Pages 103-124

History 8 China The Examination

Summary

Chen learns he passed the Examination, while Hong was initiated into the White Lotus. Then they continue on their journey, Hong carrying a dangerous letter from Ye Pan. At a village they see a traditional dance, and Chen wants to stay and marry one of the girls. Hong confronts him and threatens to leave without him, when Chen decides to continue instead of getting married.

Competition for Places

"Of nearly six thousand candidates, only about sixty had passed: one out of a hundred." (107)

Legalism

"Well, I suppose that's a stated aim: the establishment of social order." (119)

Symbols

"Lao Hong took off his blouse and put on a white robe, which symbolized death to the old ways." (110)

"The blood of the rooster represents every drop of blood spilled by the brotherhood in the name of justice." (110)

4 Noble Truths

"Yearning for home is no better than yearning for something else. Yearning for things to go right helps nothing. Yearning for a nice pleasant world is foolish. Yearning for winds to carry the locusts eastward instead of westward is even more foolish. You have to finish something." (113)

Opposites

"... this talisman invoked the Yin and the Yang, the Shadow and the Sun, the Passive and the Active, the Good and the Bad, the Valleys and the Mountains, the Cold and the Heat- in fact, all the oppositions in life that a man must endure." (118)

Sources: The Examination by Malcolm Bosse

Arisa Sadeghpour