How Three Heroes Came by Their Deaths Because of Two Peaches

When Duke Ging of Tsi first came to power, he liked to surround himself with heroes. Three of them were brave beyond all others: Gung Sun Dsia, Tian Kai Giang, and Gu I Dsi. The duke heaped honors on them, but the honors went to their heads. They stirred up trouble at court, and the duke regarded their conduct as a challenge to his authority.

The duke asked his chancellor, Yan Dsi, what to do. Yan Dsi advised him to hold a great banquet for the whole court. In the place of honor on the table stood a dish of four splendid peaches. When everyone was seated, the duke rose and spoke as his chancellor had told him.

“Here are some magnificent peaches,” he said, “but there are not enough for everyone. Only the most deserving may eat them. I rule this land and stand first among the princes of the empire; I have kept my lands and my power, and that is my merit. So one peach is mine. Yan Dsi is my chancellor. He handles our dealings with foreign states and keeps peace among the people, and he has made my kingdom strong among the nations. That is his merit, so the second peach is his. Now only two remain, and I cannot tell who among you is most worthy. Stand up and tell us your deeds—but whoever has done nothing great, let him keep quiet.”

Gung Sun Dsia struck his sword and stood up. “I am the prince’s commander-in-chief,” he said. “In the south I laid siege to Lu, in the west I conquered Dsin, in the north I captured the army of Yan. All the princes of the east come to court and bow to Tsi as their overlord. That is my merit. Whether it earns a peach, I cannot say.”

“Your merit is great,” said the duke. “A peach is yours by right.”

Then Tian Kai Giang pounded the table and shouted, “I have fought a hundred battles for the prince. I killed the enemy’s commander and seized his banner. I pushed the borders of the duke’s land outward until his realm grew by a thousand miles. What of my merit?”

“Your merit is great,” said the duke. “A peach is yours by right.”

Then Gu I Dsi leaped up, his eyes bulging, and roared: “Once, when the duke was crossing the Yellow River, a storm whipped up the water. A river-dragon seized one of the chariot horses and dragged it off, and the ferry tossed like a sieve, about to tip over. I drew my sword and jumped into the river. I fought the dragon in the foaming waves until, by sheer strength, I killed it, though the strain made my eyes start from my head. I came up holding the dragon’s head in one hand and the rescued horse’s rein in the other, and I saved my prince from drowning. In every war with our neighbors I took any task. I led the vanguard, I fought in single combat, and I never turned my back on the enemy. Once the prince’s chariot stuck fast in a swamp with the enemy closing in on every side; I hauled it free and drove off the hired soldiers. Since I entered the prince’s service I have saved his life more than once. I admit my merit cannot match the prince’s or the chancellor’s—but it is greater than that of my two comrades. They both have peaches, and I have none. So true merit goes unrewarded, and the duke looks on me with disfavor. How could I ever show my face at court again?” And he drew his sword and took his own life.

Gung Sun Dsia rose, bowed twice, and sighed. “Neither my merit nor Tian Kai Giang’s compares with Gu I Dsi’s, yet we received the peaches. We have been rewarded beyond what we deserve, and such a reward is shameful. Better to die than to live dishonored.” He swung his sword, and he too fell dead.

Tian Kai Giang looked up and groaned in disgust. His breath burst from his mouth like a rainbow, and his hair stood on end with fury. Gripping his sword, he said, “We three always served our prince bravely, close as flesh and blood. The others are dead, and it is my duty not to outlive them.” And he turned the sword on himself and died.

The duke sighed again and again and ordered that the three be given a splendid funeral. The chancellor had counted on the heroes treating public honor as worth more than life. He had deliberately used two peaches to turn that belief against them.

Where this tale comes from

This is one of the historic legends in Richard Wilhelm’s The Chinese Fairy Book (English by Frederick H. Martens; New York: Frederick A. Stokes, 1921). Martens’s preface singles it out as a story that carries readers back “to the Chinese age of Chivalry.”

Wilhelm’s note places Duke Ging of Tsi, in what is now eastern Shantung, as an older contemporary of Confucius. The chancellor Yan Dsi was said to have written a work of philosophy, and he was the same minister who kept Confucius from being appointed at the court of Tsi. The ending contains three suicides, presented through a harsh honor code. Public humiliation, loyalty or an unequal reward never makes a person’s death necessary.

Read the original: The Chinese Fairy Book (Project Gutenberg)

Reading guidance: older readers. The central event is a ruler and adviser manipulating three warriors into suicide. Their beliefs about honor are part of the tragedy, not advice for responding to shame or grief.

Reading the story closely

The duke calls the peaches a reward for merit, but he and the chancellor have reserved their own portions before the contest begins. The remaining scarcity is designed. The warriors then treat this staged distribution as a trustworthy measure of their worth, allowing a piece of fruit to become a public verdict on a life.

Recast the banquet as a debate in which the warriors can question its rules. Identify three alternatives already available without magic: sharing the fruit, declining the contest, or disputing the judge. How does acknowledging those choices change the claim that the deaths were inevitable?

Think about it

• Why does the chancellor put out four peaches instead of five?
• What makes Gu I Dsi feel that he has been shamed?
• Was the chancellor’s plan clever, cruel, or both? Explain your answer.

More stories like this

• How the River-God’s Wedding Was Broken Off — an official who ends a cruel custom with a trick
• The God of War — a loyal hero of the Three Kingdoms
• The Three Evils — another Wilhelm historic legend about a dangerous hero