Huo Yi

The last loyal act in the book. Governor of Jianning, he hears Chengdu has fallen and 'dressed himself in white and wailed during three days, facing west toward the capital'. Pressed to surrender, he refuses on a condition rather than a principle: 'I know not how fares our lord, whether he is in comfort or in misery. If his captors treat him generously, then will I yield. But perhaps they will put him to shame; and when the prince is shamed, the minister dies.' Only when the news of the dukedom of Anle reaches him does he come in with his officers and submit.