Book of the Week

 

 

Title: Peony

Author: Pearl S. Buck

Published: 1948

 

Peony is a novel set in Kaifeng, China, in the 1850s. It is my favorite among Pearl S Buck novels because it propounds tolerance and looks beyond the borders of religion, culture and nationality. It gives a clear portrayal of how creating walls in the name of culture and communities can only bring them tumbling down.

The other thing that I liked was how Peony, the protagonist, develops into a wise and respected woman, an advisor to her former employers, revered by the people who she served as a child.

Peony, named after a flower that has mythological significance in both Greek and Chinese lore, starts her life at eight years of age as a bond maid in a rich foreigner’s family that had emigrated from Palestine a few generations earlier to avoid harassment. She was bought as a companion to the only son of the house. She learnt writing and reading while her young master studied. Peony, as expected, fell in love with her young master, David. However, knowing that she would never be accepted as a daughter-in-law by the family, she overcame her desires and helped her young master marry a bride who would bring him happiness in the long run.

Her mistress, an upholder of the Judaism in China, was keen that her son marries a Rabbi’s daughter. Both the Jewish women (David’s mother and future fiancée) loved what they believed to be Judaism as it was interpreted by their Rabbi. They believed that they were the chosen ones and superior to the ‘ heathens‘. Their religion drew borders and created only rifts with the local population. In the middle of the book, there is an interesting dialogue between the Rabbi and a liberal Chinese trader, Kung Chen.

“There is only one true God, and Jehovah is His name,” the Rabbi declared, trembling all over as he spoke.

“So the followers of Mohammed in our city declare,” Kung Chen said gravely, “but they call his name as Allah. Is he the same as your Jehovah?”

“There is no god beside our God,” the Rabbi said in a loud high voice. “He is the One True God!”

Kung Chen, a buddhist and an open thinker, is appalled by the Rabbi’s intolerance and tells David, Peony’s young master, “None can love those who declare that they alone are the sons of God.”

Perhaps, with this one statement Pearl S Buck has summed up the issue faced by many in the current day world, intolerance towards others’ beliefs.

I have not looked into the authenticity of the historical fact or the religious belief of those times. But what struck me was that this is an age-old truth. Intolerance only breeds hatred and violence, as it does in the book.

Earlier the Jews who came for refuge to Kaifeng were not intolerant. Over a period of time, the group grew smaller and became more rigid.

In the past, a liberal minded follower of the same Judaism had engraved on a plaque in the same temple where the Rabbi propounded his intolerance: “Worship is to honor Heaven, and righteousness is to follow the ancestors. But the human mind has always existed before worship and righteousness.”

It is the human mind, which helps us make choices. When we stop thinking, we lose touch with reality and become fanciful, as had the Rabbi and his daughter. After all, the human mind has been made by God who, probably, wanted us to think and take responsibility for our thoughts and action.

Peony by her actions generates the positive feelings of calmness, peace, harmony and tolerance whereas the Rabbi’s daughter generates passion, violence, intolerance and fear. She is so passionate and intolerant in her outlook that she comes to a sad end.

Peony, on the other hand, gains in social and spiritual stature.

I also love what the book does with Peony, a woman who might have become a concubine in the royal court of China. She defines her own position by her selflessness and opts for a more meaningful existence. She rejects power and glory for love and kindness, values that would make for a happier world.

Her role in the latter part of the book reminds me of a few lines that are often quoted and were written by Julia Abigail Fletcher Carney in Illinois around the same period as when this story was set…

 

Little deeds of kindness,

Little words of love,

Help to make earth happy

Like the Heaven above.

The Creators

4

The figures of the man and the girl drew closer. They were holding hands and walking. Jasmine asked Jacinth and JaJa to stay concealed in the bushes. Softly, she stepped out in the moonlight as the couple gazed at the moon together facing the sea. She went and stood behind them and cleared her throat. They turned around, surprised, and the girl screamed: “ Who are you?”

Jasmine said: “Shh…! Do not be scared. I come in peace.” The boy held the girl closer wrapped in his arms as if he was sheltering her from the unknown and fierce. The girl had bright red hair and looked very like Jacinth, except for her bubbly hair and skin coloring, which was pink like the others of her dimension.

Jacinth was dusky with hazel eyes and dark blond streaked hair. Jasmine was taller and frailer looking than the others. She was pale with violet eyes and jet black hair.

“Are you Jolyn?” she asked.

“ How does that matter?” said the boy gruffly. He had blue-black bubbles for hair and was very tall.

“Have you been getting dreams of walking on clouds and writing poetry about the moon?” asked Jasmine.

“ How do you know?” asked Jolyn. “Who are you anyway and why is your hair and color so strange?”

“ Do you believe in a life beyond your dimension? I come from another dimension. I know you are Jolyn. I am Jasmine.”

“Why are you so pale? How is it you look like Jolyn?” asked the man.

“You could call me Jolyn’s replicate from another dimension. There are a number of us in various dimensions. I come from the creator’s dimension. The police there is chasing me and it will eventually try to catch all my different forms from different dimension and put us in captivity. I have done nothing wrong except asked for privacy and freedom to choose. I am collecting all my replicates to set up a new home in a new dimension. The mind police would be looking for me in various dimensions. They do not know of Jolyn’s existence as yet but will get to know eventually if you do not come away with me.”

“Why should we trust you?”

“ I can show you two more of our replicates from other dimensions if that helps convince you. They are with me and behind those bushes.”

“Jacinth. JaJa come out,” called out Jasmine.

Jacinth and JaJa peered out and walked towards the three at the beach.

“That is truly unbelievable,” said Jolyn. “You both look like me a little bit and yet are so different. And what is this?” she asked pointing at JaJa and looking disgusted.

JaJa was staring open-mouthed and drooling.

