8

Wu Bao’an Abandons His Family to Ransom His Friend

The above lyric poem, titled “On Friendship,” laments modern men’s treachery and the lack of the true spirit of friendship. When passing around the wine cups, they can be as cordial as brothers, but, at the slightest conflict of interests, they turn their backs on each other. Truly, wine-and-meat brothers are to be had in the thousands; a true friend in distress is nowhere to be found. (This is particularly true of Suzhou natives. How detestable! How absurd!) There are also those who are brothers in the morning but enemies by evening. Scarcely have they put down their wine cups and walked out the door before they turn toward each other with bow and arrow drawn. Tao Yuanming’s expressed wish to break o all friendships,³ Ji Shuye’s letter rejecting a friendly o er,⁴ and Liu Xiaobiao’s essay “On the Severing of All Relationships”⁵ all were prompted by indignation at the deplorable morals of their times. I shall now propose to tell of two friends who, never having seen each other but drawn together by a similar sense of loyalty, went to each other’s rescue in adversity in both life and death, proving themselves to be true friends of the heart. Indeed, it was just as

Our story takes place in the Kaiyuan reign period [713–41] during the Tang dynasty. The prime minister and duke of Dai, named Guo Zhen, with the courtesy name Yuanzhen, a native of Wuyang, Hebei (Wuyang is present-day Daming County in Daming Prefecture), had a nephew, Guo Zhongxiang, who, despite his talent in both the civil as well as military arts, had received no recommendation for office, because his chivalrous spirit was often at odds with conventional codes of behavior. Anxious that he had not amounted to anything by this age, his father wrote a letter for him to take to his uncle Guo Yuanzhen in the capital, asking that he be given a start in his career. Yuanzhen said to him, “If a worthy man cannot establish a career for himself by taking the first honors in the imperial examinations, he should at least try to attain wealth and rank by proving his worth in foreign lands, as Ban Chao⁸ and Fu Jiezi⁹ did. If your ambition is to rise through family connections, how far do you expect to get?” Zhongxiang humbly voiced his agreement.

About this time, reports from the frontier to the capital said that the cave-dwelling barbarians in the south were in rebellion. The fact was that after Empress Wu Zetian¹⁰ assumed power, she gave small bounties every year and big ones every three years to the barbarians in the Nine Ravines and Eighteen Caves in a bid to bribe them into submission. This system was abolished upon Emperor Xuanzong’s ascension to the throne. The barbarians, therefore, rose in revolt and raided counties and prefectures. The imperial court dispatched Li Meng as governor-general of Yaozhou (Present-day Dali and Yao’an in Yunnan were part of Yaozhou in Tang times) to lead an expedition against the rebels. Thus authorized by imperial decree, Li Meng made a special trip, before his departure, to the prime minister’s residence to bid him adieu as well as to solicit advice. Guo Yuanzhen said, “In olden times, Zhuge Liang captured Meng Huo¹¹ seven times but released him each time, in order that the barbarian should sincerely acknowledge his defeat rather than grudgingly submit to Zhuge’s power. If you act with caution, victory will certainly be yours. My nephew Guo Zhongxiang is a capable man. I will have him follow you on this expedition, so that when you have defeated the barbarians and proven your worth, he can benefit from some of your glory and make a name for himself.” Thereupon he called Zhongxiang to come forth and be introduced to Li Meng. Li Meng was impressed by Zhongxiang’s air of distinction. Moreover, the young man was the nephew of the incumbent prime minister, who was personally asking him to take the young man on board. He could hardly dare to decline. Then and there, he granted Zhongxiang the post of aide-de-camp. Zhongxiang took leave of his uncle and set out with Li Meng.

