Young Fu of the Upper Yangtze
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Name ______
Young Fu of the Upper Yangtze
Introduction
- Who was the empress that died in 1909 that led China into a period of revolution and violence?
- What were the men who contended for the throne called?
- Who is the author of the book?
Chapter 1 – “A City Set Upon a Hill”
- What is the city that is set upon a hill?
- Who owned the two-storied tenement where Young Fu and Fu Be Be were moving into?
- On what street was the tenement, and what is implied by the street’s name?
- Who were the people that did menial and back-breaking labor?
- For Young Fu, “the hours had flowed into the past as swiftly as the current of the river.” What does this quote mean, and what literary device is used?
- What caused Fu Be Be excitement as they were moving in to their tenement?
- Explain the geographic location of Chungking (p. 4)?
- What is Young Fu’s real name, and how old is he when he moves to Chungking?
- In Chungking, what was a “feeble barrier between themselves and hunger” (p. 6)?
- What does the quote, “Do I look like the widow of a Mandarin?” mean and who says it?
- How had the troops changed Young Fu’s father? - Young Fu’s father used to say “Ma te fah.” What does that mean?
- What property was Fu Be Be’s special pride (p. 9)?
- What are the two common methods of entertainment mentioned at the beginning of the book?
- What proof is there that the man who lived above Young Fu is a scholar (p. 11)?
- What does Wang Scholar say is Young Fu’s real reason for fortune?
- How does Young Fu respond to the idea of foreigners, and what do some Chinese call foreigners?
- Does Fu Be Be share Young Fu’s or the other Chinese peoples opinion of foreigners? Name ______
Chapter 2 – “In the Beginning All Things are Difficult”
- Why were Young Fu and Fu Be Be in their best garments when they went to the coppersmiths for the first time?
- Who eyed Young Fu and Fu Be Be with a “glance of derision”? (Derision means ridicule or mockery)
- Who is the farmer that writes the letter for Young Fu?
- In the past five years was required for apprenticeship, but because of war, how many are required now?
- At what time must Young Fu present himself to the shop everyday?
- Which Fu character does Fu Be Be sign the contract with?
- Why did Young Fu decide that he would learn to read and write?
- What was the cost to live in Dai’s tenement?
- What was Young Fu’s first task?
- Describe Tsu and Lu and their importance to the shop.
- How was Young Fu first tormented during midday rice? - Who or what brought Young Fu relief from this torment?
- What was Young Fu asked to deliver, and who was to help him?
- Where is Young Fu from?
- What do Young Fu and Li have in common?
- Why is Den bitter about Young Fu working at the shop? - What does countenance mean?
- “Chisels screeching their way into designs,” is what literary element?
- What does Dsen think about foreigners and their money?
- Why is the foreigner asking the price of something so amazing to Young Fu?
- What does Fu Be Be mean when she says, “You are like a man who sits at the bottom of a well and boasts about his knowledge”? Name ______
Chapter 3 – “Service at the Point of a Rifle”
- Why did Young Fu like delivering orders so much?
- What does disdain mean?
- What is a quality of Chinese women when buying merchandise no matter what their wealth?
- Why did women get their feet bound? Who started it?
- Why was not having your feet bound a stigma? What is a stigma?
- After six months he realized that Chungking was not perfect. Why?
- Why didn’t the coolie carry the soldiers’ bedding?
- What was Young Fu called on to carry?
- What does marshalling mean?
- Young Fu is fourteen at this time. True or False.
- What is indignation, and why does Young Fu feel it when the soldier says that he purchased the grain?
- Where did Fu Be Be go after Young Fu told her the story of the soldiers? Name ______
Chapter 4 – “If a Man’s Affairs Are to Prosper”
- Wang Scholar says, “Good iron is not wasted in making nails, nor good men in making soldiers!” Explain this quote.
- What does Tang say is all alike about Tuchuns?
- Where did Young Fu initially go to learn to draw strokes of Chinese characters?
- What causes Wang Scholar to start showing Young Fu how to write and instruct him?
- What does Wang Scholar refer to as the “wealth of ages”?
- What is the first thing that Wang Scholar teaches Young Fu?
- What does Young Fu think knowledge is for, and what does Wang tell him knowledge is really for?
- What does supercilious mean?
- Why doesn’t Young Fu share secrets with Small Li?
- What is true of most beggars?
- On his trip outside the city, what caused Young Fu to think of his father?
