-
Liang Hong [Biographies of Noble Scholars]
Eastern Han scholar Liang Hong rejected officialdom. He wed virtuous Meng Guang, who respected him by holding food trays level with her brows. They lived simply in seclusion; Liang wrote the satirical *Song of Five Sighs* and passed away far from his hometown.
-
The Hermit of East Sea [Biographies of Noble Scholars]
The unnamed East Sea Hermit was once friends with official Wang Liang. After Wang resigned from high office, the hermit reproached him for craving political posts despite insufficient virtue, cut off contact forever, and won great admiration for his strict moral standards.
-
Niu Lao [Biographies of Noble Scholars]
Niu Lao was Emperor Guangwu’s childhood friend. He once claimed an upright man should not befriend an emperor. After Liu Xiu took the throne, Niu kept declining imperial summons by feigning illness and wearing plain clothes, clinging to his integrity.
-
Yan Guang [Biographies of Noble Scholars]
Yan Guang, Emperor Guangwu’s old classmate, hid as a fisherman after the emperor took power. He treated the emperor and ministers casually, rejecting the official post of remonstrator. He farmed and fished at Fuchun Mountain and declined later summons till his death at eighty.
-
The Slaughtered Ox and the Sigh: The Rise and Fall of Dong Zhuo
In 189 AD, Dong Zhuo, the Governor of Bing Province, accepted the invitation of He Jin and Yuan Shao, and marched from Chang’an to Luoyang to eliminate the powerful eunuch faction known as the Ten Attendants. He Jin and Yuan Shao had schemed meticulously, intending to use Dong Zhuo as a tiger to devour…