"The Flower Market" works rhetorically by creating extreme contrasts—between wealth and poverty, luxury and necessity. Through these contrasts, Po gently encourages us to consider the social implications of many commonplace activities.
In the Royal City spring is almost over;
Tinkle, tinkle—the coaches and horsemen pass.
We tell each other "This is the peony season";
And follow with the crowd that goes to the Flower Market.
Cheap and dear—no uniform price;
The cost of the plant depends on the number of blossoms.
The flaming reds, a hundred on one stalk;
The humble white with only five flowers.
Above is spread an awning to protect them;
Around is woven a wattle-fence to screen them.
If you sprinkle water and cover the roots with mud,
When they are transplanted, they will not lose their beauty.
Each household thoughtlessly follows the custom,
10
15
20
Man by man, no one realizing.
There happened to be an old farm labourer
Who came by chance that way. He bowed his head and sighed a deep sigh; But this sigh nobody understood. He was thinking, "A cluster of deep-red flowers
Would pay the taxes of ten poor houses.
UNDERSTANDING THE TEXT
Who do you think is the narrator of the poem? Who is included in the group that the narrator describes as "we"?
Which portions of the poem are enclosed in quotation marks? Why? Who is implied to be the author of the quoted material?
How should we interpret the description of the flowers as "cheap and dear—no uniform price" in light of the last two lines, which tell us that all of the flowers are "dear" from the old man's perspective?
What do you think that Po-Chu-i means by the line "each household thoughtlessly follows the custom?" To what custom might he be referring?
How does the presence of the old farm laborer affect your understanding of the poem? Is it significant that this is a character in the poem whom nobody else notices or understands?
What is the significance of the farm laborer's lament concerning the taxes of ten poor houses? How would the poem's message change if the line read, "A cluster of deep red flowers could buy food for ten poor houses"?
MAKING CONNECTIONS
1. Can you see in Po-Chu-i's poem the seeds of the arguments by Vandana Shiva
(p. 374) and Wangari Maathai (p. 363)? What elements of "The Flower Market" could be read as a precursor to what Shiva calls "Earth Justice"?
Does "The Flower Market" parallel the argument of Mohandas Gandhi (p. 560) in "Economic and Moral Progress"? What kind of moral progress is Po-Chu-i advocating in the poem?
Does Po-Chu-i's Confucian understanding of human nature seem more in line with that of Mencius (p. 78) or that of Hsun-Tzu (p. 84)? Can all three of these views legitimately be called "Confucian"?
WRITING ABOUT THE TEXT
Write a paper supporting Po-Chu-i's argument that most people fail to understand the impact of their own luxurious habits on the less fortunate members of society. Use modern examples to support your argument.
Compare the way that Po-Chu-i treats the luxury of flowers in "The Flower Market" to the way Mo Tzu treats the luxury of music in "Against Music" (p. 236).
Write a paper that incorporates Elaine Scarry's "On Beauty and Being Just" (p. 279) to argue for the value of selling flowers and other beautiful objects in a country with many poor people.
william hogarth
Gin Lane
[1751]
THOUGH A VISUAL ARTIST, the painter and engraver William Hogarth (1697-1764) was as important to the development of satire in England as were his literary contemporaries Jonathan Swift, Alexander Pope, and Henry Fielding. Many of Hogarth's most famous paintings occur in series with narrative contents, such as The Harlot's Progress (1731), The Rake's Progress (1735), and Marriage a la Mode (1743-45). In each series, between six and eight paintings, taken together, tell cohesive stories that issue strong warnings. Many of Hogarth's early series, or "progresses," were originally oil paintings, but he later re-created them as black-and-white engravings that could be mass produced, sold much more cheaply, and distributed much more widely than the paintings. Their wide dissemination dramatically increased Hogarth's audience and influence.
Hogarth created Gin Lane to support the Gin Act, which limited the sale of cheap gin. By the middle of the seventeenth century, gin had become one of the most destructive forces in urban England. Produced cheaply and sold for pennies, gin contributed to rampant alcoholism in England's cities, and was both a symptom and a cause of the extreme poverty and high rates of infant mortality that became the staples of urban life during Hogarth's lifetime. Previous attempts to limit the sale of gin had proved unsuccessful, and the Gin Act, which passed in the summer of 1751, sought to control consumption by doubling the tax on gin and forbidding distillers to sell it directly to the public.
In Gin Lane, Hogarth dramatizes the horrific poverty and deprivation that occur in places where cheap gin abounds. The scene emphasizes the effect of gin on children. In the center of the action, a baby falls while its drunken mother reaches for a pinch of snuff. Elsewhere, a child cries as its mother is placed into a coffin, a mother pours gin down the throat of her infant, and a drunken man marches down the street waving a baby impaled on a stick.
But Hogarth is doing more than commenting on the dangers of gin. He is also depicting the effects of poverty. Though Hogarth supported the Gin Act, he also understood that the root of the problem was poverty and that gin had become popular among the poor because it offered a false solution to—and, in the process, exacerbated—this very real problem. Gin Lane, which Hogarth originally sold for only a shilling per print, gave the middle and upper classes a rare glimpse into the reality of poverty. Generations of viewers have appreciated Gin Lane for reasons that transcend the original sociopolitical context that produced it.
(- I N L A N K
william hogarth Gin Lane, 1751 (engraving).
Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris, France / Lauros-Giraudon / Bridgeman Art Library.
UNDERSTANDING THE TEXT
What is happening to the two figures in the foreground of William Hogarth's Gin Lane? What is the woman doing while her child falls to its death? What accounts for the man who appears to have starved to death?
How does the physical structure of the city reflect the moral structure of its inhabitants? Why is it significant that the only building not in disrepair is the pawnbroker's shop?
How are children generally treated in Gin Lane? What might Hogarth be suggesting by these portrayals?
Hogarth is famous for including in most of his engravings dogs and cats whose actions comment on the behavior of human beings. Where do you see examples of this device in Gin Lane?
How many images of death are in the picture? How many people are or appear to be dead? How can each of these deaths be traced directly to the consumption of gin?
MAKING CONNECTIONS
How might Octavio Paz (p. 575) interpret Gin Lane's scenes of drunkenness and excess? How do the actions depicted in this engraving compare with the actions that he describes as part of fiestas?
Like Picasso's Guernica (p. 597), Gin Lane portrays intense violence and suffering. What specific similarities can you find between the two works? What differences?