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9 Duke Pei of Jin Returns a Concubine to Her Rightful Husband However great your wealth, however high your rank, Hoary age sets in before they are enjoyed. Only kind deeds and good works Live forever in people’s hearts. Back in the days of Emperor Wen [r. 179–156 b.c.e.] of the Han dynasty, there was a court minister named Deng Tong who stood high in the emperor’s favor. Such was the emperor’s fondness for him that he was always at the emperor’s side, in the traveling retinue as well as on the royal bed. There was a physiognomist of divine talent by the name of Xu Fu, who, judging from the two vertical lines that extended from both sides of Deng Tong’s nose down to his upper lip, predicted that he was to die of hunger and poverty. The emperor exploded with rage when he heard of this: “It is up to me alone to decide who is to gain wealth and who is not. Who then, may I ask, can reduce Deng Tong to poverty?” He thereupon gave Deng Tong a copper mine in Sichuan so that he could have copper coins minted for his own use. Thus it came about that the land was flooded with coins produced by Deng, whose wealth matched that of the whole empire. One day, Emperor Wen found himself in unbearable pain from a running sore, whereupon Deng Tong fell to his knees and sucked out the pus and blood. Much relieved of the pain, the emperor asked, “What kind of people in the whole world love each other the most?” Deng Tong replied, “No love is deeper than that between father and son.” It so happened that the crown prince stepped into the palace at that moment to inquire after his father’s health, only to be told by the emperor to suck at the sore. The crown prince declined, saying, “As I have just eaten fresh meat, I am afraid that it would be inadvisable for me to be near what ails you.” The emperor sighed after the crown prince had left. “Even my son,” said he, “whose love for me should be surpassed by none, refuses to do what Deng Tong did for me. Indeed, Deng Tong loves me more than my son does.” 159 Favors were further bestowed upon Deng Tong. When the emperor’s remarks reached the ears of the crown prince, hatred burned in him against Deng Tong for his sucking of the sore. In due course, the emperor died, and the crown prince ascended the throne as Emperor Jing [156–140 b.c.e.]. He set about inflicting punishment upon Deng Tong under charges that Deng had ingratiated himself with the deceased emperor by sucking at his sore and that he had disrupted the empire’s monetary laws. All of Deng Tong’s assets were registered onto imperial ledgers and confiscated. Deng himself was thrown into an empty cell and denied food and water until he starved to death. Later, also during the reign of Emperor Jing, Prime Minister Zhou Yafu, with similar vertical lines from his nose to his upper lip, was cast into prison on some trumped-up charges by the emperor out of jealousy of his prestige. He died while on a hunger strike as a statement of his indignation. These are two instances of men of immense wealth and the highest rank who died of unnatural causes because of the hunger lines on their faces. However that may be, there is also the argument that physiognomy is less important than personal character. Among those with the most propitious physiognomic features, some lost their moral credit in the otherworld by committing evil deeds and were, therefore, condemned to a miserable end. By the same token, among those with features that portend calamity, some have turned doom into bliss by grace of their personal integrity and good deeds that earned them merit in the otherworld. I am not saying that physiognomy is unreliable but that human e ort can indeed prevail over predestined fate. Now I come to a certain Pei Du of the Tang dynasty, who had been poverty-stricken in his youth before his time had come. A physiognomist said that he was to die of hunger, because he had lines that ran from both sides of his nose down to his upper lip. Later, when touring Fragrant Hill Temple, he found...

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