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Pre U: Chronicle of a Blood Merchant: Themes and Key Quotes
Themes
Blood
Family relationships and duties Contrast of what we say / what we do
Father-son relationships Traditional v changing society/ Communist society
Public v Private Importance of “image” and “face”
Key Quotes: General (i.e. remember these if nothing else!)
p.125 “All I have left is my blood.”
p.250-51 “You were raised on his blood.”
p.88 XS: “She’s like a broken pot that’s not afraid of shattering, and I’m a dead pig who longer minds that the water’s coming to a boil.”
p.179 “If you hate her, you have to hate me too, because she and I are birds of a feather.”
p.131 “If you were my own son, you would be my favourite son of all.”
p.161 (XS) “Yile… Just shout a few times, and when you’re done, that bastard HX will never be your real dad again. From now on I’m your real dad.”
p. 243 “Just now I was crying because I thought Yile was dead. Now I’m crying because I know he’s alive.”
p.35 “ these people keep talking and talking, and once they get started, it never stops.” (XS)
p.67 “her neighbours picked up and left, like theatre patrons after a show.”
p.170 “What are you kids afraid of? You kids were born into the new society, and you’ve grown up under the red flag. You’re innocent.”
p.120 “It doesn’t matter who eats it in the end. It’ll turn into shit no matter who eats it. Let the kids shit a little extra.”
p.118 “What they say is true: You have to have a mountain before you can gather some wood.’ That means we have to get through these tough times now, so we’ll live to see better days.”
Blood
p.6 (XS and grandpa) “Around here the men who haven’t sold blood can’t get themselves a wife.”
“What kind of rule is that?”
“I don’t know if there’s a rule or not, but everyone who’s strong enough goes to sell his blood.”
p.147 “Most people in town think selling blood is something to be ashamed of, but in my grandpa’s village they believe that the men who sell blood are stronger than the ones who don’t. Now look at me. I’ve sold blood. Am I the weaker for it? No, of course not. And why not? Because Old Man Heaven’s rewarding me. I’d continue to survive even if I sold blood every day. Blood for me is like a money tree.”
p.230 “Your blood is like water in a well. It’ll never run dry, no matter how much you draw.”
p.237 “ When I was young I was just the same, I thought selling blood was like shaking money from a tree… but that’s not how it is at all… if you keep on selling your blood, you’ll ruin your health.”
p.15 (AF to XS) “You’ve just sold your energy. That’s why you feel weak. What we sold just now is energy, understand? City people call it blood, but we country folk call it energy. There are two kind of energy. One kind comes from muscle. But the kind that comes from the blood is worth a lot of money.”
p.16 (XS) “I’ve only just learned what it means to sell the kind of energy that comes from blood… you can’t spend that kind of money on just anything. I have to find something important to spend it on.”
p.184 (CS) “You know, energy isn’t like money. The more you use money, the less you have. But the more energy you put out, the more you’ll have.”
p.221 “If you sell just once or twice, you feel weak. If you keep on selling blood, all the warmth in your body escapes, and you just can’t get warm.”
p.221-2 “I already sold all my strength. All I had left was my warmth… now even the little warmth that I had left is gone.”
p.247 “There’s more dead blood than living in your veins… the only person who might be able to use your blood is the lacquer man… because just before they lacquer a piece of furniture, they prime the wood with a coat of pig’s blood.”
p.125 “All I have left is my blood.”
p.127 “it’s not like it’s mere sweat. It’s blood after all.”
p.245 “Today he would sell blood once again, but this time he was going to sell blood just for himself.”
p.247 “he had overcome every family calamity by selling his blood. Now that no one wanted his blood, what would be do if some calamity were once again to befall his family?”
p.250-51 (whole of XY’s speech) “You were raised on his blood.”
Quotes: XS & XY relationship
p.25 (XS to XY’s father) “look at it this way- if I marry Xu Yulan, it would be just the same as if I agreed to take on your family name instead of making Xu Yulan take mine.”
p.83 “She looked everything over, then went to look for the man with whom she’d worked together for those ten years to make a home. Xu Sanguan was sitting by the table inside the house.”
p.106 “I’ve suffered and I’ve struggled for ten years now, and I’ve given you three sons. When did you ever sell blood for my sake? I never knew until now what a heartless son of a bitch you are. I can’t believe you sold your blood just to give that fat bitch some soup bones.”
“Since when have you given me three sons? Is Yile my son? And when I sold blood to pay Blacksmith Fang, who do you think I was doing it for?”
p.88 XS: “She’s like a broken pot that’s not afraid of shattering, and I’m a dead pig who longer minds that the water’s coming to a boil.”
p.169 “XS, as long as you’re good to me, I’m not afraid of anything in the world.”
p.179 “If you hate her, you have to hate me too, because she and I are birds of a feather.”
p.37 “this woman… is a stupid fool. You’re not supposed to air your dirty laundry, and here she is, sitting on the doorstep crying for the whole world to hear…” (XS about XY)
p.162 “Standing by the doorway of HX’s house, he lifted the blade to his face and sliced his own cheek. Then he stuck out his hand, rubbed it with the blood running from the gash, and announced to the crowd, “You saw what I just did, right? I cut my own face with this knife. From now on… if any of you ever dares to say that Yile is not my real son, I’ll do the same to you.”
p.178 (Yile) “I hate He Xiaoyong the very most. And I hate her second most… the person I love most, of course, is our Great Leader Chairman Mao. And the one I love second most”- Yile gazed and Xu Sanguan- “is you.”
p.179 “Xu Sanguan stared back at Yile without so much as blinking. After what seemed like a long while, tears spilled from his eyes, and he said to Xu Yulan, “Who says Yile isn’t my son?”
p.187 (XS to Yile) “Take all of it. I earned it selling blood just now. Take all of it.”
p.222 “the old man said, “First you sold your strength. Now you’ve sold your warmth. What’s left but your life?” “If that’s what it takes, I’m willing” XS explained, “my son has hepatitis.”
p. 243 “Just now I was crying because I thought Yile was dead. Now I’m crying because I know he’s alive.”
