Names

Jie Zhitui or Jiezhi Tui is the name given to him in the oldest surviving records, with Jie Zitui or Jiezi Tui coming later. Sima Qian treats his name as though it were actually , with "Jiezi" serving as an honorific equivalent to "Master" or . A single 2nd-century source has "Jiezi Sui" (t=介子綏 |s=介子绥 |p=Jièzǐ Suí). Others state that the entire name Jiezi Tui was a posthumous title and that his real name had been .

Life

Jie was a Jin aristocrat, poet, and composer for the Chinese zither during the Spring and Autumn period of China's Zhou dynasty. He served at the court of the Jin prince Chong'er (posthumously the "Wen Duke") in Pu during the reign of Chong'er's father Duke Guizhu (posthumously the "Xian Duke"). A passage of the Huainanzi relates that, when Master Jie sang "The Dragon and the Snake", Prince Chong'er "broke down in tears". Giles considered Jie to be the same person as the "Jiezi Tui" who is mentioned as having been a minister in Chu at the age of 15.

In 655BC, Jie followed Chong'er into exile among the Di tribes north of the Chinese when the Rong beauty Li Ji successfully plotted against the sons of the other wives of the Duke of Jin. Her son Xiqi and his successor Zhuozi were quickly killed by the minister Li Ke, who then offered the throne to Chong'er in 651BC. The prince declined; his younger brother Yiwu (posthumously the "Hui Duke") accepted and then—after a perilous period of imprisonment in Qin—sent assassins after Chong'er in 646BC. Hearing about them, he and his court fled from the Di, arriving at the state of Qi in Shandong in 644BC. Soon after, Qi fell into a civil war over its own succession. Prince Chong'er and his growing entourage then travelled to the courts of Cao, Song, Zheng, Chu, and finally Qin. In 636BC, Duke Renhao (posthumously the "Mu Duke") lent Qin's army for an invasion against Duke Yiwu's son Yu (posthumously the "Huai Duke"), defeating him at Gaoliang.

Jie was passed over for reward when Chong'er became duke of Jin. The 4th-century-BC commentary on the Spring and Autumn Annals credited to Zuo Qiuming contains the earliest surviving record of Jie's story, in a section now placed beside Confucius's entry on Duke Yiwu's death in 637BC. In it, a Thucydidean dialogue between Jie and his mother explains how he finds the duke's other retainers to be thieves for taking credit and receiving rewards when Heaven itself was responsible for Chong'er's restoration. His lord also showed himself to be unworthy by failing to reward him despite his failure to appear at court. His mother asks him to at least go before the duke, but he explains he has already criticized the other nobles so harshly that he could not possibly return and is resolved to withdraw into the wilderness. She accepts his decision and leaves with him. When the duke later realized his mistake, he sought out Jie but failed. He then set aside the produce of the fields of Mianshang to endow sacrifices in Jie's honor, "a memento ... of my neglect and a mark of distinction for the good man".

The annals compiled BC under Qin's chancellor Lü Buwei opine that Duke Chong'er never became a king because he proved less capable in success than he had been in adversity. Its account of Jie's fate—which omits mention of his mother—begins with the moral that "it is easy to hold onto others if you offer them honor and wealthbut it is difficult ... if you offer them poverty and debasement". Lü's scholars do not suggest that the duke overlooked Jie, however, but that he was simply "far from the vulgar crowd" and embarrassed by the behavior the duke's other close retainers. He posts a poem upon the palace gates, obliquely announcing his retirement into the mountains. Chong'er hears of it, recognizes its author, and goes into mourning for his old friend, changing his clothes and sleeping away from the palace. He offers a million "fields" of land and a position as senior minister (s=上卿|l=shǎngqīng|labels=no) to anyone—noble or common—who is able to find Jie for him. The only person who does discover Jie, however, finds him carrying a pot and a large umbrella in the remote mountains. Asked if he knows where Jie Zhitui might live, the hermit replies that Jie "does not wish to be discovered" and "wants to remain hidden". Complaining "How is it that I alone know this?" he wandered away beneath his umbrella, never to be seen again.

