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grandmother. Thus, “the bones” become the sign for Ruth to rearrange the “missing bones” in her ‘”family body” since bones are the framework of the body.
4.1.3 The Relationship between ‘Bone’ and Precious Auntie
Looking at the title, The Bonesetter’s Daughter, it appears that the focus of the story in this novel is the bonesetter’s daughter. In addition, it is found out that
Precious Auntie is the daughter of the famous bonesetter. However, Precious Auntie plays an important role in this story because she is directly connected to the bone and
passes it on to her own daughter, LuLing. Thus, the writer finds out that there are some important findings related to the connection of the symbol of bone and Precious
Auntie. There are three significant points why Precious Auntie has a close
relationship with ‘the bone’ itself.
First, for nine hundred years, Precious Auntie’s family has been bonesetters 183. Her father is the Famous Bonesetter from the Mouth of the Mountain 3. He
uses bones to cure bones 183. Moreover, becoming the bonesetter is a tradition and an inheritance. Precious Auntie’s father does not have to go to special school to be a
bone doctor. He learns from watching his father, and his father learns from his father before him 184. It shows that Precious Auntie is the generation of the bonesetter.
She is taught by her father about the knowledge of bone, the remedy using the bone and how to treat sick people or bone setting. Furthermore, her father always asks her
to accompany him to dig out the dragon bones for remedy in the special cave. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
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They also passed along the secret location for finding the best dragon bones, a place called the Monkey’s Jaw. An ancestor from the time of the Sung
Dynasty had found the cave in the deepest ravines of the dry riverbed. Each generation dug deeper and deeper, with one soft crack in the cave leading to
another farther in. and the secret of their exact location was also a family heirloom, passed from generation to generation, father to son, and in Precious
Auntie’s time, father to daughter to me 184. Second, Precious Auntie possesses a dragon bone that later she gives it to
LuLing as a remembrance of her past life and an heirloom for the future. I have a bone, probably from a turtle
, she told me. […] It looked like a dried turnip with pockmarks. My father almost ground this up for medicine. Then he
saw there was writing on it. She turned the bone over, and I saw strange
characters running up and down 182.
Usually, the bonesetter uses dragon bones in making the medicine for the remedy. Somehow, the dragon bones they use may have inscription on it, like what
Precious Auntie possesses and it is called Oracle Bone. It is
an inscribed bone and tortoise shell, used for divination, has enabled historians to be on fairly firm ground
with regard to the Shang dynasty, which lasted from about the sixteenth to the eleventh century B.C 12.
As the daughter of the Famous Bonesetter, Precious Auntie is already familiar with the bones. She helps her father to collect the dragon bones, sort them out and
help her father in his medicine shop. However, she also knows about the oracle bone, which is a special dragon bone for it has ancient character on it.
Until recently, these kinds of bones weren’t so valuable, because of the scratches. Bone diggers used to smooth them with a file before selling them to
medicine shops. Now the scholars call these oracle bones, and they sell for twice as much. And the words on here? They’re questions to the gods
183. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
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The only oracle bone that Precious Auntie’s possesses is the valuable treasure for both Precious Auntie and LuLing. It becomes important that the oracle bone
comprises of different sad stories. For Precious Auntie, the oracle bone becomes her memorabilia of her beloved father, the Famous Bonesetter from the Mouth of
Mountain, who is killed at her wedding. Besides, the oracle bone is given to LuLing because she is her own daughter. It can be said that the oracle bone is the only
precious heirloom from Precious Auntie to LuLing as “the memory” and the heritage from the Famous Bonesetter’s family. While for LuLing the oracle bone becomes her
only golden ticket to fly away to America after she is desperate in Hong Kong and waiting for the visa to be approved. LuLing then tries to sell the oracle bone, the one
that is given by Precious Auntie in three shops. The first belonged to a bonesetter. He said the bone was no longer used as
medicine, but as a strange curiosity it was worth a little money. […] The next shop sold jewelry and curious. […] He said it was genuine, but not a good
example of an oracle bone. […] The third place was an antique shop for tourists. […] Then he asked me many questions. […] I left that store, angry
and insulted 326-327.