Quotes: XS and Erle/Sanle/ three sons relationship
XS to Erle and Sanle “You two sons are all I have left now… when you two grow up, I want you to take revenge on He Xiaoyong for me… when you’re all grown up, I want you to rape He Xiaoyong’s daughters for me.”
p.117 “All your mom and I can do is protect you little ones and make sure you get through this alive.”
p.120 “It doesn’t matter who eats it in the end. It’ll turn into shit no matter who eats it. Let the kids shit a little extra.”
p.120 “Since it’s my birthday, I’m going to do something special for you kids. I’m going to cook a meal for each of you with my mouth, and you can eat it with your ears.”
p.170 “What are you kids afraid of? You kids were born into the new society, and you’ve grown up under the red flag. You’re innocent.”
p.176 (XS to XY) “Don’t look at them as your sons. Just try to see them as the revolutionary masses who are denouncing you.”
Quotes: Neighbours’ involvement and “face”
P4 “Around here, that’s not how you play by the rules” (grandpa to XS)
p.35 “ these people keep talking and talking, and once they get started, it never stops.” (XS)
p.37 “this woman… is a stupid fool. You’re not supposed to air your dirty laundry, and here she is, sitting on the doorstep crying for the whole world to hear…” (XS about XY)
p.63 “When she saw that a group of spectators had begun to gather around and watch, He Xiaoyong’s woman chimed in, “Take a good look. She’s a shameless bitch, this one. Trying to steal my man in broad daylight.”
p.67 “By now Xu Yulan’s litany had lost much of its interest for the spectators. She went through the changes several more times, but her voice had begun to weaken with fatigue and, lacking its original bit and elasticity, became dry and gravelly.”
p.67 “her neighbours picked up and left, like theatre patrons after a show.”
p.85 “she weepingly made her way to the door… Xu Sanguan growled from behind her, “Come back here, you bitch. You’re going to the doorstep again. You’re gonna start screaming and yelling and making a scene again.”
p.199 “it’s better to harm yourself than to hurt a friend’s feelings.”
Quotes: imagery (often using rural images)
p.4 “ The sky was a wash of crimson that seemed to emanate from the muddy paddies in the distance, shining across the fields, transforming the crops into a vast tomato-red expanse”
p.14 “A mass of weeds grew from in between the roof tiles, cascading over the eaves like eyebrows”
p.18 “I know Goldens. The flesh smells really good, but they aren’t actually all that sweet… I’ve had Old Lady melons too. They’re not too sweet, and they’re not very crisp either. By the time you open one up and take a bit, it’s all mushy.” (XS)
p.54 “I heard his skull is cracked open, like a watermelon that’s been dropped on the ground and broken into bits and pieces…The nurse at the hospital said his brains looked like stewed tofu, and steam was coming out from between the cracks in his head… It’s not as easy as pulling up a patch of weeds, with the skull all broken to pieces like that.”
p. 93 (LFF) “her body looked like the ruins of a collapsed house”
p.94 “I never though your legs would be so soft and white. They’re even whiter than fatty pork.”
p.131 “The mass of flesh inside the sweet potato was orange, like sunlight.”
p.152 “her eyes were so swollen from crying they looked like lightbulbs… She’s as skinny as a pole. You could use her to hang your laundry out to dry.”
p.166 (of her XY’s hair) “it looked like a rice paddy midway through the harvest season.”
p.168 “She’s like MSG. You can add MSG to any kind of dish, and it makes everything a little tastier.”
p.183 “The walls were nearly a hundred years old, and green weeds grew from the crack between the bricks, fluttering in the breeze.”
p.212 “His time-bronzed skin flushed a deep red in the cold wind.”
p.215 “The cold winter wind chilled his face, slipped down his collar, and down his neck… wrapped in the cotton-padded jacket, he felt his body suddenly go cold. He knew it was because he had sold his blood, because he had sold all the warmth in his body.”
p. 215 “He looked as if he were pulling his body down the road with his collar.”
p.248 (whole description of XS crying) “like rain streaming across a windowpane, or the hairline cracks crawling up the sides of a fragile antique bowl…”
Quotes: Social changes v traditional life
p.105 (XY to XS) “It’s all over for us. With other folks the old saying holds true: ‘As goes the nation, so goes the family.’ But it’s different for us. The country’s fine, but we’re ruined…”
p.111 “The state is just like the landlords before. Of course, you can’t say that the state is a landlord. You should call it the People’s Commune instead.”
p.111 “…steel is like grain, grain for the state. That’s why smelting steel is just like planting rice in the paddies.”
p.111 “I saw lots of people in red armbands going from house to house confiscating people’s woks, and their bowls, and their rice, and all their oil, salt, soy and vinegar.”
p.111 “All the singing clowns from the Yue Opera Company are up onstage rinsing vegetables.”
p.112 “They shut down all the canteens in town. Looks like the good times are over.”
P115 “Hard times are going to come. No one can go through their life without running into hard times once or twice, You just can’t escape.”
