An interesting aspect of these readings was the idea of honor and bravery. This is a concept that is present in each reading. In “A Tiger-Fighter Is Hard to Find,” Huping is willing to risk his life to fight a tiger, but when he fails to bravely attack the tiger for the next take, he has a breakdown. He cannot get past the fact that he failed to “kill” the tiger. He violently attacks the man in the tiger suit the next time to avenge his cowardice and restore the honor he felt by “killing a tiger.”
The idea of honor is also present in “The Biography of Yu Jang.” In this story, the servant is willing to risk death multiple times to avenge the honor of his master. This concept is respected by his master’s killer, and he allows the servant to go free. He states, “’The earl of Chih died with no heir, and yet this subordinate of his wanted to avenge him. He is truly one of the world’s worthy men’” (41). However, the servant cannot achieve true honor until he avenges his master’s death, so he attempts to kill his master’s killer once again. He loses and then falls on his sword to maintain his honor and bravery. This story and the idea of avenging honor is praised in this culture. This idea of bravery and getting honor from defending yourself and your master might come from a period in Chinese history that was characterized by war. In The Heritage of Chinese Civilization, the Warring States period is described as large territories formed and vied to unite China (Craig 11). These ideas of honor may come from the need to form close groups with those in one’s territory and fight to keep one’s territory in power.