The account in Sima Qian's 1st-centuryBC Records largely repeats the Zuozhuan account with greater detail. (In fact, the four-character lines and rhyming dialogue in Jie's conversations with his mother suggests it draws on an earlier, now-lost poetic treatment of the life of Chong'er.) Sima specifies that Jie hid himself out of disgust at what he took as Hu Yan's insincere and overdramatic retirement on the journey from Qin to Jin, which Chong'er declined with similar overstatement. Sima interrupts Jie's story, though, to make excuses for the duke's tardiness in remembering and rewarding Jie. The beginning of Chong'er's reign was distracted by rioting caused by Duke Yu's partisans Yin Yi and Xi Rui, who even succeeded in burning down the ducal palace before being captured and put to death with Duke Renhao's assistance. When Jie is brought back to Chong'er's attention by the poem on the gates of the new palace, it has been placed there not by Jie himself but by his own loyal friends. Chong'er sees it himself and again immediately understands that it is about Jie. Jie and his mother are never seen again, but Chong'er—doing what he can—"surrounded and sealed off" the "heart" of Mianshang in order to make it Jie's and "in order to record his error and also to commend an excellent man".

Legend

By the 3rd centuryBC, Jie Zhitui's story had received additional embellishment. Han Fei's collected works reference the story—dramatizing Jie's selflessness and loyalty—whereby he fed Chong'er with soup made from flesh carved from his own body because he was unable to bear his lord's thirst or hunger. Zhuang Zhou's collected works specify that the meat came from his thigh and that he "was burned to death with a tree in his arms". The Songs of Chu written and compiled between the 3rd centuryBC and the 2nd centuryAD reference Jie repeatedly as a loyal and wronged vassal, mentioning the story about his flesh, treating his former haunts as shrines for honest officials, and adding the details that Chong'er found Jie's body and donned mourning robes for him.

Modern forms of the story invariably include the story of Jie cooking a stew using flesh from his own thigh and wild herbs, usually specifying that Chong'er was on the verge of starvation at the time. Some elaborate on the duke's generosity to his other supporters: one source includes proclamations that "awards may be divided into three grades: the first-grade award goes to those who followed me into exile; the second-grade award goes to those who donated money; and the third grade goes to those who welcomed the return of my dukedom" and that even "those who have supported me in other ways but not yet been rewarded may report their names for awards". Nonetheless, Jie retired to MtMian, carrying his mother. When the duke was unable to find his old friend's hermitage amid the endless trees and ridges, his advisors suggested lighting a forest fire on one side of MtMian to drive him out since his duty to his mother would overcome his pride. However, the fire raged three days and nights and Jie was burnt to death under a willow together with his mother. Some add the detail that he left verses written in blood, "I cut off my own flesh to dedicate it to you, and only wish that my king will always be clear and bright." Duke Chong'er then erected a temple in his honor and personally ordered the Cold Food Festival.

Works

Jie is listed as the author of several poems or songs, although since they were composed in a dialect of Old Chinese their lines do not necessarily rhyme or scan correctly in present-day Mandarin. The lyrics of "The Dragon and Snake Song" (t=龍蛇歌 |s=龙蛇歌 |p=Lóngshégē |links=no) or "The Song of the Dragon and the Snake" (t=龍蛇之歌 |s=龙蛇之歌 |p=Lóngshé zhī Gē |links=no) are included in the Qin Melodies. They tell the story of a beautiful dragon stripped of its horns, scales, and flight owing to the jealousy of Heaven. On Earth, it becomes close friends with a snake before eventually returning to its proper station. The snake understands the two come from different worlds but remains forlorn, and the song—set for the Chinese zither—ends with the moral that, "to be cheerful, one cannot look back." He was also credited with "The Scholar who Lost His Ambition" (s=士失志操 |p=Shì Shī Zhì Cāo |labels=no).

Legacy

The oldest sources for Jie's story state that Duke Chong'er set apart the income from the fields of Mianshang near Jiexiu to endow sacrifices in his honor. By the Eastern Han (1st & 2nd centuries), he was listed among the Taoist immortals and had a temple in Taiyuan and another at at his tomb on Lord Jie Ridge. The mountain temple supposedly also preserved various relics of Jie's, brought there by Chong'er. A grove of blackened trees on the mountain was also revered and, in the 6th century, supposed to be a place of miracles granted by the sage.

