When Wei Ke defeated the Qin army, he captured Du Hui, the strongest warrior in Qin. The victory seemed impossible — until an old man appeared on the battlefield and tied grass around Du Hui's ankles, tripping him.
That night, Wei Ke dreamed of the old man: "I am the father of the woman you saved. Your father, on his deathbed, ordered her buried alive with him. But you chose to follow his earlier command — to marry her off instead. You saved my daughter's life. Tonight, I repaid the debt."\p>
The companion story: Yang Bao, a young man, saved a wounded sparrow. A boy in yellow appeared in his dreams and presented him with four jade rings, saying: "Your descendants will be honored for four generations." And so they were.
These two stories combined into the idiom "结草衔环" (tying grass, carrying a ring) — meaning to repay a kindness, even across lifetimes.
魏颗败秦师于辅氏，获杜回，秦之力士也。初，魏武子有嬖妾，无子。武子疾，命颗曰：「必嫁是。」疾病，则曰：「必以为殉。」及卒，颗嫁之。及辅氏之役，颗见老人结草以亢杜回，杜回踬而颠，故获之。夜梦之曰：「余，而所嫁妇人之父也。尔用先人之治命，余是以报。」
魏颗败秦师于辅氏，获杜回，秦之力士也。初，魏武子有嬖妾，无子。武子疾，命颗曰：「必嫁是。」疾病，则曰：「必以为殉。」及卒，颗嫁之。及辅氏之役，颗见老人结草以亢杜回，杜回踬而颠，故获之。夜梦之曰：「余，而所嫁妇人之父也。尔用先人之治命，余是以报。」
Reflection & Analysis · 寓意解读
Core Wisdom
Kindness echoes through generations. The life you save today may return to save yours tomorrow — in ways you cannot predict and through hands you will never meet.
These two stories — one from the Zuozhuan, one from the Hou Hanshu — were combined into a single idiom that represents the Chinese ideal of gratitude. The key feature is that the repayment comes from beyond the expected: a dead man's ghost, a transformed sparrow. Kindness creates debts that the universe itself collects.
The first story also contains a moral choice: Wei Ke followed the earlier, humane command of his father rather than the later, cruel one. He chose life over ritual, mercy over obedience. And the universe rewarded him for it.