Tang Dynasty Good Man Today

Years later, when Gao Renshi died of a simple fever, no family came to mourn him. But at dawn, a line of silent people appeared at the cemetery gates. They were not rich. They were not powerful. They were the ones Gao had buried—their widows, their orphans, the soldiers he had fed, the abandoned women he had sheltered.

The soldier refused, but Gao closed the man’s fist around the jade. "I have no family," Gao said. "My grave will be dug by strangers. But if you live one honest day because of this token, then I will have left a mark deeper than any tombstone."

They carved no grand epitaph. They simply placed a single stone at his head, upon which someone had scratched four small characters:

The soldier fell to his knees. "Why? I am nothing to you." tang dynasty good man

The captain stared. He could not risk it. He spat on the ground and left.

Gao did not argue. Instead, he reached into his robe and pulled out a single object: a jade yüeh —a crescent-shaped token given only by the Emperor himself. It was old, chipped, and real. Years ago, Gao had saved the life of a drowning eunuch, who had given it to him as a reward. Gao had never used it.

Gao helped him up. "In the cemetery, I bury dukes beside thieves. Their bones are the same weight. Their dust is the same color. A 'good man' is not one who does great deeds. He is one who remembers that every shadow was once a person." Years later, when Gao Renshi died of a

He handed the soldier the jade token. "Take this. Go to the eastern province. Start again."

"If you harm this man," Gao said quietly, "I will walk to Chang’an and present this token to the throne. I will tell the Son of Heaven how his captain tortures peasants and hunts hungry ghosts."

"Hand him over, gravekeeper, or we will bury you ." They were not powerful

The soldier left.

The soldier wept. He confessed he had deserted the army after being ordered to burn a village of farmers who had refused to pay a corrupt governor’s tax. "I am no longer a warrior," the soldier said. "I am a coward and a traitor."

The captain laughed. "The Tang Dynasty is dying, fool. Its laws are ash."

Gao poured the porridge. "In the Analects of the Tang , there is no law against kindness. Eat."