How we cite our quotes: (Chapter. Paragraph)
Quote #4
Time after time men fled from the land and came back to it, but Wang Lung set himself now to build his fortunes so securely that through the bad years to come he need never leave his land again but live on the fruits of the good years, and so subsist until another year came forth. He set himself and the gods helped him and for seven years there were harvests, and every year Wang Lung and his men threshed far more than could be eaten. (17.18)
"He set himself and the gods helped him." That's interesting, isn't it? Wang Lung's fortune is not based just on his hard work, or just on the will of the gods, but on both of these things put together.
Quote #5
And men sighed and said "So Heaven wills," but Wang Lung was furious and he beat the locusts and trampled on them and his men flailed them with flails and the locusts fell into the fires that were kindled and they floated dead upon the waters of the moats that were dug. And many millions of them died, but to those that were left it was nothing. (23.120)
Based on this, do you think it makes sense to fight the will of the gods? What would that accomplish? Do the gods partly symbolize things humans have no control over? Is it better to try to work with the gods rather than against them, given that the gods are pretty much always going to win if you try to fight them? How is this like fighting with or trying to conquer nature itself?
Quote #6
Facing him were the small gods and on the surface of his mind he noted how they stared at him and how of old he had been afraid of them, but now he was careless, having become prosperous and in no need of gods, so that he scarcely saw them. (24.58)
It's interesting that Wang Lung doesn't care about the gods now that he's rich. Did he forget that the gods helped him get rich in the first place? It sort of seems as if having a lot of money makes people both ungrateful and forgetful of those who helped them get where they are.