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16 The Chicken-and-Millet Dinner for Fan Juqing, Friend in Life and Death When planting trees, plant not weeping willows; In making friends, avoid the fickle ones. Willows cannot withstand the autumn wind; Ties with the fickle easily form and break. Witness how yesterday’s letter speaks of the past, But today when you meet, you know not each other. Such friendships live shorter than the willows, Which at least return with the spring breezes. The above poem, titled “On Friendship,” laments the di‹culties in forming friendships. I shall now tell of a scholar named Zhang Shao, courtesy name Yuanbo, who lived in Nancheng of Ruzhou at the time of Emperor Ming [r. 58–75] of the Han dynasty. Son of a farmer, he educated himself through assiduous studies but remained unmarried at the age of thirty-five. His mother being nearly sixty-years old, he and his younger brother, Zhang Qin, worked hard in the fields to eke out a living. At that time, the emperor was recruiting worthy men to enter his service. Zhang Shao took leave of his mother and brother and, a bag of books on his back, set out on a journey to Luoyang, the Eastern Capital, to take the examinations . The journey was to take several days. One evening when he had covered most of the distance to Luoyang, he went to an inn for lodging. During the night, he heard repeated cries from an adjoining room. At last he asked the waiter if he knew who was making the noise on the other side of the wall. The waiter answered, “It’s a scholar who’s dying from a disease that’s going around.” “Since he’s a scholar, I owe him a visit,” said Zhang Shao. The clerk objected, “The disease is contagious. Even we keep away from him. You’d better not go, sir.” Shao insisted, “Life or death is a matter of fate. How can a disease be contagious? (By no means conventional thinking.) I must go and see him.” 281 Over the waiter’s protests, Shao pushed open the door and went in. Lying on his back on an earthen bed was a sallow-faced and emaciated man crying for help. Noticing in the room a bag of books and some articles of clothing, all of which bespoke a candidate on his way to take the examinations, Shao bent down and said into the man’s ear, “You have nothing to fear, sir. I, Zhang Shao, am also a candidate for the examinations. I shall do my best to help you in your grave illness and serve you medicine and porridge. You can rest easy now.” The man said, “If you can help me get well, I shall certainly repay you well.” Shao had someone call a doctor, who dispensed some medicine. He himself attended to the patient’s needs, serving him medicine and porridge. (Such devotion is hard to come by.) Several days later, the patient broke out in a sweat, and his condition improved. Gradually he was able to breathe normally and regained his ability to stand up and walk. Shao found out that he was called Fan Shi, courtesy name Juqing, and that he was forty years old and a native of Shanyang in Chuzhou. He had been born into a family of merchants but lost his parents at an early age and was now married and had a son. He was there on his way to Luoyang to take the examinations, determined to abandon the life of a merchant. However, by the time Fan Juqing had fully recovered, the examinations were already over. Fan said, “The fact that my illness kept you from your pursuit of a career weighs heavily on my conscience.” Shao rejoined, “A true man values friendship and loyalty above all else. Fame and fortune are too trivial by comparison. Since it is all a matter of fate, how can you talk about having kept me from my pursuit of a career?” (One who is ready to sacrifice his own chances at fame and fortune for the benefit of a friend is indeed a man with a true sense of loyalty and honor.) Henceforth, the two men developed a friendship as close as flesh and blood, and took an oath of brotherhood. As Fan Shi was the older of the two by five years, Zhang Shao honored him as older brother. After pledging brotherhood, they stayed together day...

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