Yang Xiu (Han Dynasty) - Anecdotes

Anecdotes

"Once, a garden door was built by some servants of Cao Cao. When he arrived, he did not talk to his servants about their work but instead wrote a character, "活", meaning "alive", on the door. Nobody could understand what Cao Cao meant by this, except Yang Xiu, who explained that, since, in Chinese, "門" means door, writing the character "活" inside a door forms the character "闊", which means "wide". Thus Cao Cao was indicating that he thought the door was too wide. The servants of Cao Cao then altered the garden door, and when Cao Cao heard that it was Yang Xiu alone who had understood his meaning, he became alerted of his talent.

Once, a nomadic tribe sent a box of cake to Cao Cao as a gift, who wrote the words "一合酥" on the box, which in English, means "a box of cake". However, when Yang Xiu saw it, he took out a spoon and shared the cake with the other followers of Cao Cao. Cao Cao, mystified, asked why, to which he replied, "My lord, you wrote the words 'A mouthful of cake for every man' on the box. How can we disobey your orders?" Since, in Chinese, the words "一合酥" can be separated into "一人一口酥", which translates thus. Cao Cao then became dissatisfied with Yang Xiu.

Another time, Cao Cao and Yang Xiu were riding on their horses and passed by the grave of Cáo É (unrelated to Cao Cao). On the gravestone were four sets of words, "huang juan (yellow silk fabric), you fu (young woman), wai sun (grandson), and ji jiu (powdering mortar)" (黄绢、幼妇、外孙、齑臼). Cao then asked Yang if he knew what those four sets of words meant, and Yang immediately began to answer. However Cao interrupted him and told him to wait until he has obtained the answer and then they can compare. After riding for another 30 li (approximately 15km), Cao finally understood the hidden meaning behind those words and asked Yang to share his insights and see if he got it correct. Yang then explained that "'huang juan (黄绢)' is a synonym for 'se si (色丝)' (which meant "coloured silk"). If you combine the character 'si 丝 (silk)' with 'se 色 (colour)', you get 'jue 绝 (absolute)'. 'You fu (幼妇)' is a synonym for 'shao nü 少女 (young woman)'. If you combine the character 'nü 女 (woman)' with 'shao 少 (young)', you get 'miao 妙 (wonderful)'. 'Wai sun (外孙)' is equivalent to 'nü er de er zi (女儿的儿子) (the son of the daughter)', if you combine take the two major characters out and combine 'nü 女 (woman, in this case means daughter)' with 'zi 子 (son)', you get 'hao 好 (good)'. 'Ji jiu (齑臼)' is basically 'shou wu xin zhi qi (受五辛之器) (a device which receives and grinds the five Chinese spices)'. If you take the two major characters out and combine 'shou 受 (takes, receives)' with 'xin 辛 (spice)', you get 'ci 辤 (refined), or in simplified Chinese the character 辞'. Combine the four characters and you get 'jue miao hao ci (绝妙好辞) (absolute, wonderful, good, refined)', which were used to praise Cáo É." This greatly impressed Cao Cao and he exclaimed that Yang was "30 li smarter than him".