This book is about Linsen, who was born in a typical farmers family in the southern Yangtze River area in 1900. When he was 5 years old, his father passed away. He had to quit school when he was only 11 to support his family. He inherited a huge amount of debt. Despite drastic regime changes, Japanese invasion, civil war, land reforms, widespread starvation, the upheavals of the Communist and Cultural Revolutions and their dreadful political and economic consequences, he held on to Chinese traditions all his life. He believed that one should live on and get wealth only from his own hard work. By his own efforts, he became a very skilled, knowledgeable, and successful farmer, well respected person by rich and poor people in his town. He was a legendary figure of a grassroots Chinese farmer. He tried his best to resist the destruction of Chinese traditions and culture. Cynically, the final and fatal blow to him was from one of his beloved family members. Some of the dramatic historical and cultural events and information in this book were never before recorded.