Actually, LuLing is confused whether she should sell the oracle bone or not for it belongs to her mother, Precious Auntie and her grandfather, the Famous
Bonesetter. It indicates that the oracle bone plays an important role in this part for it is the only link for LuLing to connect herself to her mother, Precious Auntie and her
ancestor. Yet how could I sell it? It had belonged to my mother, my grandfather. It was
my connection to them. How could I hand it over to a stranger so I could abandon my homeland, the graves of my ancestors? 327
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This dilemma puzzles LuLing since if she does not sell it, she can be trapped in Hong Kong forever and cannot follow her sister’s foot steps, GaoLing, to America.
Finally, she decides to sell the oracle bone to the second shop and buy a ticket to sail to America, the land with no ghosts and curses.
That night, I put Precious Auntie’s picture on a low table and lighted some incense. I asked her forgiveness and that of her father. I said that the gift she
had given me would now buy me my freedom and that I hoped she would not be angry with me for this, as well. The next day, I sold the oracle bone to the
second shop […] I had enough money to buy a ticket in steerage. […] And then finally the visa was approved. […] I sailed for America, a land without
curses or ghosts 337-338.
Thus, it can be inferred that the oracle bone is essential for Precious Auntie and for LuLing. Both of them are connected by the oracle bone, a small bone with the
inscription of history from ancient times. Third, since Precious Auntie’s father is a bone doctor, she is taught to be a
bonesetter also. Even though there is no woman bonesetter, but Precious Auntie is interested to learn more about the bone and the bone setting.
So Precious Auntie freely followed her father around in his study and shop. […] As she grew older, she learned to bleed a wound with a square nail […]
By the time she passed from childhood to maidenhood, she had […] touched so many bodies, living, dying, and dead […] For the most difficult cases, she
helped her father put the injured man on a light latticework of rattan 187.
Furthermore, the interesting part is the use of dragon bones in traditional Chinese remedy. The bones are well known for curing anything, from wasting
diseases to stupidity, and Precious Auntie’s father uses bones to heal bones 183. It PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
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is because the Chinese myth on Dragon is very strong. Milledge said that the Chinese believes that dragon is a powerful and wise creature 60. By having its bone, people
believe that they will gain power as well as the dragon bones can be used as an effective remedy. Precious Auntie’s father has remedies of three kinds: modern, try-
anything, and traditional 186. The modern was the Western medicine of missionaries. The try-anything was
the spells and chants of rogue monks. As for the traditional, that included the dragon bones, as well as seahorses and seaweed, insect shells and rare seeds,
tree bark and bat dung, all of the highest quality 186.
However, the big change suddenly occurs when the Western scholars come to China to find the dragon bones. Initially, it was used only in traditional Chinese
pharmacies, but then the finding of oracle bones lead to the discovery of human fossil by Western scholars. It is when they find teeth from a human head of ancient man and
recognizes it as “Peking Man” or Sinanthropus pekinensis. Tweddell and Kimball explained that the earliest inhabitants of China were the Homo erectus ‘Peking
Man’ of half a million years ago. Dwelling in a cave on a hillside near modern Peking, they hunted, made tools, and used fire for warmth in the extremely cold
winters. Subsequent millennia brought later hunter-gatherers, who developed regional cultures. Some time after 10,000 B.C. the Chinese began to farm 195.
Precious Auntie is anxious about this fact because she still possesses five dragon bones from the cave of Monkey’s Jaw. She insists that they are not from
human body. However, her father, the Famous Bonesetter, soon comes to her dream: PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
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“The bones you have are not from dragons,” he said. “They are from our own clan, the ancestor who was crushed by the Monkey’s Jaw. And because we
stole them, he’s cursed us. That’s why nearly everyone in our family has died […] And it doesn’t stop with death […]
“What should we do?” Precious Auntie asked in her dream. “Return the bones. Until they’re reunited with the rest of his body, he’ll
continue to plague us.” 202
This dream becomes a sign for Precious Auntie to obey her father’s request and return all the dragon bones she has to the Monkey’s Jaw. Thus, it is implied that
the essence of the bone itself is to construct the body in order to be completed. Chevalier, Alain, John Buchanan-Brown said that “the bones are symbolizing the
essential element, the essence of creation” 109. Therefore, the meaning of the bones here as the essence of creation becomes stronger.
4.2 The Meaning of the Symbol of Bone in Conveying Chinese Values
