"The Ring-Bearing Sparrow's Repayment" and "Four Knowledges Declining Gold"
The Yang clan of the Tujia people had their ancestral seat in "Hongnong Commandery," but some used "Guanxi" or "Four Knowledges" as their hall names. On their ancestral shrines, main gates, or village gates, they hung banners or plaques reading "Passing Down an Incorruptible Legacy." When the Yang Tujia made rice cakes for New Year, they prepared a very special kind.
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"The Ring-Bearing Sparrow's Repayment" and "Declining Gold with Four Knows"
The Yang-surnamed Tujia people's ancestral commandery is "Hongnong Commandery," but some use "Guanxi" or "Four Knows" as their hall names. On the shrines where they worship their ancestors, or on their own front doors and village gates, they all hang horizontal banners or plaques reading "Passing Down a Clean Name Through the Family." When the Yang-surnamed Tujia people make glutinous rice cakes for the New Year, they make a very special kind called "magpie cakes." These cakes are used specifically to honor ancestors and can only be eaten after the fifteenth day of the first lunar month. There are two ancient and true stories behind this.
In the late Western Han Dynasty, Yang Bao, a man from Huayin and the thirty-fourth-generation descendant of the Yang clan, was nine years old. North of Mount Huayin, he saw a beautiful yellow sparrow (magpie) caught and wounded by a large eagle that was about to eat it. When the eagle saw Yang Bao approaching, it flew away in fright; but the yellow sparrow fell beneath the tree, about to be devoured by swarms of ants beneath it. Seeing this, Yang Bao picked up the barely breathing yellow sparrow, brushed off the ants, placed it in his sleeve, and brought it home. Afterwards, he put the yellow sparrow in a hat box and fed it yellow flowers every day. He carefully raised the sparrow this way for three months, until its wounds healed and its feathers grew even fuller. Yang Bao then opened the hat box and let it fly away.
One night, Yang Bao suddenly dreamed of a boy in yellow robes who bowed to him several times and said, "I am a messenger of the Queen Mother of the West. Thanks to your kindness, you saved my life. I am truly very grateful to you." As the boy spoke, he took out four white jade rings from his person and gave them to Yang Bao, saying, "These four white jade rings are to thank you for your great kindness. They will cause your descendants to ascend to the Three Excellencies with pure white integrity, and their virtue shall be like these rings." Later, this indeed came to pass.
Yang Bao was very studious and was a scholar of great repute in his region. At that time, it was the late Former Han Dynasty, and the emperors Ai and Ping were foolish and immoral, throwing court politics into utter chaos. Therefore, he was unwilling to serve as an official and lived in seclusion, devoting himself to teaching students. Later, when Wang Mang usurped power and became emperor of the Xin Dynasty, he was even more unwilling to emerge into public life. In the second year of Jushe (7 AD), he, along with Gong Sheng, Gong She, and Jiang Yi, were all summoned by Wang Mang to serve as officials. Upon hearing the news, he fled to an unknown whereabouts. After the restoration of the Later Han, Emperor Guangwu Liu Xiu greatly admired his lofty integrity and once specially commended him, sending his own carriage to invite him to serve. But he was already old and could not go to the capital, so he died at home of old age. Therefore, to thank the yellow sparrow for delivering the message and giving the rings, the Yang descendants, when worshipping ancestors at New Year, make some "magpie cakes," topped with glutinous rice, symbolizing letting the yellow sparrow peck and eat, to express their gratitude. They make ring-shaped "plough-mouth bridge" cakes, symbolizing the white rings, to instruct descendants that one's virtue should be like the white rings—pure and flawless.
Now, Yang Bao's son Yang Zhen was a man of the Later Han period under Emperors Zhang, He, and An, and was the thirty-fifth-generation descendant of the Yang clan. He was studious from youth, "well-versed in the classics and widely read, investigating everything thoroughly," and was a great Confucian scholar of his time. He long resided as a guest in Hucheng County, Henan, teaching for over twenty years. Learned people generally called him "Confucius of Guanxi, Yang Boqi." The prefecture and commandery repeatedly invited him to serve as an official, but he refused, teaching only at home. One day, a crested sparrow carrying three eels in its beak flew onto his lecture platform. His students picked up the eels and said, "Teacher, eels that look like snakes are said to symbolize the color of the robes of ministers and grand masters. The number three indicates the position of the Three Excellencies. Teacher, from now on, you will rise high and prosper!" Hearing this, Yang Zhen was even more encouraged and applied himself diligently. He only began serving as an official at the age of fifty, rising to Inspector of Jingzhou and Governor of Donglai.
When Yang Zhen was Governor of Donglai, the magistrate of Changyi, Wang Mi, had originally been recommended as a filial and incorrupt candidate by Yang Zhen during his tenure as Inspector of Jingzhou. Wang Mi knew Yang Zhen was an honest official, so late at night, he secretly brought ten catties of gold to give him. Yang Zhen refused to accept it and rebuked Wang Mi, saying, "An old friend knows you, but you do not know the old friend—why is that?" He meant: "I know you, which is why I recommended you as filial and incorrupt. But you do not know that I am an honest official—why is that?" Wang Mi said, "In the dead of night, no one will know." He meant: It's the middle of the night, no one will know, please accept it! Yang Zhen said very sternly, "What kind of talk is that? Heaven knows, the gods know, I know, and you know. How can you say no one knows?" Hearing this, Wang Mi withdrew in great shame and apologized. This is the origin of the idiom "Declining Gold with Four Knows."
Yang Zhen was upright and incorruptible as an official. Although he became a high official, his family remained poor and simple. Later, Yang Zhen suffered injustice and took poison, dying as a result. A year later, Emperor Shun of Han reburied him with great honors. For the first ten-plus days of the burial, ten thousand people came from all directions to pay respects. Even more legendary, a great bird over a zhang tall led a flock of birds to attend Yang Zhen's funeral, bowing and crying mournfully, their tears wetting the earth. After the burial, they flew away. Emperor Shun felt deeply guilty that Yang Zhen had died from false accusations, so he issued an edict to completely rehabilitate and clear his name. People of the time erected a stone bird statue before Yang Zhen's tomb, and the emperor ordered it to be worshipped together. The "Book of Later Han" gave Yang Zhen a high evaluation. And the Yang descendants, taking Yang Zhen as their model and proud of "Declining Gold with Four Knows," used "Guanxi" and "Four Knows" as their hall names, and "Passing Down a Clean Name Through the Family" as their ancestral instruction, teaching descendants to carry on virtue and achievement, remembering it in every generation, passing it down from age to age.