"What? Only those who conform to Heaven's rules count as good families? Women must listen to men, and tribesfolk must listen to noble lords, and only then are they good families? Those who disobey must be punished, even beaten to death on the spot with wooden staves?... Old Kim, what 'cardinal order' is this, what rules set down by the Sky God? It was clearly set down by your noble chiefs so they could order you around, make you obediently kowtow, obey, and pay tribute!"
"Old Corn is right! The great spirit told the northern tribes to respect the divine heaven and earth, to respect all things and living beings, to carry on the tribe's life and our own, to struggle to live on! No matter when, we must struggle to live on—how could we harm lives as we please? Even a tribal shaman like me, unless we meet a great Cold Wave, unless we meet a time when there is truly no other way, cannot cast aside the lives of tribesfolk, let alone casually throw people into the lake... Besides, in many tribes, the women are fiercer than the men! They can become old grandmothers, female chiefs, women hunters, shamans and herb witches. In the eyes of the divine Sky, women and men stand equally..."
The evening wind blew across the lake, the ripples flashing gold and red. The square-bowed, square-sterned Chinese-style sailboat was returning to the Shipyard on the north shore, sailing half against the wind. With the wind behind it, the boat could make more than forty li in about two hours; now, with its slanting sail returning half into the wind, it could still make nearly twenty li in two hours. Such speed, without needing manpower, truly made people click their tongues in wonder.
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