- What are imprecations?
- Why is Young Fu threatened by the beggar with a knife?
- During the period of Great Heat, what does Fu Be Be do for Wang Scholar because they have no money to pay him for lessons?
- What quote is Young Fu thinking about when he is tripped by beggars? - What does the quote mean?
- What was damaged in the fall?
- What moral dilemma does he face here and what wise decision does he make?
- What lesson does he learn from Tang regarding the damaged brazier?
- What is Young Fu’s punishment?
- What does penitent mean? Name ______
Chapter 5 – For Sale – Dragon’s Breath, Cheap”
- How long did Young Fu have to work in the shop and not make deliveries?
- In this chapter how long has Young Fu been an apprentice?
- What causes Young Fu’s “small world of self-confidence that he had been building crumbled into ruins at his feet”? What literary device is this an example of?
- What “evil fortune” grips Young Fu?
- What does Hsui the shopkeeper use to make Young Fu want the watch more?
- What must Young Fu pay for the watch, and does he have to pay at this time?
- What was the ruling desire of Fu Be Be, and how did this debt put this desire in question?
- Young Fu calls himself a dolt when he realizes the mistake of buying the watch. What is a dolt?
- Regarding the watch, “One morning in the second month of his possession, its mainspring gasped in a final effort and all of its contents settled into peaceful relaxation.” What literary device is this?
- By when did the balance on the watch have to be paid?
- Where did Young Fu go to flee the debt?
- What is a pu-gai?
- What does Young Fu fill with snow?
- What is snow also called?
- Why did the grandmother think it not wise to sell the snow?
- How much did Young Fu sell the snow for?
- What does “Fortune augered well for the coming year!” mean? Name ______
Chapter 6 – “Tilting with Fire”
- How did Young Fu get his money’s value with Hsui?
- What does Wang Scholar believe that most of men’s troubles come from?
- What is Chungking compared to on p. 97, and what does that comparison mean?
- What does auspicious mean?
- What sense of Young Fu first experienced the fire?
- Why does Fu Be Be fear Young Fu going to watch the fire?
- What does Fu Be Be do to ward off the trouble that Young Fu is heading towards?
- What was on fire and what was not?
- What did Young u find odd about the person in authority?
- What was threatening to burn down the house?
- What did the foreigner call him that caused him to warm?
- Is Fu Be Be proud of Young Fu for saving the house? Why or why not?
- Is Tang as superstitious as Fu Be Be or the other in the shop? What does Tang say?
- Who started the fire and why?
- What was Young Fu’s reward from the foreign woman? - How much of the reward did he want to keep, and what was this portion for?
- Why does Tang give him the small kettle for such a low price? Name ______
Chapter 7 – “The Devils of Disease”
- Why is everyone irritable at the beginning of the chapter?
- What was there talk of in the city?
- What disease did Young Fu think animals had nothing to do with?
- Which journeyman dies and why?
- What disease followed cholera in Chungking?
- What caused Fu Be Be to be happier than any other time since moving to Chungking?
- What does propitious mean?
- When Young Fu went to the drug shop to get herbs for Wang’s illness, what was most fascinating?
- Why did Tang say that Young Fu is a favorite of Heaven?
- To whom does Old Tsu say, “The fool always expends effort to make his superior seem less than himself,” and why does he say it?
- After Li falls ill, what does Young Fu first notice about Li Be Be?
- What does Li Be Be think is the reason for Li’s illness?
- What does Lu say about his friend and priests?
- When does Tang notice similarities between Young Fu and his son, and how did his son die?
- What does the foreign woman think mad Li sick?
- What does Young Fu ask of Tang in order to help Li? - Where does Li live?
- Which of Li’s parents is more welcoming of the foreign woman and why?
- Who offers to help pay for Li’s treatment?
- What was Li actually sick with?
- What was coming to end the period of Great Heat? Name ______
Chapter 8 – “A Footstool for Bandits!”
- Who took Den’s place, and what effect did he have on the shop?
- What does gleaned mean?
- Who, when alive, was New China’s Hope?
- What did the Nationalists choose for their capital?
- Who did the Nationalists wish to copy?
- Who was the large order of brass for?
- Why does Tang say that he is taking Young Fu on the delivery?
- What is the major source of danger on the river?
- Why are soldiers no good against the ban-keh?
- Why couldn’t Fu Be Be stop him form going?
- Where are they going to deliver the brass to?
