Chapter VI
Timeline
History, Novel, Author, and Adaptation · 1839–1973
First Opium War Begins
British naval forces attack Chinese ports after the Qing government destroys British opium stocks. China's century of humiliation begins.
Taiping Rebellion Begins
Hong Xiuquan, a failed civil service candidate who believed himself to be the younger brother of Jesus Christ, launches a millenarian rebellion. The Taiping Rebellion will last 14 years and kill between 20 and 30 million people — one of the deadliest conflicts in human history.
Events of the Novel Begin
The fictional events of The Good Earth begin around this time: Wang Lung is a young man working his father's land, preparing to take a wife.
Pearl Buck Born
Pearl Comfort Sydenstricker is born in Hillsboro, West Virginia, to Southern Presbyterian missionaries.
Pearl Buck Arrives in China
At five months old, Buck's parents bring her to China. She will grow up in Zhenjiang (then Chinkiang) on the Yangtze River.
Boxer Rebellion
An anti-foreign, anti-Christian peasant uprising is crushed by an eight-nation alliance of foreign powers. The Qing dynasty is further humiliated.
Xinhai Revolution — Qing Dynasty Falls
Sun Yat-sen's revolutionaries overthrow the Qing dynasty. The Republic of China is established. The last emperor, the six-year-old Puyi, abdicates.
Buck Returns to China After College
After graduating from Randolph-Macon Woman's College in Virginia, Buck returns to China. She will live there for most of the next two decades.
Warlord Era Begins
After the death of Yuan Shikai, China fractures into territories controlled by regional warlords — military governors who command private armies.
Buck Marries John Lossing Buck
Pearl marries an agricultural missionary. They move to rural Anhui province, where she sees Chinese peasant life firsthand — the world that will become The Good Earth.
Carol Buck Born
Buck's first child, Carol, is born with phenylketonuria (PKU), a metabolic disorder causing severe intellectual disability. Buck's grief will shape her writing.
The Good Earth Published
Published by the John Day Company, The Good Earth is an immediate sensation. It becomes the bestselling novel in the United States for two years.
Pulitzer Prize
The Good Earth wins the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. Buck is now one of the most famous writers in the world.
MGM Film Adaptation Released
MGM's film adaptation stars Paul Muni as Wang Lung and Luise Rainer as O-lan. Rainer wins the Academy Award for Best Actress.
Nobel Prize in Literature
Buck is awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature — the first American woman to receive the honor. The citation praises 'her rich and truly epic descriptions of peasant life in China.'
Communist Revolution — PRC Established
Mao Zedong's Communist forces defeat Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalists. The People's Republic of China is established. Buck's books are subsequently banned in mainland China.
Pearl Buck Dies
Buck dies in Danby, Vermont, at the age of 80. She wrote over 100 books and founded Welcome House, the first international interracial adoption agency.