The Good Earth

In bed, Wang Lung feels a bundle between O-lan’s breasts. She shows him a pouch full of precious jewels. O-lan explains that she knew what to look for—and where—when she went inside the great house in the city. Wang Lung says that the jewels won’t be safe if people know they have them. The best thing to do, he says, is to use them to buy land. She asks him if she can keep two small white pearls, which she ties between her breasts.

Wang Lung takes the pouch to the House of Hwang, from which he bought two tracts previously. Only two people are left in the great house—the old “master” and his chief “concubine,” Cuckoo. Troubled that in order to buy the land, he must deal with the “concubine,” Wang Lung casually checks out her story. After verifying all Cuckoo tells him, Wang Lung goes to her and purchases the remaining land from Hwang.

Wang Lung prospers because his lands are fertile and the weather is good. He hires Ching, a worthy steward, to keep track of the produce and workers. Wang Lung hires additional laborers, adds rooms to his house, and installs a silo for crops. For seven straight years, he has good crops yields. O-lan, having restored the beauty of the home, gives birth to fraternal twins, a boy and a girl.

Wang Lung feels chagrined that he can’t read. The clerks laugh when he can’t sign his name. He decides that his eldest son should go to school and become his personal clerk. The second-born son objects, claiming that he should be allowed to go to school as well. Wang Lung registers both sons at the school of a teacher known to be quite strict. The teacher gives them names: “for the elder, Nung En, and for the second Nung Wen, and the first word of each name signified one whose wealth is from the earth” (164).

Wang Lung is so successful that when a great flood inundates the area, preventing planting and harvesting, he doesn’t worry. As he waits for the flood water to recede, he focuses on O-lan. He realizes how very plain she is and insults her for doing nothing to make herself attractive. She explains that she has had physical issues since the birth of the twins: “Since those last two were born together I have not been well. There is a fire in my vitals” (168).

Wang Lung goes into the village to a tearoom that offers gambling and sex workers. Soon, he goes daily to sit and look at the banners bearing images of beautiful women. Cuckoo eventually comes down the stairs, recognizes him, and explains that the banners are portraits of the sex workers upstairs. Wang Lung notes one in particular whom he finds very beautiful. He expresses this aloud, embarrassing himself. He rises quickly and leaves in the darkness.

Without work to distract him, Wang Lung returns to the tearoom. Eventually, Cuckoo asks him which woman he wants. He asks for the woman named Lotus, whom other sex workers refer to as small. Cuckoo takes him upstairs, where Lotus quickly seduces him. He goes to her room every day, unable to think of anything besides being with her.

Wang Lung begins to change his appearance, no longer satisfied with looking like a farmer because this raises eyebrows in the tearoom. He buys nicely tailored clothes, some of which he keeps at the tearoom, where he changes before going to Lotus. Coming home one evening, he sees O-lan washing clothes and asks her for the two pearls that she keeps on her body. Without complaint, she gives the pearls to him and continues to wash clothes as she weeps.

Uncle reappears. He invites himself, his wife, and son—his only remaining family members—to live with Wang Lung. According to custom, Wang Lung must take in his uncle’s family. After acclimating himself to Uncle’s presence, Wang Lung goes to see Lotus at the teahouse. His aunt, being very worldly, quickly guesses that Wang Lung has another woman and tells O-lan. Overhearing his aunt say that he’ll probably bring his new woman to his house, Wang Lung decides to pay Lotus to move into his home. He instructs his aunt to work with Cuckoo to make these arrangements. During the month it requires to secure the agreement, Wang Lung builds three additional rooms and a courtyard for Lotus onto his house.

When Lotus arrives, in a sedan carried by six men, Wang Lung discovers that she has brought Cuckoo to take care of her. O-lan takes the twins and disappears until late in the day. She doesn’t confront Wang Lung but simply continues with her life and work. Wang Lung goes to Lotus each day, and each evening Cuckoo waits on her.

From the beginning, Lotus and Cuckoo cause trouble for Wang Lung. O-lan’s hatred of Cuckoo dates to when both lived in the House of Hwang. O-lan refuses to do anything for Lotus or Cuckoo. Uncle’s wife, Cuckoo, and Lotus form a little alliance. They gossip constantly, and when they’re together, Lotus ignores Wang Lung. He fears making Lotus angry and won’t confront her. In addition, he feels remorse for taking O-lan’s pearls away.

Wang Lung’s father wakes up from his stupor one day and, upon seeing Lotus, proclaims repeatedly that she’s a “harlot.” By custom, Wang Lung can’t correct his father. His twins go to Lotus’s rooms, taking their sister with an intellectual disability along. Dismayed, Lotus confronts Wang Lung about his children. He angrily instructs her not to criticize them. One day he wakes and realizes that the flood has receded. Heeding the call of the land, he tells Ching that it’s time to start planting.

Through farming, Wang Lung loses his obsession for Lotus. When he lies on the earth, healing comes from the ground, and he feels renewed. He goes to Lotus after working without bathing. Although Lotus disapproves of his appearance and smell, he doesn’t care.

Wang Lung gains the reputation of a man who has two women, much wealth, and the ability to manage it all. People come to him for advice.

