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Rice-and-Salt Days: Letter of Vituperation

Summary: Rice-and-Salt Days: Letter of Vituperation

Lily’s county begins to rebuild after the illness and the war, and she and Snow Flower see each other more than ever. Lily is extremely happy, while Snow Flower remains thin and reclusive. Lily persuades her to attend the Sitting and Singing Ceremony of Lily’s neighbor, who is Snow Flower’s relative. Snow Flower’s mother-in-law has cut back her food allowance, and her husband continues to beat her. Lily encourages Snow Flower to change her fate, though looking back as an old woman, Lily realizes how she treated Snow Flower with impatience and encouraged Snow Flower to better her situation by following tradition. A few days before Lily and Snow Flower are supposed to start their daughters’ footbinding, Snow Flower’s neighbor Lotus visits Lily and gives her the fan. Lily reads the message, which says that Snow Flower cannot be who Lily wants, and that three sworn sisters have promised to love her so that Lily will not have to listen to her complaints. Lily feels devastated, as their laotong bond was meant to last for life. 

Lily begins thinking of Snow Flower’s weaknesses, which she previously ignored, especially her deceit about her birth family and her marriage. Lily understands that, just as she did with her mother, she must distance herself from Snow Flower to protect herself. Snow Flower writes about beginning their daughters’ footbinding, but Lily ignores her. Lily builds a flower tower, burning it with a letter to Snow Flower just as they did to rid Beautiful Moon’s spirit. Lily begins her daughter’s footbinding, taking her anger out on her. Madame Wang visits Lily to deliver a fan from Snow Flower proposing a laotong between their daughters. Lily refuses the suggestion and reminds Madame Wang how she told them never to let women come between them, and to ask Snow Flower what she has done.

On the day of the Sitting and Singing Ceremony, Lily sits across the room from Snow Flower and Madame Wang. Snow Flower sings a Letter of Vituperation, which details the suffering she has experienced. She says that her one happiness has been her laotong, who ran out of patience for her suffering and turned away from her, and now causes her daughter to suffer. Lily responds with her own Letter of Vituperation. She says that all women know hardships, but Snow Flower seeks attention by complaining about hers. Lily continues that she has always remained loyal to Snow Flower, but now Snow Flower has chosen other sworn sisters. Lily blames Snow Flower’s disloyalty on why her husband’s family abuses her. Lily then reveals Snow Flower’s secrets, including how she enjoys sex with her husband. Snow Flower responds by saying Lily expects her to be someone else, and that the sworn sisters do not pity her as Lily does. 

As an old woman, Lily looks back on what she did to Snow Flower as despicable, though in doing so, she earned the respect of other women by showing how Snow Flower was beneath them. Lily’s Song of Vituperation became known as a warning for women, spreading the story of Snow Flower’s disgrace.

Analysis: Rice-and-Salt Days: Letter of Vituperation 

In this chapter, the tensions that have been brewing under the surface between Lily and Snow Flower reach a boiling point. Snow Flower believes that by no longer voicing her complaints to Lily she is doing Lily a favor. However, Lily takes great offense to this and reacts in the same way she once did to her mother: by pulling away and treating Snow Flower coldly. Lily shows that, despite the fact that she has completed her footbinding, gotten married, and had several children, she is still childish in many ways. Rather than trying to understand why her laotong would pull away from her, Lily instead prefers to punish Snow Flower. The anger Lily once buried upon learning of Snow Flower’s family is still very much present, as Lily is able to establish a pattern of deceit by the woman she recently trusted more than anyone. And, just as her own mother did, Lily takes out this anger on her daughter during her footbinding, showing how the suffering of women is a continuous cycle from generation to generation, as mothers project their trauma and pain onto their daughters, condemning them to experience it themselves.

Both Lily and Snow Flower’s Letters of Vituperation show the power of language. Snow Flower uses nu shu to attempt to reconcile with Lily, explaining how hurt she is by Lily’s coldness. Yet Lily, blinded by her own anger, uses nu shu to show cruelty toward Snow Flower. Not only does Lily dismiss the suffering Snow Flower has gone through, but she also publicly humiliates her by revealing Snow Flower’s deepest secrets, and blames her for the treatment she has experienced from her husband and in-laws. As Lily is now Lady Lu, one of the most respected figures in the county, her words are revered and then immortalized. The lasting nature of her Letter of Vituperation displays the power of language as Lily can never take it back.

Lily and Snow Flower signed a contract when they were both seven years old, pledging to be laotong for life. However, Snow Flower has begun to understand that such a deep friendship must be based on more than a childhood promise. Recognizing that Lily has become impatient of hearing of Snow Flower’s suffering, Snow Flower feels she must no longer be a burden on Lily. In this way, Snow Flower is still trying to be a good friend to Lily. However, Lily takes this to mean Snow Flower is rejecting her, and takes this perceived slight very personally. Just as when Lily was a child and missed the clues about the true nature of Snow Flower’s family, she now is too wrapped up in her own feelings to understand what Snow Flower is actually trying to tell her. Also, just as Lily once thought Third Sister was complaining about her footbinding to receive attention when in reality she was dying, Lily believes Snow Flower’s complaints are similarly designed to elicit pity. Both of these instances show how Lily has only ever seen love and relationships as transactional, which is why she is unable to uphold her end of the laotong relationship.

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