Loyalty, mission and responsibility: Jin Yinan

Loyalty

What is loyalty? It means being loyal to your career, ideal and faith. Being loyal to the individual should not be regarded as loyalty. Being loyal to your boss, your leader and the number one person is not loyalty. Real loyalty is being loyal to your career, ideal and faith.

As recorded in the Family of Jianghou Zhou Bo in Sima Qian's Historical Records, at the sixth year of the Later Period of Emperor Wen in the Han Dynasty, Huns launched a huge attack on the border of the Han Dynasty. To counter the incursion, three generals were appointed to guard the border. The first general was Liu Li, a relative of the emperor, leading the troops at Bashang; the second was Xu Li, a duke, marshalling the troops at Jimen; the third was Zhou Yafu, the chief of Henei Prefecture, stationed with the troops at Xiliu. The three generals guarded the border and prevented the invasion by Huns.

Later, the emperor himself visited the troops. After arriving at Bashang and Jimen, the generals with their soldiers lined the streets to give the emperor a warm welcome.

Then he arrived at the Xiliu camp. All the soldiers were wearing armor, holding sharp weapons and pulling the bowstring to its full-draw position. The emperor's army arrived at the front of the camp but was denied entry. The emperor sent a messenger to tell the general that, "I want to come into the camp to comfort the troops." After hearing that the emperor had come to inspect troops, Zhou Yafu issued an order to open the camp gate.

The soldiers guarding the gate said to the emperor's soldiers that, "As per the general's order, it is not allowed to ride a horse into the camp." The emperor followed the order and walked slowly with the horse.

When the emperor arrived at the camp, General Zhou Yafu, dressed in armored clothes, said, "I'm a general in armor. It's inconvenient to kneel down. Please allow me to follow the military etiquette." Why didn't he kneel down before the emperor? Because he was wearing armor, and it's inconvenient for him to kneel down.