During the Eastern Han, people in central and southern Shanxi avoided fire for up to a month in the middle of winter, either out of respect for Jie or because they feared his spirit's vengeance against those who broke the taboo. This left them unable to cook their staple grains like rice and millet or most other forms of Chinese food. At first, the most common dish was a cold form of uncooked congee or gruel; later, a menu developed of items that were precooked but kept long enough that they could be eaten unheated during the festival.

From the 2nd to the 5th century, Zhou Ju (t=周舉 |s=周举 |p=Zhōu Jǔ |links=no), Cao Cao, Shi Le, and Tuoba or Yuan Hong all attempted to ban this Cold Food Festival because of the suffering that it caused children and the elderly. All failed, in Shi Le's case because a massive hailstorm across all of Shanxi the year after his ban required that he adjust the policy. At some point before the end of the 3rd century, however, the pronouncements of Zhou Ju and other officials did succeed in moving the festival from the middle of winter to 105 days later, around the Qingming solar term near the end of spring (by Chinese reckoning). The Cold Food Festival spread throughout China by the 6th century but, after the incorporation of ancestral veneration and other aspects of the Double Third Festival under the Tang, the prohibition against fire and remembrance of Jie slowly diminished in importance as it became the modern Tomb-Sweeping Festival by the Qing. Today, as was true long in the past, observance of the fire taboo is mostly limited to the countryside around Jiexiu and in Shanxi, where there is still a small temple in his honor, the Pavilion of the Divine Jie (t=介神閣 |s=介神阁 |p=Jièshéngé |links=no). Some people hang willow beside their doors. Downtown Jiexiu also holds themed events and temple fairs during the old Cold Food Festival and some cold foods like qingtuan continue to be popular as seasonal staples.

Jie is usually considered the namesake of the town of Jiexiu (l=Jie's Rest), which was renamed from Pingchang under the Tang about AD618 to reflect the name its surrounding commandery—including MtMian—had borne since the Northern Wei (4th–6th century).

His legend—with adjustments—appears in Wang Mengji's 17th-century short story "Jie Zhitui Sets Fire to His Jealous Wife", which uses irony and absurdities to comment on feminine jealousy and the difficulty of matching results to intentions. The first contemporary dance troupe on Taiwan, the Cloud Gate Dance Theater, has dramatized the story of Jie Zhitui as Han Shih since 1974. Jie is depicted in "a white robe with a long, broad trail ... as the hero, dragging the weight of his principle, struggles to his self-redemption". He Bing portrayed "Jie Zitui" as the main character of the 2011 TV drama Song of Spring and Autumn.

Jie's intransigence has not always escaped criticism. The Legalist philosopher Han Fei listed him among the absurd advisors who "were all like hard gourds". Holzman acknowledges that Jie's behavior "earned him immortality as a loyal official who chose obscure retirement rather than sacrifice his principles", but still personally finds it "rather strange... and rather petulant". A 2015 article in the Shanghai Daily admits that, "judged in light of modern notions", Jie "would probably be suffering from personality disorders that lead to him to perceive and understand the world in ways that are 'inflexible'". Being "one of the most celebrated models of integrity of the old school", however, Jie is not faulted for his actions but listed as "a mentally sound person who lived in an 'unhealthy society'" and did not "fit" it.

生平事跡

割股奉君

「驪姬之亂」後，晉國公子重耳為了躲避禍害，避難奔狄，隨行賢士五人，介子推即是其中之一。此後，介子推一直追隨重耳在外逃亡19年，輾轉周折，備歷艱難險阻。重耳最終能返回晉國，成為日後的春秋五霸之一的晉文公，介子推也盡了犬馬之勞。

據載重耳逃入衞國國境時，鳧須偷光了重耳的資糧，逃入深山。重耳無糧，飢餓難行，介子推毅然割下自己大腿上的肉供養重耳。在重耳落難之時，介子成就了忠義之名，史稱「割股奉君」。

功不言祿

重耳得到秦穆公相助，得以返國時，與介子推一起追隨重耳19年的咎犯擔心先前出奔在外，多有冒犯重耳之處而假意請辭。介子推認為晉君歷盡艱險，重返王座，乃上天相助，咎犯身為臣子，攜功要君，惺惺作假，介子推鄙其邀功行徑，恥于與之同船，遂自行渡河。

