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In The ninth widow, Wang Putao is a fearless, adventurous and stubborn woman. She doesn’t take fortune and reputation into account. When the Japanese besiege Shi Tun village and force these village women to identify their own husband in order to find out Eight Route Army fighter hidden in the crowd, Wang Putao does not refuse and truly recognize and bring out her husband. Her husband is then killed by traitors, and she becomes "the ninth widows" after eight heroes’ widows. Wang Putao is fearless. Hence, even when the Japanese soldiers invades the village, she still the only one who fight against the Japanese soldiers in order to get back her own staff. She desperately fights with the nationalist soldiers just for her pot. She argues with people who say her father-in-law is a landlord and bully.
Wang Putao never attaches herself to any man and follows her usual way of doing things no matter what others say in the traditional and feudal village. She tries to change the man-dominated society where women cannot do anything but be the loyal slaves of the absolute power of men and finally wins in the battle. She doesn’t think men can change her mind and future. Hence, when her lover Sun Shaoyong wants to control her and is confident that Putao will follow what he says, he fails and finally is changed by Putao. He gets his kind traits back and repairs the damaged relationship with his father. In front of Putao, men are not omnipotent dictators, but children who need love and tolerance. She helps Mr. Piao in the Cultural Revolution and becomes his reliance as he says that he feels himself like a baby when Putao stays beside him and only in this way can he find safety. (Yan Geling, 2006) Finally, due to the great traditional feminine traits of Putao, men in the stories are willing to be changed, refresh their minds and transfer their position from ruler to the dependent. Wang Putao dares to challenge the tradition that widows must preserve chastity after the death of their husbands and she is always honest to her physical desire although it means she has sexual relationships with seven different men. People always have a stereotype that widows must be bored, weary, bitter and enclosed. Hence, Putao is definitely a weirdo in the eyes of the world. However, she is the first happy widow in the literature because she never limits herself with her nominal marriage but lives freely like a young girl with endless enthusiasm. Men used to appear in a show of overwhelming force while women mostly are requested to submit themselves in the rule of men through sex. Yet, it seems to make no sense for Putao for that she thinks sex is used to meet her physical need than please men. She doesn’t think she is a victim in the sexual relationship and she regards men and women as participators in the relationship who need to please each other and share the same pleasure.
She is not sophisticated and still needs to be educated and enlightened. But she seems wise in the changeable national situation. Wang Putao observes the world with a view of closing to the earth "from down to up". All political upheavals for decades are just like different people passing by outside the door in her eyes. In her view, all kinds of political struggle will finish someday, which makes less sense than drilling water. All kinds of wars and movements are the same fate of being controlled but only change the ruler in the eyes of Wang Putao. (Chen Sihe, 2008) The forty-year vicissitude witnessed an earth-shaking change of Chinese rural areas and humanity and ethic are challenged relentlessly during these years. Most people choose to drift with the current and try to keep safety and make fortune in turbulent times while Wang Putao who perfectly combines ignorance and innocence doesn’t change the human ethics she believes and persists in coping with shifting events by sticking to a fundamental principle. According to the Chinese traditional philosophy of "Staving is not important, but losing reputation matters", she is actually not a chaste widow because she has affairs with other men (more than one), and gives birth to a bastard. However she is very filial to her father-in-law and even her brother-in-law cannot treat her father-in-law in this way. In her perspectives, what she does is based on the human nature. She insists to the simplest ethics, and deals with rapidly changing society by instincts and original wisdom. She rescues her father-in-law even if she must give up her own son and lover and protects Cai Hupo and his families who are arrested for stealing food. What’s more, she even brings her own food to her neighbors yet she must suffer starving. In order to help female educated youth back to city, she decides to raise that woman’s illegitimate child. She has the traits of traditional women: plainness, kindness and tolerance. She is full of wisdom and smart in handling trifles. As Shao Yong says, Wang Putao is better than the combination of 10 wise women. (Yan Geling, 2006)