When they came to the area south of the Jian Mountains,¹² Zhongxiang received a letter, delivered by a messenger on horseback, from a certain Wu Bao’an, courtesy name Yonggu, who was sheri of nearby Fangyi County in the prefecture of Suizhou in eastern Sichuan. Being a native of the same district that Zhongxiang was from, Wu Bao’an had long heard about Zhongxiang’s loyalty to friends and his readiness to help others, though the two men had never met. Zhongxiang opened the letter, which read,

After a moment of reflection on the letter, Zhongxiang sighed, “This man has never seen me, but he turns to me for help in his hour of need. He is indeed someone who truly understands me. Isn’t it shameful if a worthy man cannot do anything for a trusting friend?” (The man is asked a favor by someone he has never met, and yet, strangely enough, his heart exults. Who can understand this?) Thereupon he praised Wu Bao’an’s abilities to Li Meng and asked that Wu be recruited into the army. Governor-General Li accepted the recommendation and issued an order to be delivered to Suizhou, appointing Sheri Wu Bao’an as a clerk for the army.

No sooner had the messenger been sent on his way than some scouts came back to report that the barbarian troops were fiercely pushing deeper into the interior. Governor-General Li ordered the army to march posthaste under cover of night. Upon reaching Yaozhou, they encountered barbarian troops on a looting spree. The barbarian soldiers were caught o guard by the sweeping army and ran pellmell everywhere in total defeat. Emboldened by the victory, Governor-General Li led the mighty army in pursuit for a good fifty li. When night fell, they pitched camp, and Guo Zhongxiang o ered this advice: “The barbarians are extremely cunning people. Now that they have fled far away and your awe-inspiring name has been established, it would be best for us to return to the prefectural seat while, at the same time, dispatching messengers to spread word about your power and benevolence so as to induce them to surrender. To give further pursuit now is to get ourselves deeper into their terrain and risk falling into their traps.”

Li Meng snapped hotly, “The barbarians are terror-stricken. If we don’t take this opportunity to sweep their caves clean, when will we have another chance? Say no more! Just watch me crush them!”

The following day, they broke camp. After marching for several days, they reached the territory of the Wuman tribes,¹³ where all that met their eyes were vast stretches of green wooded mountains, with no indication of a road. Growing apprehensive, Li Meng ordered the troops to withdraw, for the time being, to some open and flat land to pitch camp while, at the same time, looking for local residents to ask for directions. Suddenly, from amidst the valleys, all around them broke out the sounds of gongs and drums. Barbarian soldiers swept down the hills and descended upon the government troops from all directions. Their chief, Meng Xinuluo (According to The History of the Tang Dynasty, Yaozhou was in Meng’s possession after the Tianbao reign period, whereas Xinuluo was the ancestor of the six Wuman tribes. The story just borrows the latter’s name), never missing a shot with his wooden crossbow and poisoned arrows, led all the tribal chieftains in running through the woods and over the hills. They moved as fast and as e ortlessly as flying birds and galloping beasts. The Tang army, caught in an ambush, tired and knowing nothing about the terrain, was in no position to fight back. However brave he was, there was nothing the governor-general could do to save the day. Seeing that he had few men left, he sighed, “If I had not ignored Aide-de-camp Guo’s advice, I wouldn’t have ended up humiliated by these dogs and sheep.” He drew a dagger from his boot and cut his own throat. (Li Meng is also a true hero.) His entire army perished in the barbarian land. A later poet had this to say:

Another poem blames Governor-General Li for having courted defeat by ignoring Guo Zhongxiang’s advice. The poem says,