- Where were Tang’s Family farmers?
- What does it mean when Young Fu says that Tang had “eaten much bitterness”?
- What meant more to Young Fu than payment in money for the brass delivery?
- How were the brasses paid for?
- Who was not there in the morning, and what is the believed reason they are gone? - Why did the captain anchor the boat?
- Where was the silver being stored?
- How many bandits were there?
- What did Tang give the bandits in money, but also to trick them and how much was it for?
- How did Young Fu hide the silver?
- What does Tang tell Young Fu about the check?
- Who was walking on Young Fu the whole time, and what injury did Young Fu receive? Name ______
Chapter 9 – “A River on the Rampage”
- What made Young Fu happy that he did not relate the incident which made him look so good?
- What is Den’s talent, and what else is he good at?
- Where does Den go when his apprenticeship is over?
- What does Old Tsu mean by, “A bird of evil omen has flown the rooftree.”?
- Who took Den’s place? What was he like?
- What does Young Fu say to comfort the new apprentice?
- After making a delivery and saving some eggplants, what dilemma does Young Fu face?
- Describe the River Dragon.
- Who does Young Fu ask for a place to stay for the evening?
- What dos Young Fu say that shows that he is not a thief?
- What are the signs of spring in the hills?
- What drove the Lings from Smiling Heaven Hill?
- What does, “Character is made by rising above one’s misfortunes” mean, and who says it?
- Who else was from Smiling Heaven Hill?
- What causes the Lings to stand there dazed, and who snaps them out of their daze?
- What do the Lings decide to take with them to protect them from the cold? - What does seethed mean?
- Where do the Lings and Young Fu end up, and who is there to help them?
- Why was Mother Ling afraid to stay in the house?
- How does Tang know the Lings?
- Who is Hsien-Seng?
- What does beguiling mean?
- What does gaminish mean? Name ______
Chapter 10 – “A Small Problem of Ownership”
- Ten days after the flood, what happened to Li?
- What had left an unprotected section of the wall?
- What was the spectacle that showed signs of modern times?
- What was the other mechanized invention “devil-engine” brought to Chungking?
- What is Young Fu’s opinion of the foreigners?
- What was the man in the Abiding Delight Tea House speaking about?
- What type of government is he promoting?
- What does “The shallowest teapot does the most spouting, and boils dry most quickly!” mean?
- Who in the shop agrees with the man in the tea house?
- Whose home is being attacked by the Communists?
- Does Tang believe that the foreigners “have brought all the evils from which this land suffers”?
- When Tang tells Wei to “Begin your work,” how does Weis respond, and how does Tang respond to this?
- What does Wang Scholar mean when he says, “We are like a fowl from whose bones even the marrow has been sucked.”?
- Whose youngest son was to be married?
- What does Tang ask Young Fu to do instead of attending the wedding? - Why would Young Fu rather be at the shop than at the wedding?
- What was Young Fu doing when he heard a strange sound and voices?
- Where were the people with Wei, who broke into the shop, from?
- What was the plan of these men?
- What did Wei destroy that belonged to Tang?
- How did Young Fu take care of Wei?
- What weapons did the other men have?
- Who returned to the shop to help Young Fu?
- Tang says to the thief, “Only the man who can eat the bitterness of bitterness can become the hero of heroes.” What does he mean?
- Why did they return from Tsu’s early? Name ______
Chapter 11 – “He Who Rides on a Tiger Cannot Dismount”
- Whose attention to his surroundings had saved Young Fu’s life?
- What does doleful mean?
- How many years of freedom does Li want instead of marrying?
- How did the death of Young Fu’s father actually give him more freedom?
- What does acrid mean?
- Why does Fu Be Be decide to visit her nephew in the hills?
- How much money does Fu Be Be give Young Fu before she leaves?
- What does Fu Be Be tell young Fu to use some of the money for?
- Fu Be Be’s absence caused what for the first time in Young Fu’s life?
- What is the difference between motor buses now and earlier in the book?
- What do you think happened to all the beggars?
- What was Young Fu craving that he had only had two or three occasions of in his life?
- What were four men playing? Please notice the words of darkness that denote evil is around.
- What do the men do that show that they are planning something?
- What does consternation mean?
- Do the domino players use flattery like the Hsui does to get Young Fu to play? - What was Young Fu’s debt, and how did he accumulate the debt?
- How did they know that Young Fu had money?