“That is JaJa from the golliwog’s dimension. She is also our replicate. But, she speaks no English. Jacinth and I do,” said Jasmine. “Please do not regard JaJa as inferior as she is one of the smartest in her dimension and can communicate telepathically with me!”

“What is telepathy?” asked Jolyn.

“ When you can communicate just with the mind without using voices or gestures,” replied Jasmine.

“Please come with us,” said Jacinth.

JaJa squeezed herself between Jacinth and Jasmine, who were standing next to each other. She looked in askance at the new couple. She sensed the newcomers did not want to accept her.

“Why do we all need to go together? We could confuse them if we are spread out all over,” said the man.

“ The mind police functions differently,” said Jasmine. “ They can read thought waves. If we are together and thinking on the same lines, it is easier for us to create a new dimension, a secret hideout to lead our lives safely and to create a new inter-species dimension. The mind police maynot come in person for my replicates but introduce nightmares of death and lead them to either suicide caused by depression and a sense of hopelessness or death by accident. If we are all together and our minds are in sync dreaming of survival and a new world, it will be impossible for them to inject negative and destructive ideas into our dreams or our minds. I have been projecting to you dreams of rainbows and writing poetry about the moon as I know you like to write poetry. Also none of you except JaJa and me can sense others thoughts. That only happens when you open your mind. I know Jacinth is trying but it is not that easy.”

“Well, she is not wrong you know,” said Jolyn turning her head towards the man.“ I have had nightmares for the past two days in which I saw us dying in a blaze. I have also felt a need to cry and have felt life is senseless. Could it be the mind police? And I have had the other positive dreams because of which you brought me to the beach today to cheer me up so that I have only good dreams.”

“Block your mind. Think of JaJa, not of us,”said Jasmine.” And let us make a run for it so that if they return with their negative thoughts to the bubbleverse, they will find not find your mind. They will be confused. Perhaps they will think that you have taken your life…”

“ I will only come if you let Gorge accompany us and if he agrees to come. He is my husband and we are pledged together in life,” said Jolyn clinging to the man. “Here men must lead and women follow. I will go by Gorge’s decision.”

Gorge looked at her and said, “ It seems a bit bizarre to me.”

“Please try to understand. The thought police will try to eradicate my replicates and me as well for daring to think different. They are very different and do things with the power of the mind. If they get to Jolyn, you might get to a day when you wake up and find she has disappeared. If they are really upset with my thoughts, they will eventually wipe all beings that could think along my lines, as my replicates could. They will no longer just wipe memories and let us be but they will physically vaporize us so that our minds freed from our bodies eventually lose our sense of bearing and become only a part of the universal consciousness in the creator’s zone,” Jasmine paused for breath. “In short, Jolyn could be killed as could the rest of us. Please, please listen to me.”

Gorge looked confused. “Let me think,” he said. Gorge was not very convinced. For him to give up his life for a strange story from a strange creature was a bit difficult culturally. In the bubbleverse, it was a men’s world. Women depended on men.

“There is no time to think,” said Jacinth. “Do you not understand? Please help save Jolyn and all of us.”

“Well, if it is a matter of life and death, I suppose I had better give in. Still it sounds bizarre. I didnot know there were creatures from other worlds inhabiting the Earth. As far as I knew and studied, it was only us!” said Gorge. “Where are your husbands? Why are they not with you to give substance to your strange words?”

“In our dimensions, women are independent. They can opt to marry or not marry and lead lives where we make up our own minds. Please do come with us. Jolyn has unexplored abilities, as do you. Let us create a new world to discover them. Please,” said Jasmine.

“All right. We will come… though we might return if we are not convinced. Where and how do we go?”

“Great. We pinge to Jamie’s dimension,” said Jasmine.

“ Who is Jamie and what is pinge?” asked Gorge.

“Jamie is another replicate. He is a boy in a post Third World War dimension in a new country called Aurica. We will go to him because he lives in a very bleak world and will give in to the tortures of the mind police more easily than others,” said Jasmine. “ And I will explain pinging to you in a minute.”

“There was a Third World War?” asked Jacinth.

“ Yes. In Jamie’s dimension the United Nations failed completely. There was a war over oil and weapons.”

“Well. It will be good to have another male to help lead. Should we pack our clothes and papers and come back here ‪tomorrow?” asked Gorge.

“Oh dear! No! We must leave because the mind police is already at our heels. So, we must run now. Do not worry about anything else,” explained Jasmine.

Gorge looked stunned but he was listening. Jolyn was whimpering a little with fear. He patted her and said, “Don’t worry honey. We will be all right. Let us just go along with this lady. As I have said we will return if this is some kind of a hoax and I will see to it that these creatures are dealt with with firmness. So, how do we go?”

“Like this… By pinging ,” replied Jasmine. She again took the tong out of her backpack as JaJa scrambled onto her shoulders.

“ Please hold on to me tightly all of you as we pinge to Jamie’s world,” said Jasmine.

Jacinth, Jolyn and Gorge held onto her shoulders tightly and JaJa sat on her shoulders. Jasmine clapped the tongs and they heard a ping and felt themselves swirled through flashes of lights, sound and darkness. They were born on a strong draft of wind and squeezed till they landed in a world with a grey sky!

Jolyn and Gorge started to cough and splutter. Jacinth was finding it difficult to breathe. Her eyes were stinging from the pollutants in the air. Jasmine and JaJa were coughing too. Quickly, Jasmine pulled out a box from her bagpack and gave everyone a mask. “Put these on. The air is very polluted here.”  She gave Jolyn and Gorge two shower cap like head gears too so that their hair would not be affected by the pollutants either and they would not look different from other residents of Aurica.

“That was sudden and quick!! What next?” asked a surprised Gorge adjusting his cap and mask.