Guo Zhongxiang was among the captured. Xinuluo was impressed by his distinguished looks, and when it was found out, after interrogation, that the young man was Guo Yuanzhen’s nephew, the barbarian chief gave him to Wuluo, chieftain of his own cave. As a matter of fact, the southern barbarians had no greater ambition than to lay their hands on Chinese goods. The Chinese captives were shared among the various cave chieftains. Those with greater battle honor were given more; those with less received fewer. All of the captives, regardless of their varying degrees of intelligence and worth, were treated as slaves to chop firewood, feed horses, and herd sheep at the bidding of the barbarians. Chieftains who had more slaves could trade those they did not need. Nine out of ten Chinese who ended up there would rather die than live, but, with barbarians watching them, they could not find ways to die—such was their misery. In the last battle, a great number of Chinese were captured, among whom were many of high rank. When their background was found out during interrogation, the barbarian chieftains made them write letters home to ask their relatives in China to ransom them at high prices. Now who in such circumstances would not want to return home? Such a policy prompted all captives, rich and poor alike, to write letters home. Those families that had far too little means to a ord the ransom had to give up the idea, but those that did have kith and kin to borrow from tried their best to scrape together enough money for the ransom. For even a penniless bachelor, the heartless and greedy barbarian chieftains sought as many as thirty bolts of fine silk. For those of high rank, the ransom could be exorbitant. Having learned that Guo Zhongxiang was the nephew of the incumbent prime minister, Wuluo asked for the high price of a thousand bolts of silk.

Zhongxiang thought to himself, “Only my uncle can a ord to produce a thousand bolts of silk. But how am I to send a letter to him over such a great distance?” Suddenly, a thought struck him: “Wu Bao’an is a friend who truly understands me. I recommended him strongly to Governor-General Li for the post of clerk on the basis of a few lines from him, without ever having seen him. He must be appreciative of what I had done for him. Luckily, he set out late and has been spared this misery. He should have arrived in Yaozhou by now. It shouldn’t be too hard for him to deliver a message for me to Chang’an.” So he wrote a letter to Bao’an, describing in detail the plight he was in as well as the ransom sought by Wuluo. The letter also said, “Please be kind enough to convey a message to my uncle for him to deliver the ransom as soon as possible, so that I might return alive. Could you, Yonggu, bear the thought of letting me live as a captive slave and die as a ghost in a barbarian land?” Yonggu was the courtesy name of Bao’an. At the end of the letter he added the following lines:

After he finished the letter, it so happened that an official from Yaozhou in charge of grain transport was released upon ransom. Zhongxiang entrusted the man with the letter and, before he realized it, burst into tears, for he felt as if his heart were stabbed by ten thousand arrows at the thought that others were being released, whereas he was left behind, unable to spread his wings. Truly,

We shall now leave Guo Zhongxiang in the barbarian land but turn our attention to Wu Bao’an, who, having received Governor-General Li’s letter and learned about Guo Zhongxiang’s recommendation, left his wife, Zhang-shi, and their newborn child in Suizhou and, followed by a servant, traveled to Yaozhou with all speed to assume his post. The news about General Li’s death in battle came to him as a shock. Not hearing anything about Zhongxiang, he decided to stay on to learn what he could of the matter. It so happened that the official in charge of grain transport returned at that moment from the barbarian land, bringing with him the letter. Wu Bao’an opened and read the letter and was overcome with grief. He wrote a reply, assuring Zhongxiang that the ransom would be paid. He left the letter with the official and asked him to have someone send it to the barbarian land at his earliest convenience, to put Zhongxiang’s mind at ease. He himself made haste to pack, and, in no time, he set o for Chang’an. It was more than three thousand li from Yaozhou to Chang’an through eastern Sichuan. Bao’an did not return home but went directly to the capital, Chang’an, and asked for an audience with Prime Minister Guo Yuanzhen. But, in fact, Yuanzhen had died a month before and his entire family had escorted the coffin back to their native place.

All his hopes dashed, all his travel money spent to the last penny, Wu Bao’an had no choice but to sell his servant and his horse to meet his immediate needs. Upon returning home to Suizhou and seeing his wife, Zhang-shi, and his child, he broke down in unrestrained sobs. To Zhang-shi’s inquiries, he gave an account of Zhongxiang’s captivity in the barbarian land and said, “I must ransom him, but, since I don’t have the means, I’m making him wait in vain in that wretched place. How can I be at peace with myself?” The tears started flowing again.

