In the Chou Dynasty, Wu-chiang, the wife of Duke Wu of Cheng(770-744 B.C.), gave birth to (the future) Duke Chuang and Kung Shu-tuan. Because she had difficulty giving birth to Chuang and nearly lost her life, she took an intense dislike to him. She thought of every way possible to plead with Duke Wu to set up Kung Shu-tuan as heir apparent, but Duke Wu did not listen to her.

    After Chuang became Duke, he enfeoffed Kung Shu-tuan with the city of Capital. Kung Shu-tuan was very unhappy with this so he took the nearby territory and expanded his own power. He trained an army, provided them with weapons and conspired with his mother to prepare an attack on the State of Cheng. He did not expect that instead he would be defeated by Duke Chuang’s large army. He then fled to a neighboring state.

    Because of this, Duke Chuang could not forgive his mother. He imprisoned her in Ch’eng-yin and swore, “I will not look at you again except in Yellow Springs(hell).” After that he regretted saying it, but there was no way he could take back his words. At this time an official in Ch’eng-yin by the name of Ying Kao-shu, upon hearing of this matter, went to see Duke Chuang, on the pretext of making an offering. The Duke gave him many wonderful things to eat, but he put all the meat to one side and did not eat it. When the Duke asked him why, he said, “My mother has tasted many things which I have gotten, but she has never yet tasted meat-soup given to me by a ruler. I would like to ask your permission to bring this back with me to give her a taste of it.”

    When Duke Chuang heard this, he said emotionally, “You have a mother to whom you can be filial, but because of an oath I took, I cannot see my mother.” Then he told him in detail what had happened.

    Ying KJao-shu replied,” Why don’t you dig a tunnel and meet her where you find spring water? This way, no one could say you broke your oath.”

    Duke Chuang followed his advice, and mother and son became as close as they were before.

    When the people at the time heard about this they praised Ying Kao-shu, “Ying Kao-shu really is a filial man. He not only is filial to his mother, but also influenced Duke Chuang so that he also became filial.”

(Copy from The Overseas Chinese Library, Overseas Chinese Affairs Commission,                    The Republic of China)