When it’s time to sell grain, Wang Lung takes his elder son, who does a good job. Wang Lung can’t understand why the young man is so melancholy. O-lan explains to him that he isn’t like the son of a farmer but rather like one of the sons of the old “master,” a young lord. Wang Lung decides that it’s time to find the right young woman to marry his son.

Worried about his son, Wang Lung tells Lotus that he needs to find a woman for her. Lotus tells him of a former client with a young daughter who looks like her. Cuckoo offers to see him and arrange a betrothal. However, Wang Lung isn’t ready; he wants to think it over.

His son comes home drunk one evening, and his second son informs him that the older son spent the previous three nights with Uncle’s son. Wang Lung learns from his nephew that his son has been at the house of a well-known sex worker. Wang Lung confronts her, telling her that she is to refuse her services to the boy and Wang Lung will pay her twice her fee.

Wang Lung confronts Uncle and demands that the family leave. Uncle laughs and reveals that he’s a member of the Red Beards, bandits who attack homeowners throughout the area. Wang Lung realizes that his uncle’s presence safeguards his property. As he reflects about what to do, a great cloud of locusts appears on the horizon. Villagers throw up their hands in despair. Wang Lung decides that they must fight the locusts. He devises a plan to burn part of his fields to divert the locusts while flooding other fields. Although the locusts devastate most of the area, Wang Lung’s property survives with little loss. Wang Lung reflects that all men have trouble and eventually his uncle will die. Meanwhile, he can wait for his son to marry the grain merchant’s daughter.

The period of peace in the house ends when the eldest son asks Wang Lung if he can go south for a real education. Wang Lung refuses, believing that his son has grown too soft and doesn’t know the importance of work. The young man is disconsolate. Lotus affirms the son’s desire to leave. Wang Lung asks how she knows this. She says that Cuckoo told her. O-lan comes to Wang Lung to tell him that their son goes to see Lotus too often. Wang Lung says that she is making this up. That night, Lotus has nothing to do with Wang Lung because he hasn’t bathed. He remembers that she hasn’t wanted to have anything to do with him for some time. He says that the next day he’s going away for a long time. Instead, he returns early and stands outside the curtain to Lotus’s bedroom. He hears Lotus talking to his son on the inside. Wang Lung gets a bamboo whip. He returns and sees his son standing by Lotus, who lays on the bed. Wang Lung beats his son with the bamboo rod and strikes Lotus when she tries to intervene. He sends the boy to his room. Lotus says she never had sex with the boy, that they’ve only talked. Wang Lung stands outside his son’s room and orders him to go south the next day. Then, he goes to work in the field.

Wang Lung turns his attention to his second son, who he decides should be a merchant. Wang Lung strikes a deal with his first son’s future father-in-law to hire the second son as an apprentice in the grain business. Since Wang Lung has a 10-year-old daughter and the merchant has a 10-year-old son, they betroth these children.

Wang Lung notices his younger daughter crying. She says that O-lan binds her feet tightly every night and tells her not to complain. She adds that her future husband might find her feet ugly and stop loving her, just as Wang Lung doesn’t love O-lan. This fills Wang Lung with remorse. Noticing that O-lan’s stomach swells and she can scarcely work, he sends her to bed and summons a doctor. Without any examination beyond listening to her pulse, the doctor lists many ailments she has. He says that he’ll cure her for 500 silver pieces or simply treat her for 10 pieces. When Wang Lung says that he will pay the 500 pieces for a guaranteed cure, the doctor increases the total to 5,000, implying that O-lan is dying. Wang Lung pays the 10 pieces of silver. He goes into a room by himself and weeps.

Now that she’s bedridden, Wang Lung and his family realize how much O-lan has done for them. He makes funeral arrangements for her. She lingers through winter. Wang Lung can’t bring himself to have sex with Lotus. O-lan asks him to summon her future daughter-in-law, whom she hasn’t met, to care for her. The girl comes with a servant. O-lan likes her immediately. Then, O-lan asks Wang Lung to call their older son home. She wants them to wed before she dies.

Wang Lung prepares a wedding feast and sends a man to get his son. The wedding preparations are opulent. He invites everyone he knows and even tells Uncle to invite everyone he knows. The older son arrives and goes in to see his mother. He’s obedient and grief-stricken.

The bride and groom undergo elaborate preparations. Their wedding is the next day, and they’ll wed without having even met. The day of the wedding, the bride and groom go to the center court. The groom steals one satisfying glance at the bride. The elaborate ceremony takes place with the bride and groom sitting on the bed beside O-lan, drinking wine and sharing rice as a symbol of matrimony.

When the feast ends, O-lan gives instructions separately to the bride and groom. After she dismisses them, Wang Lung sits with her. Her strength ebbs, and later that evening, she dies. He has brought a black coffin and has her sealed in it. On the advice of a geomancer (one who bases divination on geographic features), he stores the casket in the temple for three months, waiting for the most auspicious day for her funeral.

Meanwhile, Wang Lung’s father dies. On the chosen day, the family goes up a hill on Wang Lung’s property with both the Taoist and the Buddhist priests for a burial service. Wang Lung walks home alone, thinking that half his life lies buried atop the hill.