- “His heart burn like a hot coal in his breast.” What is the literary device, and what does it mean?
- How long did Fu Be Be remain away?
- Who was giving Young Fu the most trouble about paying a debt?
- What let Tang know that something was wrong with Young Fu?
- Why did Young Fu tell Tang the whole story of what had happened to the money?
- Who pays for Young Fu’s present debts?
- How old is Young Fu now, and why doesn’t he immediately tell her about the loss of money?
- How does Young Fu relate the story of the dominoes to his mother?
- How does it show his maturity?
- What question does Fu Be Be ask Young Fu?
- Why was Fu Be Be crying?
- What feeling did Young Fu have after telling his mother, and how well she receives the news?
- What does Tang mean by, “Medicines are bitter in the mouth, but they cure sickness”? Name ______
Chapter 12 – “In the Course of Time, Men’s Motives May Be Seen”
- How many years did it take Young Fu to finish hi apprenticeship?
- What did Fu Be Be pay money for to treat the member of the shop?
- How did the men of the shop torment Young Fu on this important date?
- How much are Young Fu’s wages going to be?
- What is the first task that Young Fu asks to do as a journeyman?
- What does Old Tsu say to Young Fu to tease him about the jar in which he had been working?
- What does badinage mean?
- Who and what is Wang Scholar referring when he says, “No man is entirely devoid of goodness, and the princely man is tolerant of other men’s weaknesses.”?
- Ho w many items are missing from the brass shop?
- Who was the most important figure in Young Fu’s life?
- What was torn down that leads to more ban-keh being around?
- What gave Young Fu such a hard time? How did he feel that he was being viewed?
- What does insinuations mean?
- Where did Young Fu see one of the missing brass pieces?
- Why does Tang want Young Fu to be quiet when he reenters the shop? - When Den is confronted about the “borrowing” who does he blame and why?
- Does Tang give Den a punishment for his actions?
- What choice does Tang give to the accountant?
- What did the accountant do the next day and why?
- What effect do Tang’s words, “I trusted you as I would my son, if he were here,” have on Young Fu? Name ______
Chapter 13 – “A Use for Curiosity”
- When was the last time Li had seen the girl that he was to marry?
- What is the reason that Young Fu wants to go to the tailor instead of having Fu Be Be make his clothes?
- Why does Fu Be Be think that Young Fu has had such good fortune?
- Where does Young Fu buy the damask, and what is wrong with it?
- What wouldn’t Young Fu let the tailor do when he was not there?
- How much did Young Fu’s wage increase after a year of being a journeyman?
- What does Young Fu want to do with the extra money?
- Who had Wang Scholar become friends with?
- What does sagacity mean?
- What task did Young Fu do most in the brass shop because of his talent?
- What does impudently mean?
- What does the quote, “The monkey looks in the mirror and wonders at the charm of his own reflection,” mean?
- What is the ya-men?
- What is the reason for Tang going to see the ya-men?
- How long does Lu have before he is imprisoned? - Who does Tang send to do the spying around Lu’s house?
- Why did the Tuchun plant poppies?
- Where had opium first come to china from?
- What was the punishment for dealing in opium?
- What was Young Fu’s excuse for going to see Lu?
- What does doleful mean?
- What did Young Fu see while looking at the shed?
- What was the smugglers’ signal?
- What was deceptive about the steward?
- How was Young Fu able to identify one of the smugglers.
- What does callow mean?
- Even though Lu was imprisoned a day and a night, how much older did he look?
- What was Young Fu’s motive for helping out Lu? Name ______
Chapter 14 – “One Must First Scale the Mountain in Order to View the Plain”
- Why did Young Fu have more duties around the shop?
- What did Young Fu think of welding and cutting?
- What does loathe mean?
- Why is Tang disappointed by Young Fu?
- How does Young Fu react to Tang’s disappointment?
- What does shirked mean?
- What opportunity does Tang give to Young Fu after he shows promise on two pieces?
- What happens to Fu Be Be’s sister-in-law?
- What does Tang ask Young Fu to do when Fu Be Be is away?
- What do the two do each night?
- How old is Young Fu at this time?
- What is Young Fu’s dream?
- What does uncongenial mean?
- What does Tang say about Young Fu and adopting him?
- Why does Tang choose to do this?
- How much time does the book span? - What are the two rivers in the book?
- What does clarion mean?
- How does Young Fu describe life at the end of the novel?