Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Bonesetter’s Daughter, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Secrecy and Misunderstanding
Memory, Culture, and the Past
Storytelling
Women’s Solidarity
Summary
Analysis
In the papers that begin with “These are things I should not forget,” LuLing explains that she was born to the Liu clan and raised in the Western Hills near Peking, in a village called Immortal Heart. Precious Auntie teaches LuLing to write the name of their village on her chalkboard. The village is an old but sacred place. According to local legend, a visiting emperor planted a tree in the middle of the valley to honor his dead mother 3,000 years ago. People would make pilgrimages to visit the tree. However, the pilgrims would take bark from the tree as souvenirs, killing it. After the tree died, people stopped visiting Immortal Heart.
Part Two is an extended flashback that covers the information LuLing conveys in her manuscript. In allowing LuLing to tell her story in her own voice, the novel explores the rich, inner life that LuLing otherwise hides from the world, and the person she wants Ruth to know before she dies.
Themes
Nearly 2,000 people live in Immortal Heart during LuLing’s childhood. The village is a lively place with a primary school and many peddlers roaming the street. The Liu clan has lived in the same compound for several centuries. The family runs a successful ink business, and they always have money for new clothes and good meals. All the women stay home and make the ink in the ink studio, and the family earns a reputation for their high-quality product.
Knowing that LuLing’s extended family operates an ink business recasts LuLing’s talent for calligraphy as a personal talent and as something with roots in her family’s heritage.
Themes
Each of the women is responsible for one stage of the ink-making process. Precious Auntie’s job is to carve good-luck words into the finished ink sticks. Because of this, her calligraphy becomes better than Father’s. The women claim that the black, sticky ink keeps their hair dark. Great-Granny jokes that her hair is as black as a chestnut’s shell and her flesh as white and wrinkled as the nut inside. She pauses and then adds that this is better than the opposite: having white hair and a black, scorched face. Nobody seems to care that Precious Auntie is around to hear the jokes. Later in life, Great-Granny’s memory goes, and she begins to ask for Hu Sen, seemingly forgetting that her grandson has been dead for years.
LuLing’s talent for calligraphy ties her to Precious Auntie, who, so far, seems to be the most important person from LuLing’s past. This scene also demonstrates the cruelty the rest of the family exhibits toward Precious Auntie. Their derision could stem from Precious Auntie’s lower-class status (the Lius are a wealthy, respected family, while Precious Auntie is only a nursemaid), but it seems that their hatred has deeper roots.
Themes
The compound where LuLing and her family live is located on Pig’s Head Lane. There’s a cliff behind the compound, which has deepened over many years of heavy rainfall, its edge growing ever closer to the compound with each passing year. The cliff makes the Liu clan feel that they constantly have to look behind them, and they refer to it as the End of the World. LuLing and her siblings often throw spoiled fruits over the cliff’s edge and imagine them hitting the bones of “unwanted babies, suicide maidens, and beggar ghosts” that lie at the bottom of the ravine.
“The End of the World” parallels Land’s End, the shoreline near Ruth’s childhood home: both names describe a place where the land ends and something else begins. Both locations also have connotations specifically tied to death: Ruth associates Land’s End with LuLing’s suicide attempt, and LuLing associates The End of the World with “unwanted babies, suicide maidens, and beggar ghosts,” seemingly referring to Precious Auntie with the phrase “suicide maidens.” The parallels between these two locations show how history repeats itself, and how Ruth inherits certain aspects of her life from her mother.
Themes
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Many generations of Lius live in the compound. Liu Jin Sen is the oldest of Great-Granny’s four sons and is the man LuLing calls Father. LuLing calls her father’s brothers Big Uncle and Little Uncle. The fourth son, Baby Uncle, whose real name was Liu Hu Sen, was LuLing’s favorite. He was also her real father and would have married Precious Auntie, had he not died on their wedding day.
At this point in LuLing’s life, she doesn’t know that Precious Auntie is her mother. Given that Precious Auntie never married Baby Uncle, it’s possible to deduce that the Liu clan has obscured the truth of LuLing’s parentage to hide her illegitimate birth, which society would have deemed shameful at the time. .
