Zhongyou, with Zilu or Jilu his literary name, was one of the favorite disciples of Confucius and came from the State of Lu in the Spring and Autumn Period. He ws straightforward, brave and filial. In the early stage, his family was poor and he usually cooked meals with edible wild herbs that he picked by himself. He shouldered rice from 100 li away from his house ro serve his parents.
After his parents’ death, he was successfully to be an official in a high rank and received orders to go to the State of Chu, followed by hundreds of wheels and horses and mountains of rice. Sitting on the storied satins and sheets and having sumptuous feast, he usually thought of his late parents and sighed with complex feelings, “Am I able to call back the old days when I ate wild herbs and carried rice for my parents? If only the time would come again!” Confucius praised him in his records “Thinking”, “Such a person you are in their lifetime and couldn’t stop missing them even if they have passed away.”