The necessity of yielding is an important theme in Spring Moon. On his deathbed, the Old Venerable (the first patriarch) tells nine-year-old Spring Moon, “We are mere mortals who must learn not to contend with life but to yield to it.” This message becomes the guiding principle of her life. To console her daughter at their parting, Spring Moon says that, “both of us, you and I, must yield,” but Lustrous Jade unlearns this lesson at school and becomes an unyielding adult. Recalled by her mother-in-law, Spring Moon ends her affair with Bold Talent, saying, “We shall eventually think that our separation is a natural state. Yielding more, we shall desire less.” Bold Talent challenges her resolution, but she remains constant to the precept, paradoxically contradicting herself. Before leaving for Hong Kong, as she pays homage to her relatives and ancestors at their graves, Spring Moon says, “In yielding we are like the water, by nature placid, conforming to the hollow of the smallest hand; in time, shaping even the mountains to its will.” The characters who yield usually survive, while the characters who resist often die needlessly. At the end of the novel, only August Winds and ninety-year-old Spring Moon remain to greet Enduring Promise. By yielding and surviving, Spring Moon is able to fulfill her destiny of reuniting five generations of Changs at the graves of their ancestors.

Juxtaposition is the author’s primary method of conveying theme. In chapter 31, the characters play a game called “antithetical couplets,” in which one person composes the first line of a poetic couplet and a second person matches it with a contrast and a parallel. Thus, “green trees” becomes “red flowers” because green is the opposite of red and trees belong to the same family as flowers. This game mirrors the author’s extensive use of contrasts and parallels in the plot. Plum Blossom’s suicide parallels Lustrous Jade’s suicide; neither woman is willing to yield to fate. Spring Moon’s bridal trip to Peking contrasts with her return to Soochow after the death of her father-in-law. Though in opposite directions, both trips are the result of Spring Moon’s willingness to yield to circumstance. Noble Talent’s exploits with Resolute Spirit in chapter 18 parallel Lustrous Jade’s exploits with Resolute Spirit in chapter 37. In the epilogue, Enduring Promise shows Spring Moon a photograph of his daughter delivering a graduation speech. This picture parallels Spring Moon’s memory of Lustrous Jade’s graduation speech. By juxtaposing opposites and parallels, the author encourages the reader to engage in meaningful comparison.

The differences between Spring Moon and Lustrous Jade reflect the metamorphosis of China between 1900 and 1930. In contrast to Spring Moon’s “golden lilies,” Lustrous Jade’s feet are unbound and “big.” Whereas Bold Talent and the Matriarch arrange Spring Moon’s marriage, Lustrous Jade chooses her own husband and even proposes to him. Ever the dutiful mother, Spring Moon stays at home with her children and cares for them (though she leaves Lustrous Jade at a boarding school for several years). Lustrous Jade, on the other hand, leaves her son, New Destiny, with Spring Moon and returns to the Hunan Province to catechize peasant women. Whereas Spring Moon represents the thesis of tradition, Lustrous Jade represents its antithesis. The promise of synthesis is offered by Jade Spring, Lustrous Jade’s great-granddaughter, who takes Spring Moon’s hand at the end of the novel and prepares to listen to a clan story.