Themes
Precious Auntie was born in a bigger town called Zhou’s Mouth of the Mountain, about 10 kilometers from Immortal Heart, though the path there is dangerous, especially during the rainy season, when the dry ravine fills with floodwaters. Everyone in the Mouth of the Mountain searches for dragon bones, which can be taken to Peking and sold for high prices as a cure for many ailments. Precious Auntie’s family had been bonesetters for centuries. In addition to the skills of the trade, they also passed down the knowledge about the Monkey’s Jaw, a cave where one can go to find the best dragon bones.
“Dragon bone” was the term local villagers used to refer to the bone fragments they unearthed to use in treating various illnesses using traditional Chinese medicine. In reality, the bones were likely oracle bones, a special type of bone used in divination practices in the China Bronze Age during the Shang dynasty. Diviners would carve questions into the oracle bones, apply heat to the bones until they formed cracks, and then divine the gods’ answers to their questions from the cracks. Therefore, the bones are important within China’s history, but they are also specifically significant to Precious Auntie, whose family has a long history of bonesetting, or joint manipulation.
Themes
On one occasion, Precious Auntie tells LuLing about a bone she has that’s covered in strange writing. It probably comes from a turtle, and her father almost ground it down for medicine before noticing the scratches that ran along its sides. Today, this type of bone is called an “oracle bone” and is very valuable, though bone diggers used to file them down before selling them to medicine shops. This type of bone is inscribed with “questions to the gods” that the ancient people thought were important enough to be remembered through the ages.
The words carved into oracle bones are written in oracle bone script, which is the oldest known form of Chinese writing. The language carried on the surface of oracle bones immortalizes ancient history, enabling the traditions of the distant past to persist long after its inventors have passed.
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Precious Auntie frequently takes LuLing to the Monkey’s Jaw. They go down into the End of the World to get there. Precious Auntie and LuLing would crawl into the cave with only a lantern to light their way. The cave floor contains tools left behind by Precious Auntie’s ancestors. Precious Auntie and LuLing would use the tools to chip away at the earth in the cave to dig for dragon bones. Hours later, they’d emerge from the cave with a sackful of dirt. If they were lucky, the earth would contain a couple of dragon bones.
The Monkey’s Jaw is another way in which Precious Auntie honors and keeps alive her family’s traditions. Bringing Luling there to search for dragon bones is a way for Precious Auntie to immerse LuLing in the traditions of their shared ancestors despite being forbidden from outwardly claiming LuLing as her daughter.
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Walking home, Precious Auntie would tell LuLing stories about the miracles her father, the bonesetter, would perform for injured, desperate people. She groups her father’s remedies into three categories: modern, to appease the Western missionaries; try-anything, which consists of spells and chants; and traditional, which is the category to which the dragon bones belong.
Sharing stories with LuLing about the Bonesetter also helps Precious Auntie pass down family memories to LuLing even as LuLing remains ignorant to the fact that these memories are about her family. The Bonesetter assumes an almost mythic status in Precious Auntie’s stories about him, conveying the respect Precious Auntie has for her father and their tradition
Themes
Still, despite the bonesetter’s reputation as a great healer, he couldn’t prevent all hardship. When Precious Auntie was very young, her mother and brothers died of a horrible disease. In his grief, the bonesetter spoiled Precious Auntie, his only remaining child, affording her all the opportunities customarily reserved for sons, including learning to read and write. The bonesetter also taught Precious Auntie the practices of his trade. In time, she became knowledgeable about healing, too, and could assist her father’s bonesetting.
The liberties the Bonesetter afforded Precious Auntie would have been unusual in a time when women in rural villages like Precious Auntie’s would have been denied an education and had their feet bound. His love for her gave her self-assurance and confidence that she could do anything she wanted. That most of Precious Auntie’s family died when she was young shows that loss and hardship span generations of LuLing’s family. This detail also helps explain why Precious Auntie and, later, LuLing, maintain superstitious beliefs about curses and ghosts.
