Classical Characters or Words about Traditional Chinese Virtues

The idiom of "Knotting Grass and Bearing a Ring" not only tells us two touching stories about the realization of this virtue, but also tells us that "no good deed goes unpunished" is an unchanging heavenly principle.

The allusion to "Knotting Grass" is found in "Zuo Zhuan. The story of "Knotting Grass" can be found in Zuo Zhuan, the fifteenth year of Duke Xuan. In the seventh month of the fall of 594 B.C., Duke Huan of Qin sent troops to invade Jin, and the Jin and Qin troops fought in Fu's (present-day Dali County, Shaanxi Province), where Jin general Wei Du and Qin general Du Hui met, and the two of them killed each other, and when it was difficult for them to be separated, Wei Du suddenly saw an old man use a rope of knotted grass to trap Du Hui, so that the Qin Hercules was unsteady on his feet, and he fell down to the ground, and was captured on the spot by Wei Du, which led to Wei Du's defeat of Qin divisions in this battle. Qin division.

After the Jin army withdrew in victory, that night Wei Du met in his dream the old man who had knotted a rope for him and tripped Du Hui during the day, and the old man said, "I am the father of the woman whom you married off without letting her be buried for your father. I am doing this today to repay you for your great kindness!

Originally, Wei Wuzi, a great physician of the state of Jin, had a favorite concubine who had no son. When Wei Wuzi was first sick, he instructed his son Wei Tu, saying, "After I die, you must marry her off." Soon after Wei Wu Zi became seriously ill, he told Wei Tu again, "After I die, you must have her martyred for me." When Wei Wu Zi died, Wei Tu did not kill the concubine to accompany the burial, but married her to someone else. Wei Tu said, "When a man is seriously ill, his sanity is dazed and confused, and I married this woman on the basis of my father's command when he was sane."

The allusion to the "ring" is found in a note in the Hou Han Shu - Yang Zhen Biography (后汉书-杨震传), in which Yang Zhen's father, Yang Bao, was nine years old when he was north of the Huayin Mountains, and saw a yellow finch wounded by an eagle, which fell under a tree and was trapped by mole crickets. Yang Bao had pity on it, so he brought it home, put it in a towel box, and fed it only yellow flowers. One day, a hundred days later, the yellow finch was full of feathers and flew away. That night, there was a yellow-clothed boy to Yang Bao to pay thanks, said: "I am the messenger of the Queen Mother of the West, the king's benevolence and love to save the rescue, really feel into the ji." He gave four white rings to Yang Bao, saying, "It can bless your children and grandchildren to be ranked among the three principal officials, to be clean and honest in politics, and to act in the world as white as these jade rings."

As the boy in yellow said, Yang Bao's son Yang Zhen, grandson Yang Bing, great-grandson Yang Zhi, and grandson Yang Biao all reached the rank of lieutenant in their four generations, and all of them were upright and honest, and they were clean and honest in politics, and their virtues were recounted for posterity.

Later generations have combined the words "Knot Grass" and "Ring", which have been passed down to this day, as a metaphor for being grateful for a debt of gratitude and not forgetting it until one's death.

『Original text』

In the seventh month of the autumn, Duke Huan of Qin invaded Jin, and went to Fu Shi. In the seventh month of the autumn, Duke Huan of Qin invaded Jin, and then went to Fu Shi. And Luo, Wei Du defeated the Qin division in the auxiliary. The first time I saw him, I was able to get the money to pay for it, and I was able to get the money to pay for it.

Initially, Wei Wuzi had a favorite concubine, childless. Wuzi disease, the order of the pill said: "must marry is. Disease, then said: "must be thought of as martyrdom. And death, I married, said: "Disease is chaos, I rule from it. And Fu's campaign, I saw the old man knot grass to hyper Du Hui, Du Hui stumbled and upside down, so I was captured. Night dream said: "Yu, and married the woman's father. You use the ancestors of the rule of life, Yu is to repay." (Zuo Zhuan.

Continuing Qi Harmonic Records, Bao was nine years old when he traveled to the north of Huayin Mountain, where he saw a yellow finch being fought over by a scops owl and falling under a tree, where it was trapped by mole crickets. Bao took it to return, placed in the towel box, only food yellow flowers, more than 100 days hair feathers into, is to fly away. On that night, a yellow-clothed boy bowed again to Bao and said, 'I am the messenger of the Queen Mother of the West, and I am grateful to you for your kindness and rescue. To the white ring four with treasure: 'so that the children and grandchildren of the king clean and white, the position of the three things, when so ring carry on.'" (The Book of the Later Han Dynasty - Yang Zhen biography)