Zhang-shi tried to stop him by saying, “It is often said that ‘The cleverest housewife can’t prepare porridge without rice.’ Since you don’t have the means to do as you wish, you’ll have to give up the idea.”

Bao’an shook his head. “I wrote to him before and he kindly recommended me for office. Now that he has entrusted me with his life at a time of great peril, how can I let him down? I swear not to live on if I fail to get him back.”

And so he sold all his family possessions, which came to no more than the equivalent of two hundred bolts of silk. He left his wife and child and went out as a traveling merchant. However, afraid that more letters from the barbarian land might be delivered to him, he limited his routes to the greater Yaozhou area. From morning till night he traveled about in all directions, wearing tattered clothes and eating the coarsest food. Every penny, every grain of rice was saved toward the purchase of silk. When he bought one bolt, he set his mind on ten. Having bought ten, he set his mind on a hundred. When he got a hundred bolts, he deposited them in the prefectural treasury of Yaozhou. In his dreams, all that filled his mind was the name Guo Zhongxiang. Even his wife and child faded from his memory. A full ten years he spent on the road (Who else would be willing to do this? Who else?) and all he had accumulated came to barely seven hundred bolts of silk, still three hundred short of the amount required. Verily,

To pick up another thread of our story, we shall now tell of Wu Bao’an’s wife, Zhang-shi, and their child, who stayed on in Suizhou, forlorn and desolate. In the beginning, there were people who helped them out in small ways out of regard for the former sheri , but, as the years went by without any word from the husband, they gradually turned away from the woman and child. Nor did Zhang-shi have any savings to fall back on. After ten years, she found it impossible to go on living without enough food and clothing. She put together her few pieces of old and broken household goods and sold them in exchange for some traveling money. Taking along her eleven-year-old son, she asked for directions and set out on a journey to Yaozhou to look for her husband, Wu Bao’an. Traveling by day and resting by night, they could cover no more than thirty to forty li per day.

By the time they reached the borders of Rongzhou, all their traveling money had been exhausted. At her wits’ end, Zhang-shi thought of begging her way along but, never having done this before, was too embarrassed to do it now. Lamenting over her tragic fate, she thought she would be better o dead, but she could ill bear to part with her eleven-year-old son. (Someone said, “Wu Bao’an abandoned his family and spent ten years trying to ransom a friend he had never even seen. Isn’t this a bit unwise?” Yu Zhongxiang¹⁷ commented, “A gentleman can leave this world without regrets if he has found himself one truly trusting friend.” Precisely what Bao’an had in mind.) While she turned her thoughts this way and that, evening had set in. Sitting in the foothills of the Wumeng Mountains, she burst into loud wails of grief. Her crying alarmed an official who happened to be passing by. Named Yang Anju, the official was on his way to assume office as governor-general of Yaozhou to fill the vacancy left by Li Meng’s death. He started his journey from Chang’an and was passing by the foothills of the Wumeng Mountains when he heard the woman’s heart-rending cries. He called his horse carriage to a halt and asked the woman to step forward and tell him what the matter was. Taking her eleven-year-old son by the hand, Zhang-shi went over and said tearfully, “I am the wife of Wu Bao’an, sheri of Suizhou. This child is my son. In order to have a thousand bolts of silk to ransom his friend Guo Zhongxiang from the barbarians, he left us to go to Yaozhou, and I haven’t heard anything from him for ten years. I am now on my way to look for him because I have no one to turn to for help in my poverty. But it’s still a long way ahead, and there’s no more food left. That’s why I was crying.”

Anju marveled inwardly, “What a man of honor! What a pity I haven’t had the good fortune to get acquainted with him!” To Zhang-shi, he said, “Don’t worry, madam. I am the new governor-general of Yaozhou. As soon as I arrive in Yaozhou, I will send someone out to look for your worthy husband. I will take care of all your traveling expenses. Please go to the courier station further down the road. I will arrange lodging for you.”

Zhang-shi restrained her tears and bowed in gratitude, although still not without some apprehension. Governor-General Yang’s carriage left with the speed of wind.