Themes
One day, at dinner, Precious Auntie tells LuLing a story about a woman who came to her father and asked him to unbind her feet. Forgetting that she and Precious Auntie aren’t alone, LuLing asks aloud if bound feet look like white lilies, the way romantic books say they do. Mother and the aunts scold her for talking so openly about such a private subject. Precious Auntie pretends to scold LuLing, but in the secret language that only the two of them speak, she tells LuLing that bound feet are knotty, callused, smelly, and look like rotten ginger roots. LuLing fondly recalls this as an example of the ways Precious Auntie taught her to be “naughty” and “curious, just like her.” LuLing considers how the tradeoff for being curious and naughty was that she never learned how to be a good daughter.
Precious Auntie speaks frankly about the ugly realities of the practice of foot binding to ensure that LuLing is “curious, just like her” and willing to interrogate and challenge the world around her. She raises her daughter to be strong, wise, and empowered. Precious Auntie’s parenting technique gets LuLing in trouble with the rest of her family, however, which shows how the rest of society isn’t as accepting of “curious” women and girls and sees them as “naughty.” LuLing’s comment about Precious Auntie’s encouragement eventually backfiring and teaching her to be a bad daughter suggests that her own curiosity and stubbornness will get her into trouble in the future. Perhaps she is alluding to the role she plays in Precious Auntie’s suicide.
Themes
LuLing’s story shifts to information she gleaned from a manuscript Precious Auntie wrote, which LuLing only read after Precious Auntie’s death. When Precious Auntie is 19, two new patients come to the Bonesetter. One is a crying baby, and the other is Baby Uncle. The baby belongs to Chang, a rich coffin-maker who earns his fortune by selling overpriced, poorly made coffins. Chang’s wife, who has accompanied her husband, claims that one of these coffins fell on the baby and dislocated its shoulder. Still, Precious Auntie suspects Chang is responsible, recalling how Chang’s wife came to the bonesetter years before with a broken jaw. Precious Auntie gives the baby a mixture of opium, herbs, and dragon bone, and he ceases his crying. Chang eyes Precious Auntie lewdly before they leave.
The detail about Precious Auntie writing a manuscript about her history for LuLing contextualizes the manuscript LuLing will later write for Ruth. It’s her way of teaching Ruth her past through a familial storytelling tradition. Chang’s disreputable business practices imply that he is an untrustworthy, nefarious character. Furthermore, LuLing insinuates that he has caused the injuries his family has incurred over the years. Finally, Chang’s suggestive glance toward Precious Auntie ominously foreshadows that she may well be his next target.
Themes
Baby Uncle limps into the shop after Changs leave. He explains how his horse got spooked on a journey from Peking to Immortal Heart and stepped on his foot. When Precious Auntie smiles at Baby Uncle, he forgets his pain and immediately decides to marry her. He returns the next day with lychees for Precious Auntie as a sign of his gratitude. He also recites a poem her wrote for her. Later that afternoon, Chang stops by with a watermelon to express his thanks.
Baby Uncle is Chang’s opposite: he is kind and demonstrates emotional honesty by sharing his poem with Precious Auntie. In committing his feelings to paper, he symbolically pledges his eternal devotion to her.
Themes
Later that week, Chang and Baby Uncle go to separate fortune-tellers to see how their birthdates line up with Precious Auntie’s. Chang’s fortune-teller informs him that he’ll have a lucky future with Precious Auntie. However, Baby Uncle’s fortune-teller sees only chaos in his future. Baby Uncle gives the fortune-teller more money until he eventually reverses his assessment and predicts a lucky future for marriage between Baby Uncle and Precious Auntie.
The fortune-tellers’ visions don’t bode well for Baby Uncle. Since the novel has already revealed that he dies sometime before LuLing turns 14, one might predict that he dies pursuing Precious Auntie. Chang’s supposed lucky future is unclear at this point, since he doesn’t appear to be part of Precious Auntie’s life when LuLing is a young girl.