及至文公歸國後賞賜跟從他逃亡的人，介子推不談俸祿回報。介子推說：「獻公的兒子九人，只有國君在世了。惠公、懷公沒有親近的人，國內外都厭棄他們。上天沒有斷絕晉國的後嗣，一定會有君主。主持晉國祭祀的人，不是國君是誰？這是上天安排的，而那幾個人以為是自己的功勞，不是荒謬嗎？盜竊別人的財物，就叫他做小偷，何況竊取上天的功勞當作自己的功勞呢？下面的人讚美他們的罪過，上面的人獎勵他們的欺詐，上下相互欺騙，很難和他們相處了。

封于綿山

介子推攜母隱居入綿山，直到他去世人們都再也沒有見過他。《史記·卷三十九·晉世家第九》書：「至死不復見」。

介子推的追隨者憐惜他，于是在宮門上寫道：「龍欲上天，五蛇為輔。龍已升雲，四蛇各入其宇，一蛇獨怨，終不見處所。」晉文公出門時看到這些字，感歎說：「這講的是介子推啊，我忙于王室的事情，還沒有表彰他的功勞。」于是派人去召他，不見其蹤，聽聞他在綿山上，于是晉文公將綿山封給介子推，號曰介山，說：「就以此銘記我的過失，並且表彰善良的人。」

晉立介休

秦置界休縣，新莽時改為界美，東漢複名界休。西晉立國，對春秋晉地故事人物興趣濃厚，且感親切。西晉杜預對晉武帝司馬炎述說界休當為介休，以此紀念介子推，晉武帝遂改界休為介休。

民間傳說

另一些民間傳說，得知介子推隱居綿山後，晉文公非常懊悔，親自去綿山尋找，但介子推始終避而不出。于是晉文公下令焚山，企圖逼介子推出山，不料介子推卻堅不下山，最終抱在一棵柳樹上死去。晉文公悲痛萬分，將一段燒焦的柳木，帶回宮中做了一雙木屐，每天望著它嘆道：「悲哉足下。」此後，「足下」成為下級對上級或同輩之間相互尊敬的稱呼，據說就是來源于此。據傳後悔焚山的晉文公還以紀念介子推為由，規定每年此時不得生火，一律吃冷食，此即寒食節的起源。

身後評價

由于介子推的忠心耿耿和淡泊名利，一直是中國古代社會極力推崇的的高尚品德，所以介子推在歷朝歷代都得到了很多的讚譽。民間修建了許多祠堂廟宇，以慰籍介子推的在天之靈。北宋天禧元年（1017年），宋真宗詔封介子推為「潔惠侯」。

另外，中國古代歷朝歷代的文人墨客也為介子推的事跡留下了很多著名的詩篇，如：

• 「介子忠而立枯兮，文君寤而追求；封介山而為之禁兮，報大德之優遊」（戰國屈原《九章·惜往日》）

• 「人乞祭余驕妾婦，士甘焚死不公侯。賢愚千載知誰是，滿眼蓬蒿共一丘」（宋 黃庭堅《清明》）；

• 「民間禁火寒食節，綿上遺封莽未耘」（明 俞汝為《過綿山吊介之推》）；

• 「但使亡人能返國，恥將股肉易封侯」（明 林魁《寒食題介子祠》）

• 「百年節歲同寒食，萬里封疆立介休」（明 呂解元《綿山吊介子》）

民間信仰

後世尊介子推為「開山侯」、「開山王」或「開山大帝」（俗稱大伯公），台灣供奉介之推為主神的廟宇：

• 嘉義市西區車店里 開山尊王廟 主祀：開山尊王（稱呼 王爺公）、天上聖母

• 嘉義市東區後湖里 三賢宮 主祀保生大帝、開山尊王

• 嘉義縣水上鄉國姓村三界埔 協安宮 主祀：開山聖侯（稱呼 大伯爺公）

• 雲林縣崙背鄉枋南村新莊 開山宮 主祀：開山聖侯（稱呼 大伯公）

• 彰化縣社頭鄉清水村 武郡宮 主祀：武君大千歲（據說即介子推）

• 雲林縣大埤鄉怡然村 開山大帝廟 主祀：開山大帝

• 宜蘭縣冬山鄉安平村 大安廟 主祀：開山聖侯