Zhang-shi and her son supported each other and, step by step, made their way to the courier station. Governor-General Yang having already given instructions to the officer in command, the mother and son were led into a vacant room and served food after they were questioned as to their identity. At the fifth watch the following morning, Governor-General Yang took his departure. Acting on the governor-general’s orders, the officer in command provided Zhang-shi with ten thousand in cash for traveling expenses as well as a carriage and some of his men to escort them all the way to the Pupeng courier station in Yaozhou. Zhang-shi’s heart overflowed with gratitude. Truly,

No sooner had he arrived in Yaozhou than Yang Anju set lictors out in every direction to find Wu Bao’an. Within three or four days, they found him. Anju invited him to the governor-general’s residence, went down the front steps to greet him and, taking him by the hand, led him into the main hall and o ered him kind words. (Where can you find a man nowadays with Mr. Yang’s respect for worthy men?) “I have often heard,” said the governor-general, “that the ancients were wont to form friendships that remained true through life and death, and now I see such an example in you. Your wife and son have come a long distance to look for you and are now at the courier station. Please go to see them and fill each other in on what happened in these ten years. I will take care of the bolts of silk that you need.”

“It is only my duty to serve my friend as best I can,” said Bao’an. “How can I presume to get you involved?”

“I just want to help you fulfill your wish out of my admiration for your spirit of loyalty.”

Bao’an replied with a kowtow, “I will not presume to decline your most kind o er. I do still need one third of the total ransom. If I could have the entire sum now, I would go to the barbarians and redeem my friend. It won’t be too late for me to see my wife and child after that.”

Being new in his post, Anju had to borrow four hundred bolts of silk from the government treasury plus a fully saddled horse to give to Bao’an. Immensely delighted, Bao’an took the four hundred bolts as well as the seven hundred bolts that he already had and, equipped with all one thousand one hundred bolts, he set out on horseback for the southern barbarian land. Upon arrival, he found a Chinese-speaking barbarian and told him to convey his message to the other barbarians. To this man he gave the extra one hundred bolts for his expenses. He would be perfectly content if only Zhongxiang could be released. Truly,

To retrace our steps, Guo Zhongxiang, under Wuluo, was treated well and amply provided with food and drink in the beginning because Wuluo was hoping to get a heavy ransom for him. But, after more than a year went by without any ransom-o ering Chinese showing up, Wuluo was displeased and reduced Zhongxiang’s rations to only one meal a day and made him herd the battle elephants. Unable to stand the misery, Zhongxiang was so consumed with homesickness that one day, when Wuluo was away on a hunting expedition, he escaped in a northerly direction. After he walked for a day and a night on dangerous mountain paths, the soles of his feet were all lacerated. Barbarians who herded the battle elephants ran after him with the speed of wind, caught up with him, and took him back. Wuluo was so incensed that he sold Zhongxiang as a slave to Xinding, chieftain of a southern cave two hundred li away from Wuluo’s territory.

Now this Xinding was a most cruel man. Whenever a job displeased him in the slightest, he would flog Zhongxiang a hundred strokes with a leather whip until he was swollen and bruised all over his back. This happened more than once. The pain being too much for him, Zhongxiang escaped at the next chance that presented itself. However, as he was not familiar with the terrain, he ended up going in circles in the mountain valleys and was captured again by the local barbarians, who took him to Xinding. Xinding did not want him any more and sold him to another southern cave, and thus he was taken further south. This new chieftain, the Wild Bodhisattva, was even more merciless. Learning that Guo Zhongxiang had repeatedly tried to escape, he made Zhongxiang stand on two wooden boards, each five to six feet long and three to four inches thick, and drove iron nails through his feet into the wood. During the day, the wooden boards encumbered his movements, nor could he turn the slightest fraction of an inch at night as he slept in a pit covered by thick wooden boards, on which barbarians of the cave slept to keep watch over him. With pus and blood often oozing out from the wounds on his feet, the su ering was no less than the torments of hell. There is a poem in evidence:

Now, the Chinese-speaking barbarian went to see Wuluo with Wu Bao’an’s message. Wuluo could hardly contain his joy at the prospect of a thousand bolts of silk. He sent a messenger down south to buy Guo Zhongxiang back. Xinding, the chieftain of the southern cave, led the messenger to the Wild Boddhisattva, and, as the ransom exchanged hands, iron pincers were put to work to pull out the nails from Zhongxiang’s feet. Having been in the flesh for a long time, the nails were like part of the flesh after the pus had dried up. Now that they were being drawn out, the pain was more insu erable than when they were first driven in. Zhongxiang fell unconscious in a pool of blood. When he came to a considerable while later, he found himself unable to move so much as a step. There was no choice but to put him in a leather bag so that two barbarians could carry him to Wuluo. With the silk now in his possession, Wuluo could not have cared less whether Zhongxiang was dead or alive but handed him over to the Chinese-speaking barbarian, who then brought him to Wu Bao’an.

Wu Bao’an greeted him as he would his own flesh and blood. This being the first time the two friends met, they took a good look at each other before they found their voices. Then they fell upon each other’s shoulders and wept, both wondering if they were meeting in a dream. That Guo Zhongxiang was grateful to Wu Bao’an goes without saying. Saddened by Zhongxiang’s ghostly, emaciated look and his inability to use his feet, Bao’an gave his friend his horse while he himself followed behind on foot, traveling back to Yaozhou to report to Governor-General Yang.

As a matter of fact, Yang Anju had once been Guo Yuanzhen’s subordinate. Though he had never seen Guo Zhongxiang before, he considered himself connected with the Guo family. Moreover, being a man of integrity, he did not base his regard for others on their change of status. The sight of Zhongxiang greatly delighted him. He had Zhongxiang take a bath and change into new clothes and bade an army physician attend to the wounds in his feet. With good nutrition and careful nursing, Zhongxiang recovered within a month.

Let us come back to Wu Bao’an. It was not until after he returned from the barbarian land that he went to the Pupeng courier station to see his wife and son. Still in swaddling clothes when they had parted, the boy was now eleven years of age. Bao’an could not help feeling sad at the quick passage of time. For his great loyalty, Yang Anju held him in the utmost esteem. Not only did the governor-general praise Bao’an to everyone he met, but he also wrote letters to highly placed officials in Chang’an, the capital, describing how Bao’an had ransomed a friend at the sacrifice of the well-being of his own family. Then he sent Bao’an o with lavish gifts and substantial provisions to go to the capital to get a new appointment. Impressed by the governor-general’s treatment of him, all of the officials of Yaozhou showered gifts upon Bao’an as well. Zhongxiang was kept in the yamen as the governor-general’s aide-de-camp. Wu Bao’an shared half of all the presents he received with Zhongxiang, over the latter’s repeated objections. After expressing his gratitude to the governor-general, Wu Bao’an left for Chang’an with his family. Zhongxiang accompanied them beyond the Yaozhou border, and there they parted with bitter tears. Bao’an left his family in Suizhou and went alone to the capital, where he was promoted to be assistant magistrate of Pengshan County, Jiazhou Prefecture (Present-day Pengshan County, Meizhou). Jiazhou being within the borders of Sichuan, a location to which he could conveniently bring his family, Bao’an went merrily on his way to take up his post. Of this, no more need be said.

Let us now come back to Guo Zhongxiang, who, after all those years among barbarians, had gained a substantial knowledge of their way of life. Their women were quite beautiful but fetched lower prices than men. During the three years of his term of office, Zhongxiang repeatedly sent men to the caves to purchase beautiful young girls. Altogether he bought ten, whom he then personally taught to sing and dance, decked out in beautiful clothes and jewelry, and o ered as a present to Yang Anju in acknowledgment of his gratitude. Anju said with a laugh, “I took pleasure in helping you out because I value the spirit of loyalty. If you repay me for what I did, won’t you be treating me like a merchant?” (Mr. Yang is no less a worthy man than Wu and Guo. How extraordinary to meet three such men at once. Too bad I never met one.)

