The Bottle-gourd girl meets an unfortunate young man, and the Bottle-gourd monk settles a protracted law suit! In this episode things get "extremely real," as we experience the nitty gritty of Qing dynastic social reality, mainly through the eyes of Jia Yucun in his new role as district yamen. Re-readers can steal a glimpse at the entanglements of love, desire, money, and marriage as situated in historical time, accessing elements of reality that social science will fail to represent for years to come (Kevin "goes off" to this effect toward the end of the episode.) This is an extremely challenging chapter for modern readers to approach insightfully, but reading and rereading it should prove well worth the time and effort.
