Sons

As Wang Lung approaches death, his three sons prepare to divide the estate he created from the soil. The eldest has become an idle landlord concerned with rank and appearances, the second is a calculating merchant and moneylender, and the youngest rejects both paths to build an army. Their promises to honour their father's land soon give way to rivalry, ambition and the demands of their separate households.

The family's disintegration unfolds against Republican China's warlord politics and recurring revolution. Wang the Tiger's military career offers discipline and authority, but it also turns soldiers, taxation and conquest into another form of inheritance. By shifting attention from the founder to his sons, the novel shows how quickly hard-won security can become entitlement and how national disorder magnifies conflicts already present within a prosperous family.