Themes
Chang proposes to Precious Auntie first. The fortune-teller arrives at the bonesetter’s shop to laud the coffin-maker’s vast wealth and respected reputation. The bonesetter isn’t crazy about Chang but considers the offer anyway, fearing what will happen to Precious Auntie after he dies. He knows that Precious Auntie is too curious, vocal, and argumentative to interest most suitors. But Precious Auntie stubbornly refuses to accept the horrible man’s proposal, and the bonesetter has no choice but to reject the coffin-maker’s offer. To protect his daughter, he lies and tells Chang’s matchmaker that Precious Auntie can’t bear to leave her helpless father behind. However, the bonesetter’s lie backfires after Precious Auntie accepts Baby Uncle’s proposal the following week.
The bonesetter is torn between respecting his daughter’s agency and having a realistic idea about the life society will afford her as an unmarried woman after he passes. Although he has raised Precious Auntie to be self-empowered, the reality of her situation is that their patriarchal world affords her little power. Still, his love and respect for his daughter win, and he honors her decision to reject Chang’s marriage proposal. Knowing the fortune-teller’s ominous prediction about Baby Uncle’s future with Precious Auntie, one can predict that Chang will retaliate against Precious Auntie’s rejection.
Themes
After Precious Auntie’s marriage is announced, Chang confronts her at the Mouth of the Mountain and vows to punish her for insulting him. Precious Auntie brushes off Chang’s threats and doesn’t tell her father or Baby Uncle about the encounter.
Precious Auntie’s self-assurance prevents her from taking Chang’s threat seriously. She believes she has the agency to overpower whatever misfortune Chang or the universe have in store for her.
Themes
Precious Auntie’s wedding is supposed to happen right after the start of the new Dragon Year. A photographer whom the bonesetter treated the month before arrives at the shop to take wedding photographs of Precious Auntie as payment for his treatment. Precious Auntie thinks about her future as she stares into the camera. She feels a mysterious premonition of dangers to come.
Precious Auntie’s mysterious premonition suggests that, while she might feel in charge, she ultimately acknowledges that forces beyond her control dictate the trajectory of her life. Her nervous feeling is likely warranted, given what the novel has already revealed about Baby Uncle’s death and Precious Auntie’s horrific accident.
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Precious Auntie dons her bridal costume and begins the journey to Immortal Heart, where the wedding will occur. The bonesetter rents mule carts to carry Precious Auntie’s things to her new husband’s home, including her dowry, which consists of opium and the finest dragon bones, and a sedan chair for Precious Auntie to sit in, and four sedan carriers. He also hires bodyguards to accompany them on the trip. Midway into their journey, two bandits intercept the travelers. The larger of the two proclaims himself to be “the famous Mongol Bandit,” but Precious Auntie immediately recognizes his voice as Chang’s.
The valuable dragon bones the Bonesetter assembles for Precious Auntie’s dowry reflects his great love for her. He spares no expense to ensure his daughter’s happiness. Chang’s attack signifies the fulfillment of Precious Auntie’s premonition of danger. Precious Auntie is highly superstitious and wary of curses by the time LuLing is a child, suggesting that Chang’s attack traumatized her and irreparably altered her sense of personal power and agency.
Themes
The guards drop their pistols before Precious Auntie can comprehend what’s going on. The carriers drop the sedan, causing Precious Auntie to fall to the floor and lose consciousness. When she comes to, the bandits are gone, and the wedding trunks have been looted. The Bonesetter is lying in a ditch, and his neck is broken. Baby Uncle promises to punish the cowards who caused his wife such grief and fires a pistol into the sky. But the gunshot startles Baby Uncle’s horse, who kicks Baby Uncle, killing him instantly. Overwhelmed with grief, Precious Auntie decides that she must be cursed.
Chang’s attack on Precious Auntie gives her the impression that her empowerment is just an illusion. She thought she was free to reject his marriage proposal, but his attack suggests that this is what happens when women try to think for themselves and control their destinies. Of course, Precious Auntie sees Chang’s horrific attack as an indication that she is cursed rather than oppressed. This implies a certain resignation on her part. She chooses to believe that a curse has caused her misfortune because it’s easier to accept her fate if she feels there’s nothing she can do to prevent it.
