Su Wu Tends the Sheep

In the first year of the Tianhan era of the Western Han, Su Wu set out as an envoy to the Xiongnu, only to be caught up in an uprising and detained. The Chanyu tried to win him over with high office and generous rewards, then pressed him with bitter cold and utter desolation. Persuaders came one after another, and Li Ling's words, "Life is as fleeting as morning dew," laid bare the transience of worldly splendor. On the frozen wilderness of the North Sea, Su Wu refused to eat Xiongnu food, surviving on wild rats and gathered seeds. Clutching the Han envoy's staff, stripped nearly bare of its tassels, he never once yielded over nineteen years. Kingdoms changed, friends and family scattered, and his homeland lay thousands of miles away. He endured the endless blizzards of the northern desert and upheld the final dignity of a Han envoy. By the time he returned to the Han, his black hair had turned white. The one thing that never changed was his loyalty to his homeland.