The Loyal Dog

In Kuaiji there lived an old peddler, Squire Shen, who kept a black dog named Wuzhui, his companion these twenty years. The squire had no son; the dog was his son. At year's end the old man lay drunken upon a straw couch when the neighbor's house caught fire and the flames spread to his own. Wuzhui barked without cease and butted the door with his head, but the door would not yield. The dog then seized the old man's robe and dragged him; Shen woke to find the fire already blocking the door. The dog leapt upon his back and took his collar in his mouth, leading him out through the narrow opening beneath the hearth. The squire escaped, but the dog's coat was half scorched, and he barked no more, only lay panting on the ground. Three years later the old man came to his natural end. The dog would not eat, but each day lay by the grave, and would not leave for snow or rain. The villagers pitied him and brought food, which he would sniff but never taste. So it went for three years, until the dog, worn out, at last lay down before the mound and closed his eyes with his head toward the tomb. The villagers, moved by his righteousness, raised a stone together, inscribed "The Grave of Wuzhui, the Loyal Dog." Those who passed dismounted, and none but sighed. The Chronicler of the Strange remarks: Men say the toil of dog and horse is but servitude; yet Wuzhui, to Squire Shen, gave his body in life and guarded his bones in death. Those who betray kindness in this world should blush to hear it.