This world has always been full of strong and motivated
woman. Women that run their worlds and carry the people in it, and still remain
seemingly silent, woman that congratulates, motivates and celebrates their men,
and then cleans up and fixes their mistakes, and short comings. In “Du Tenth Sinks the Jewel Box in Anger,”
is just another example of a woman making up for a man’s short coming. Du Tenth
fell in love with Li Jia and Du Tenth believed that Li Jia was in love with
her. Du Tenth a prostitute and had a Madam, who was tired of Li Jia whom had
spent all his money to keep company with Du Tenth in the beginning no longer
had any money or anything to offer the house or the ladies, that he Li Jia was
taking up all De Tenth time and she no longer had time for any of the other Men
that wanted to see her, the Madam told Du Tenth, “ You go tell the bum: if he’s
worth anything let him give me a few ounces of silver and buy you out so you
can go off with him. Then I can find another girl that can support me”
(Menglong 502). After Li Jia was not able to raise any money Du Tenth gave Li
Jia half of the three hundred that the Madam was requesting in an assortment of
coins. When Li Jia went to exchange the coins with the Academy Scholar Yuchun,
Yuchun says,”This is truly a woman with sincere intentions” (Menglong 505).
Because of the love that this woman had for this man, not the love this man had
for this woman, the Academy Scholar Yuchun went out and raised the other half
of the money for the couple. Yuchun states, “It was not for your Sake that I
borrowed this money, but rather because I am moved by the Sincere feeling of Du
Tenth” (Menglong 505). In actuality Li Jia did not offer anything for Du Tenth,
and this could have been a reason it was so easy for him to try to give her
away at the end. When the couple set off for their journey it was Du Tenth that
paid for the boat ride, Li Jia having nothing to offer, let us fast forward to the end of the poem,
when Li Jia makes an agreement with a stranger to exchange Du Tenth for money.
Li Jia tells Du Tenth was with the, “with the thousand taels I will have a
pretext on which to call on my parents, and you, my dear will have someone to
rely on” (Menglong 514) clearly she could not rely on Li Jia. A loyal woman,
and knowing her own worth, she felt betrayed, abandoned and cheap because the
money and jewels she carried with her was worth ten times the amount he was
trying to trade her for. This shows that a strong woman always has a plan; her
plan for her man was to set him up with dignity so that he can get back in good
graces with his father, because he let his father down by taking up with a
prostitute but in the end Li Jia lets Du Tenth down as well as the strong woman
dies with a weak and broken heart.
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