Everyone is familiar with the word “righteousness”, but it is not known how much power it can contain. During the Zhou Dynasty, a village girl from Lu repelled the army of Qi by virtue of “righteousness” and became a legendary figure in both Qi and Lu. Let’s take a look at this story.
One year, Qi was going to attack the state of Lu. The Qi army had already reached the border of Lu. In the wilderness of Lu, the general of the Qi army saw a woman who was fleeing in a panic with a child in one hand and another child in the other.
When the woman saw that the Qi army was coming, she dropped the child she was holding and picked up the one she was holding before and fled in a panic towards the mountains. The child who was left behind howled and cried. When the Qi army caught up with her, they asked the child, “Is that your mother who ran away?” The child said, “Yes.”
Qi Jun asked again, “Then who is she carrying?” The child said, “I don’t know.” So the Qi general drew his bow and arrows and forcibly stopped the fleeing woman. The Qi general went after her and asked, “Who is the child you are holding? And who is the child you left behind?” The woman said, “The child I was carrying was my brother’s child, and the one I dropped was my own child. Since I could not protect both children at the same Time when I saw the general attacking, I left my own son first.”
The Qi general asked her in disbelief, “That was your own flesh and blood. Her love is so deep that it hurts her heart. But today you left him and ran for your Life with your brother’s child, why?”
The Lu woman said.
“To protect my own child is selfish love; to protect my brother’s child is righteousness. If I go against public righteousness and take private love, sacrificing my brother’s child to preserve my child, though it is good, it is against public righteousness.
“If everyone puts selfishness before public justice, then the ruler of the state of Lu would not be compassionate to his own people; the great officials would not care for their people, and the whole country would put selfishness first, and no one would take care of each other. In this way, the coercive bones will not accommodate the shoulders, the palms of the feet will not accommodate the toes, and even if they wear out their feet, they will not wear shoes.
“I save my own children, but lose my righteousness. That’s why I endured the pain and would rather leave my own son behind than protect my brother’s child and guard this ‘righteousness’.”
When the Qi generals heard these words, they were greatly moved. They didn’t think that even a village girl knew how to keep “righteousness” when she was on an expedition, how could we, as nobles, not know “righteousness”? The general ordered the troops to stay put and hastily sent someone to report to the ruler of Qi, saying, “We cannot invade the state of Lu. Because on the border of Lu, we saw a woman in the mountains who knew how to do justice and not to harm the public with her private interests, let alone the courtiers and scholars of Lu. Therefore, I implore you to withdraw your troops!”
When the ruler of Qi heard about this, he was also deeply moved. He knew that if a woman in the state of Lu could put “righteousness” first, then everyone in the state of Lu, which was ruled by propriety, must be like that. He knew that if a woman in Lu could put righteousness first, everyone in Lu, which was ruled by propriety, would do the same. So, the king of Qi ordered to withdraw his troops and return to his country.
Qi’s army pressed into the territory and made the people of Lu panic. But no one expected that a woman in the mountains would “repel” the enemy with her belief in “righteousness”.
The ruler of the state of Lu, who was still preparing to send troops to meet the enemy, was surprised to find that all the Qi troops had withdrawn without any warning. When he heard that the woman had saved her nephew’s life, he gave her a hundred pieces of cloth and honored her as a “righteous aunt”. A woman saved a nation, which is really a legend!
(The story is based on “The Legend of the Women” and “The Eight Virtues” by Cai Zhen Shen)
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