Act 20 (Upper, Middle, and Lower Parts)

Author: Zhou Daixin
Publisher:
Publishing Date: Not available
Features: Reading excerpt: The prosperity of the Shang family owes much to a son-in-law who comes to live with them. The Shang family's lineage might have gone a bit wrong in the twenty-first generation, yielding only a gaunt son. The elders pinned all their hopes of continuation on this son, who would gasp for breath after digging just a few sweet potatoes, and thus they married him to a well-mannered wife. As soon as the wife entered the door, her parents used various hints to urge him to work hard at night, striving to "plant widely and reap bountifully" so that the Shang family would have a brood of grandsons. The son naturally understood his heavy burden and worked tirelessly, often turning his small face deathly pale. Yet, the goddess of childbirth refused to help, and in the end, she only gave him a daughter. Seeing that both his son and daughter-in-law had passed forty without a grandson, the father sighed tearfully, "It seems heaven is determined to wipe out the Shang family!" After sighing, he hurriedly sought the advice of a fortune-teller. The fortune-teller walked around the Shang residence three times forward, three times backward, and calculated for a long time before shaking his head and sighing, "The Yang Qi in the Shang family's bloodline has been lost; another Qi must come to fill the void." Hearing this, the confused old man grew even more desperate. Seeing his father's sorrow, the son naturally felt uneasy and took it all out on his wife, kicking her buttocks with his skinny legs and cursing, "You lazy, good-for-nothing woman!" The wife, unable to bear a son for the Shang family, felt guilty and dared not reply, only swallowing her tears in silence. When the man kicked her hard, she burst into tears and said, "Even if you kill me, it won’t help! My menstruation has stopped downstairs. We should quickly find a son-in-law for our daughter and let her carry on the Shang family's lineage!" These words reminded the Shang father and son, and only then did the father recall the fortune-teller's words and understand their meaning. Thus, he quickly began the search for a son-in-law. Fortunately, their daughter was quite pretty, and as soon as the Shang family announced their search for a son-in-law, poor families immediately sent matchmakers to their door. The young carpenter Zhao Tianjing entered the low gateframe and the thick annals of the Shang family's history under these circumstances.