Stories from Ancient China: Prime Minister Yu and His Obsession With Cleanliness

Yu Zhaitian was a prime minister at the end of the Qing dynasty. He was obsessed with cleanliness and many other taboos. At home, he would not let anyone sit where he normally sat or touch the curtains or doorknob. In the office, his subordinates had to hold the end of a Chinese brush when they handed it to him. his clothes had to be free of wrinkles and dust. If there were wrinkles after he sat for a while, the garment had to be ironed. He would not go out of the house or look at any documents on the day before the change of every season.

One winter day at dusk, he walked to the street to find some roast lamb to eat. There were many carts with lambs, pots, pans, wine, and charcoal, and customers ate with one leg resting on the cart and one leg on the ground. All a sudden, a dog covered with snow ran between Yu's legs and messed up his white fox coat. He was so angry that he could not eat and told his servant to catch the dog and cut its tail off. At that moment, his friend happened to walk by. His friend said, "It was said in ancient times that if you don't have enough fur, you can use the tail of a dog. Why don't you give me the dog's tail, so I can use it to mend my fur jacket? My fur coat is worn out, so if you don't like your fur coat being dirty, I would like very much to have it for the winter."

Prime minister Yu went home and told his family, "My friend is not nearly as clean as I and is not picky about what he eats, but he is very healthy. He is old but he can walk more than ten miles without feeling tired. Why should I be so obsessed with cleanliness? I need to get rid of this bad habit." His friends heard about that and commented, "Prime minister Yu knows when to accept advice and is a good prime minister."

When we see others with shortcomings, we not only need to be rational, but also need to have a good approach and compassion in order to help them to change.