Ling
Ling Sao, Ling Tan’s wife, a benevolent woman not overly critical of her sons and their wives or of her own daughters. She and her husband work together and discuss important decisions. She sees her place as ensuring the biological continuation of the family, finding good wives and trying to provide for grandchildren.
Lao Ta, the oldest son, who is married and has one child as the novel opens. During the occupation, his wife gives birth to another child. He is largely content with his life on the family farm, but with the occupation, his wife is in danger. His wife and children die of disease, and he becomes a wild fighter.
Lao Er, the second son, more dynamic than his brother. He loves his wife deeply and passionately, and he tries to please her. He is also faithful to his parents. He takes her north, away from the invasion, but returns to his parents with his family after Lao Ta’s children die. They stay to wage war on the Japanese with his father and brother. His dedication to the resistance and his care of his wife and pride in her accomplishments mark him as an ideal new man of China.
Jade, the wife of Lao Er, intelligent and educated, with a mind of her own. She is the first to really understand the democracy movement and the Japanese invasion. She helps her husband to escape; after they return, she helps him to fight the Japanese. She is as modern a woman as could be found in China in the 1930’s, when a limited number of women were educated. She is a fierce fighter and a competent mother and wife.
Lao San, the youngest brother, a teenage boy at the beginning of the invasion. He is more carefree than his older brothers. After being raped by the Japanese because they could find no women in the household, he becomes a bloodthirsty fighter. His parents worry especially that he and his oldest brother will not return to normal. The whole family contrives to find him a worthy wife. He becomes interested in Mayli, who has returned from life in the United States to be with her people.
Pansiao, the youngest member of the family. She has spent most of her life weaving in a small room in the family house. She gets her opportunity to study when the women must hide with a Christian missionary. When the rest of the family members go back home to fight, she joins other young women at a mission school in the North and starts her education. Her family loyalty is expressed in her quest for a wife for Lao San.
Third Cousin, a partially educated but essentially lazy man. His wife and son cause him a lot of trouble, but they are the ones with spunk and ideas. His wife becomes a spy for Ling Tan’s son-in-law, Wu Lien, who collaborates with the Japanese. He tires of his wife’s control and becomes an opium addict. With the help of a stolen radio, he passes information to the peasants in a teahouse. He is the mouthpiece through which readers are connected to the world outside the little village and the larger town nearby.
Wu Lien, the husband of Ling Tan’s oldest daughter, a well-off merchant in the town who deals in foreign as well as domestic goods. When a general strike is called, along with an embargo on selling foreign goods, he does not comply, and his shop is destroyed. He lives with the Ling family for a while, then manages to make connections with the Japanese and lives in their compound, a seized large family home. A collaborator with the Japanese, even though they killed his mother, he nevertheless keeps silent about the Ling family’s guerrilla activities and helps them financially.