The Art of Life and Death of the Yellow Springs

He was an abandoned child.

Someone found him in a coffin at a charity burial ground.

It was pouring rain that day, and many birds that had flown in to take shelter were soaked, their feathers scattered in a mess across the ground. So the beggar who found him named him Gu Yu.

The beggar gave him his surname, too. From as far back as he could remember, he called the beggar Master. In his heart, though, the beggar was his father. But the beggar said that having a son before he'd even married would make it even harder to find a woman later, so he told the boy to call him Master instead.