Big Rat in the Analects by Confucius (Literature & Language Essay)

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Big Rat in the Analects by Confucius
The Book of Songs by The Analects is also known as The Book of Odes, comprising poems generating Confucius wisdom. One of the most well-known poems from the book includes “Big Rat”. In this poem, the poet says in “Three years we have slaved for you, yet you take no notice of us”, to expose the thankless nature of a rat by a farmer (Waley, 1937, p.309). In China and other eastern countries, gratitude has vital importance in response to kindness. Further, the rat, which is considered accountable for spreading the most horrible pandemics like Plague and Black Death, sneaks into the stocked grains of the farmer. Still, the farmer has been feeding it for up to three years. Now, considering his compromises and tolerance to be fruitless, he begins to ponder upon ideas to get rid of the rat (Lau, 1979). Hence, the narrator emphasizes the importance of moral concerns in society. Thanklessness in Asian culture stems up grievance while weakening the bonds of relations, particularly one-side concerns multiplied with sacrifices. On a meta-level, the quotation metaphorically challenges the ethical responsibility of a landowner to reward his peasants. It broadcasts the dependence of a landowner on the efforts and tolerance of a peasant. The peasant realizes his continuous struggle to feed others, while most of his produced crops are taken away by the landowner without any gratitude or reward (Lau, 1979). The resulted grief in farmer leads him to think alternate ways of survival by leaving him and his land uncultivated. As the poet remarks at one place, “At last we are going to leave you, and go to that happy border...