“It is your kindness that gave me new life. I am o ering these girls to you as an all too slight token of my gratitude. Should you decline the gift, I shall not find peace even in death.”

Impressed by his sincerity, Anju said, “I have a daughter whom I dote on. I’ll keep only one of these girls, as a companion for her. The rest I would not presume to accept.” Zhongxiang gave the remaining nine girls to nine trusted officers under Governor-General Yang so as to make manifest Mr. Yang’s benevolence. (Good thing to do.)

The imperial court was, at the time, enlisting the service of the sons and nephews of the late Prime Minister Guo as a tribute to his distinguished military achievements. Yang Anju submitted a memorial that read,

Thus it came about that Guo Zhongxiang was granted the post of inspector of Weizhou. During the fifteen years of his absence, his father and his wife had learned nothing more than that he had fallen captive to the barbarians. They had long given him up for dead, but unexpectedly they received a letter from him in his own hand, saying that he would take the family to Weizhou, where he was to assume office. The joy of the entire family knew no bounds.

Zhongxiang made quite a name for himself during his two years as an official in Weizhou and was promoted to be the adjutant comptroller of revenue of Daizhou. Three years later, his father died of illness. He escorted the coffin back to Hebei. After the funeral was over, he heaved a sudden sigh and said, “I owe my life to Mr. Wu’s ransom e orts. With my elderly father to support, I did not have time to consider repaying him for his kindness. Now that my father has passed away and the funeral rites are over, how can I forget about my benefactor?” After inquiries, he learned that Wu Bao’an had not returned from his place of office and went to Pengshan County in Jiazhou to pay him a visit.

Little did he know that Bao’an, upon expiration of his term of office, had been too poor to a ord the journey to the capital to await reappointment, but had stayed behind in Pengshan and had died six years before of a plague that also claimed the life of his wife. Their bodies had been perfunctorily buried in a vacant lot behind the Yellow Dragon Temple. His son Wu Tianyou, whom his wife had taught to read and write at an early age, made a living by tutoring beginners in the same county. Upon learning this, Zhongxiang burst into inconsolable wails of grief. Putting on mourning clothes made of sackcloth, with a white hemp belt around his waist, he went, sta in hand, to the Yellow Dragon Temple, where he made o erings and poured libations at the graves, amid violent sobs. Thereafter, he sought out Wu Tianyou, put his own clothes on the young man, and called him his younger brother. He then consulted Tianyou about plans to take his parents’ remains to their native place for a proper burial. He composed a prayer dedicated to Bao’an’s spirit and dug open the makeshift grave, revealing two dried-up skeletons. Zhongxiang broke down in a flood of tears. Nor was there a dry eye among the onlookers.

Zhongxiang had prepared two silk bags for the bones of Bao’an and his wife. Afraid that the bones would be mixed up and difficult to rearrange into the right order for the burial, he made ink marks on the bones before he put them into the silk bags, which he then deposited into a bamboo basket. This done, he set o on the journey, carrying the basket over his shoulder. Wu Tianyou tried to snatch away the bamboo basket, claiming that his parents’ bones should, by rights, be carried by him, but Zhongxiang would not hear of it. Tearfully, he said, “Yonggu devoted ten years of his life to my ransom. By carrying his bones for a little while, I am doing what little I can to show my gratitude.” He wept as he went along. Each time he stopped at an inn, he would put the bamboo basket in the seat of honor and make o erings of wine and food to the spirits of the deceased before starting a meal with Tianyou. At night, he would also make sure to put the basket in a proper place before going to bed. The distance of thousands of li from Jiazhou to Wei County was to be covered by foot. Though the wounds on his feet—wounds from being nailed to the boards—had healed over, the blood vessels had been injured.

