” It “should bring meaning and emotion which goes beyond the words themselves. She feels that the simplest words are often the most powerful in bringing about such evocative effects” (Doyle 85).
In her address on the occasion of receiving the Nobel Prize in 1938, she spoke of the Chinese novel as being the main influence on her work. Speaking particularly of style in these novels, she described it as “one which flowed easily along, clearly and simply, in the short words which they themselves used every day, with no other technique than occasional bits of description, only enough to give vividness to a place or person, and never enough to delay the story”(qtd. in Doyle, 86).
In the 1930s when she gave the Nobel speech, Doyle says that Buck believed that “The moralizer can never be a genuine artist because the picture of life portrayed would be distorted in order to fit the preachment. Life should be the teacher, not the novelist. She recognizes that the true artist should observe and portray life as it is and not twist it to fit a particular theory” (85). As we have seen, she would move away from this belief in later years.

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The Analects: An anthology of brief passages that present the conversations and teachings of Confucius and his disciples, this work is akin to the Platonic dialogues in that it captures the Confucian spirit and content. This collection of aphorisms and anecdotes embodies the basic values of the Confucian tradition and is the most revered sacred scripture in this tradition. According to it, the most important virtues are benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom, and trustworthiness or sincerity, which is considered to be the most important of the five.
Some Sample Analects:
? Respect yourself and others will respect you.
? Hold faithfulness and sincerity as first principles.
? To be wealthy and honored in an unjust society is a disgrace.
? The noble-minded are calm and steady.
周泰 发表评论于
A Few Notes on Terms We Meet in “Dagger in the Dark”
Inherited Nobility: This is a pretty complicated topic since over many centuries how inherited nobility was understood and carried out in China seemed to be variously interpreted. On the opening page of “Dagger in the Dark,” we are told that during the Ming dynasty (1368-1644), “an emperor…bestowed a dukedom upon the head of the Liang family of those times, but his son could not inherit the title. It was believed that in each generation a man should make his own mark,and therefore no son could properly take his father’s title as though it were a velvet robe or a coat of ermine” (92). According to various online sources that I consulted, hereditary sovereignty and noble families—the imperial system – were present in the early historic period in China, and this system of social and political organization was largely maintained through several dynasties thereafter. But during the Song Dynasty (960-1279), profound changes occurred, and China was transformed from a highly aristocratic society into a nearly non-aristocratic and more egalitarian state through the institution of a civil service examination system that based leadership not on hereditary wealth but on individual talent. Subsequently, the aristocracy merged into the much broader social bracket of the gentry. Intelligence gave this group prominence and it became the backbone of bureaucratic governments. So when the member of the Liang family received his dukedom during the Ming dynasty, having earned it through examination, his son would not inherit his title or his wealth. This changed when the Manchus conquered China, establishing the Qing dynasty in 1644. Once the Manchus took over China, they had a “monopoly on the best posts near the throne and precluded the rise of a Chinese aristocracy….They alone had the privileges attaching to hereditary nobility” (Global Security.org/military/world/China/history). Despite these changes, the national elite-- 1% of China’s population—remained dominant figures on the local scene in rural areas all across the country. They held land, which they rented to farmers. But there were no large estates or hereditary titles. Members of each generation achieved their titles by performance on exams. (Interestingly, the Manchus refused to learn or be taught.) The Manchus were in power until the Republican Revolution of 1911, which ended the official imperial system.
Confucianism: This word comes up only once in “Dagger in the Dark,” but it is an important word, even so. A fine article by Tu Weiming in the online Encyclopedia Britannica, refers to the way of life described and made popular in the 6th-5th century BCE by Confucius and followed by the Chinese for two-thousand years. It continues to be a source of values, learning, and the social code of China and other Asian countries. Weiming says that it “presents a world view, a social ethic, a political ideology, a scholarly tradition, and a way of life. Its theory and practice have indelibly marked the patterns of government, society, education, and family of East Asia.” The goal of Confucius, says Weiming, was “to restore trust in government and transform society into a flourishing moral community by cultivating a sense of humanity in politics and society.…Leaders should be examples who govern by moral leadership and exemplary teaching rather than by force…. “Filial piety is the first step toward moral excellence,” which he believed led to the attainment of humanity. “Taking care of family ethics was for him active participation in politics.”
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