To Live

Fugui’s story is one of hardship punctuated by devastating loss. The loss of his family’s fortune, though his own fault, sets the tone for what follows by establishing Fugui’s downward trajectory (at least in material terms). Fugui goes on to weather conscription, famine, illness, and the loss of his parents, son, daughter, wife, grandson, and multiple friends. Nevertheless, the final description of him depicts him singing as he walks away with his ox, implying that even the hardest and most grief-filled existence can still hold meaning and joy.

Part of that joy, the title suggests, is that of simple survival. The deaths that litter the work might seem to render the title ironic, but the novel suggests that the characters’ ultimate fates are not synonymous with their stories. Rather, it celebrates the characters’ small victories as they struggle to live amid China’s changing socioeconomic landscape. A motif of animals illustrates this point. When Fugui is young and wealthy, he eats meat freely every night. When Fugui loses that fortune, the animals that furnish that meat become much more precious, as raising lambs and selling them for money helps his family avoid starvation. Meanwhile, Youqing demonstrates that those same animals can also be companions. He continually befriends the family lambs, wearing out his shoes and running himself ragged just to keep them fed. This renders the family’s eventual need to sell the animals much more painful (and thus meaningful) while also underscoring the happiness that can be found even in poverty and hardship.

Similar moments of unexpected joy—Jiazhen’s recovery, Fenxia’s marriage, Fugui and Erxi’s friendship—appear throughout the novel. Though always fleeting, these triumphs over hardship sustain Fugui and contribute to his peacefulness in the narrative present. Once again, the human-animal bond underscores the theme. By the end of the novel, Fugui lives alone with an ox, recalling Fugui’s father’s remark about how the family made their money: “When that chicken grew up it turned into a goose, the goose in turn grew into a lamb, and the lamb became an ox. This is how our family became rich” (36). This parable-like account suggests that perseverance is the key to material success. However, the novel’s conclusion transforms the meaning of the ox, which is too old to do much work and does not seem to have benefited Fugui financially in the slightest. Rather, Fugui bought the ox because he could not bear the thought of it being slaughtered; as old as it was, he felt that its life still had worth. He names it after himself, and the narrator continually comments on how similar Fugui and his ox appear, driving home the parallel. Ultimately, it is perseverance itself—the simple act of existing against all odds—that the novel values.