The several days of walking hurt his feet, which became all purple and swollen. Soon he would no longer be able to walk, but he still pushed ahead, determined not to accept help with the load. There is a poem in evidence:

Zhongxiang thought to himself, “With so much more distance to cover, what shall I do?” At nightfall, when he stopped at an inn, he placed wine and food in front of the basket and, in tears, made repeated bows, praying piously, “May the spirits of Wu Yonggu and his wife show their power and relieve Zhongxiang of what ails his feet so that he can reach Wuyang County²⁰ unencumbered and in good time for the burial.” Wu Tianyou, on one side, joined in the prayers. The following morning, as soon as he got up, Zhongxiang felt himself light and strong in the foot, and he experienced no more pain all the way to Wuyang County. It was not only Wu Bao’an’s spirit, but also heaven that was at work protecting a good man.

After arrival at home, Zhongxiang kept Wu Tianyou with him and cleaned up the main hall, where he set up shrines for Wu Bao’an and his wife. He also bought coffins and funeral clothes for a reburial. Wearing mourning clothes, he kept vigil at the grave with Wu Tianyou, and together they received mourners and hired some men to build a grave mound. Everything was done in exactly the same way as he had buried his own father. A stone tablet was also raised on which was recorded the story of how Bao’an ransomed his friend through sacrificing the well-being of his family, so that all who stopped to read the inscriptions would learn about the good deed. Zhongxiang observed mourning for three years, living with Wu Tianyou in a hut beside the grave mound. In the course of the three years, he taught Tianyou to read the classics, so that the young man could be enough of a scholar to take up office. At the end of the three-year period, when he was ready to return to Chang’an to seek reappointment, he chose from among his nieces in the Guo clan a girl of virtue and married her to Wu Tianyou, for he was a bachelor with no family. Not only did Zhongxiang give Tianyou the eastern half of his residence for the young couple to live in, but he also presented Tianyou with half of all his property. (Bao’an’s kindness is unprecedented, and so is Zhongxiang’s return of the kindness.) Indeed,

Zhongxiang went to the capital after the mourning period was over and was given the post of administrator of Lanzhou as well as the honorary title of Grand Master for Closing Court. His thoughts still on Bao’an, he wrote a memorial to the emperor, the gist of which was

It was the twelfth year of the Tianbao reign period [753]. When the memorial was sent to the Ministry of Rites for deliberation, it caused quite a stir among the entire assembly of court officials. Granted that Bao’an’s good turn happened first, Guo Zhongxiang’s loyalty was also unusual. They were indeed friends in both life and death. The Ministry of Rites submitted a memorial to the throne in praise of Guo Zhongxiang’s fine qualities, suggesting, at the same time, that an exception be made in this case as an example to the populace and that Wu Tianyou be granted the post of marshal of Langu County, while Zhongxiang should remain in his present position. In choosing Langu County, which was adjacent to Lanzhou, the Ministry of Rites officials were acting out of consideration for the two men’s wish to see each other often.

After the imperial court granted the request, Zhongxiang gratefully left the capital with Wu Tianyou’s letter of appointment and returned to Wuyang County, where he handed the letter to Tianyou. O erings and libations were made at the graves of both families. On an auspicious day, the two families set o together for the Western Capital to report for duty.

This extraordinary story came to be spread far and wide, causing people to declare that the Wu-Guo friendship surpassed the Guan-Bao and Yang-Zuo relationships of ancient times. Later, Guo Zhongxiang in Lanzhou and Wu Tianyou in Langu County proved to be such good administrators that both received promotions to other places. In respectful commemoration of the event, the people of Lanzhou built a temple, which they named the Temple of Double Loyalty, in honor of Wu Bao’an and Guo Zhongxiang. All local residents who had pledges of friendship to make said their prayers in the temple, which, to this day, has never been short of worshippers. There is a poem in evidence: