Dragon Seed: The Story of China at War

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LING TAN LIFTED HIS head. Over the rice field in which he stood to his knees in water he heard his wife’s high loud voice. Why should the woman call him now in mid-afternoon when it was not time to eat or to sleep? In the further corner of the field his two sons were bending over the water, their two right arms thrusting together like the arms of one man as they planted the rice seedlings.

“Ho!” he shouted. As one man they stood at the sound of their father’s voice.

“Is that your mother?” he inquired.

They listened, two sturdy young men. He felt his belly move with pride at the sight of them. They were both already married, and the eldest, Lao Ta, had two sons, the youngest now only a month old. Lao Er, the second, had been married four months and his wife was beginning to fret. Besides these two, Ling Tan had his youngest son, Lao San, who at this moment was sitting on the water buffalo grazing somewhere on the round grassy foothills along this valley. There were also two daughters in his house, only one of whom was left to be wed. The elder he had given to a merchant’s son in the city whose walls could be clearly seen from behind his house.

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