"The Lady Who Was A Beggar"

The cultural significance of the story shows the reader that the Chinese society of seven hundred years ago was like our own in terms of the prevalence of such prejudice, and also like our own in that wise story-tellers warned about the destructive and self-destructive nature of such bias. It also tells us that art in that era, as far as that art is represented by this story, was created not merely as entertainment but as a means of instructing the populace in moral behavior.

"The Lady Who Was A Beggar" is actually two stories. The first story is about a biased wife who leaves her husband because she believes he will never amount to anything socially or economically. She believes this because he has reached the age of 43 and still makes a living carrying firewood, even though he applies himself---even while carrying that firewood---to arduous studies of classical works. He believes in himself and is patient with respect to success on a worldly level.

His wife, however, is not only impatient but also profoundly ashamed of him, especially when she sees children mocking him as he

. . .
o I married the daughter of a tramp-major. Without question, it is a life-long stain. My sons and daughters will still have a tramp-major as their grandfather, and I shall be passed from one man to the next as a laughing stock! (28). As we are reminded, Mo Chi has forgotten his student days when he was a poor orphan and the tramp-major took him in and he married the beautiful and skillful daughter of that tramp-major. He has lost his sense of gratitude to the tramp-major, and his sense of love for the daughter. All he can think of now is how others view him. The bitterness eats at him, and, as he and his wife travel to the city where he will take up his position as Census Officer, he tricks her out of bed and out to the deck of the ship on which they were traveling. He drags her to the side and throws her over into the river to drown. However, the evil deed is not the success Mo Chi believes it to be, as we learn from a poem which reflects a cultural belief that there is a greater force at work in individual lives which will return to them what they have given, good or bad: The name of the tramp-major pleases him ill; Hardened by pride he casts off his mate. The ties of Heaven are not easily broken; All he gains
. . .

Some common words found in the essay are:
Mo Chi, Lady Beggar, Jade Slave, Census Officer, Chi Probably, mo chi, Chi Hsu, , jade slave, daughter tramp-major, cultural belief, Grove Weidenfeld, cultural lesson, intervention heaven, Birch Cyril, cultural significance story, significance story, river drown, cultural significance, evil deed, boss mo chi,
Approximate Word count = 1656
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page)