Themes
For three nights after her father’s and husband’s deaths, Precious Auntie goes to their corpses and touches their mouths, though the act is forbidden. The women in her household fear that the men’s ghosts might come back to haunt Precious Auntie. When Chang arrives with coffins for the men, Precious Auntie tries to hit him with a fire poker. Baby Uncle’s brothers subdue her and apologize to Chang for her “lunacy.” Precious Auntie’s grief consumes her, which eventually forces the women to restrain her with strips of cloth. Great-Granny forces her to drink medicine that sedates her.
Just as Precious Auntie interprets Chang’s attack as evidence that she is cursed, Baby Uncle’s family is also beholden to their spiritual beliefs. They keep Precious Auntie away from the corpses of Baby Uncle and the Bonesetter out of their fear that the dead men’s ghosts will return to haunt Precious Auntie. But keeping her away from her loved ones inhibits her from working through her grief. In this way, tradition actually keeps Precious Auntie from moving forward with her life.
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When Precious Auntie comes to, she’s unbound and alone in the house. She searches for the corpses and finds that Baby Uncle’s family buried the bodies while she was unconscious. At that moment, Precious Auntie resolves to join them in the ground. She goes to the ink studio and heats some ink on the stove. Then, she brings the ladle of boiling ink to her mouth and swallows it.
Precious Auntie’s suicide attempt is as much an expression of her grief for her father and husband as it is her grief for her sense of empowerment. Chang’s actions suggest to her that she doesn’t have as much power to control her destiny as her father had raised her to believe she had. She thus tries to take control of her life—by ending it. She decides to swallow ink and be in control of the silencing of her voice rather than have others silence it for her.
Themes
The women enter the ink studio and find Precious Auntie flailing on the floor, her mouth a darkened mess of blood and ink. Mother thinks it’s better that they let her die, but Great-Granny fears that Precious Auntie’s ghost will haunt them. Fearing a curse, the women tend to Precious Auntie’s wounds, crushing dragon bones and sprinkling the powder into her mouth. Around this time, they discover that Precious Auntie is pregnant. Precious Auntie recovers, but her face is now so disfigured that nobody can bear to look at her.
Superstition and traditional belief save Precious Auntie when Great-Granny moves to let her remain at the compound for fear that her ghost will haunt the Liu clan if they turn her to the streets. That the Lius use dragon bones to heal Precious Auntie suggests that the bonesetter is looking out for his daughter from beyond the grave. Precious Auntie’s pregnancy, the result of her premarital sexual encounter with Baby Uncle, will lead to the birth of LuLing.
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Baby Uncle comes to Great-Granny in a dream and tells her to keep Precious Auntie and her baby in the household. He orders First Sister (Mother) to raise the baby as a Liu, and for Precious Auntie to assume the role of nursemaid. GaoLing, Mother’s actual child, is born in 1916, but the family keeps the birth a secret to maintain the illusion that she mothered GaoLing and Precious Auntie’s child—LuLing. The adults know the truth about the births, but LuLing doesn’t know that Precious Auntie is her mother until Precious Auntie writes the words on paper and shows them to her.
Once more, Great-Granny's respect for traditional beliefs and her fear of the dead ensures Precious Auntie's survival and, ultimately, LuLing's birth. For as much as LuLing's belief in curses will bring her much misery in the years to come, the fact that she is allowed to exist because of superstition explains—if only indirectly—why she places so much value in it. Finally, this section of LuLing's narrative is important because it conveys information that LuLing did not have when Precious Auntie was alive: namely, the critical fact that LuLing is Precious Auntie's child. The novel has already established how Ruth's ignorance about LuLing's past leads her to hurt LuLing in ways she can't begin to understand. Likewise, one may infer that LuLing's ignorance about Precious Auntie's life will lead her, too, to form misunderstandings that have grave consequences.
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