Zhong Ming Lou Jin

In the Three-Kingdom Period， Tian Yu was a minis- ter serving the warlord Gongsun Zan. When Gongsun Zan went out to fight against other warlords， Wang Men， one of his former underlings， betrayed him and threw himself into another warlord Yuan Shao. He led 10 thousand soldiers of Yuan Shao into Gongsun Zan’s domain， trying to seize Dong County， which was garrisoned by the troop led by Tian Yu.

Tian Yu’s underlings were scared and they wanted to open the gate to surrender to Wang Men. However， Tian Yu stopped them. He climbed onto the city wall and called to Wang Men. “You must have your own reason to betray Mr. Gongsun. But since Mr. Gongsun has never mistreated you， you are a foolish and shameless man to lead the enemy’s force against you former master. You are a heartless and ungrateful person. Even a man with the intelligence only high enough to fetch water knows of protecting his own bottle. Now I have been appointed to defend this city. Why don’t you attack right now and taste my rage？”

Upon hearing this， Wang Men felt very embarrassed and withdrew with his army.

Later， Tian Yu was appointed Magistrate of Nanyang. Before his appointment， there was a bandit roaming in the surrounding area and threatening people in and out of Nanyang. The former magistrate of Nanyang once arrested a part of this bandit and appealed to his superiority for beheading those captives. When Tian Yu took over the position， he summoned these captives to his office and informed them of the mercy of the court. Then he released all of them and promised not to chase them as long as they were not involved in crimes again. The news was spread to the mountain and the rest of the bandit soon disbanded. The court was very pleased with Tian Yu’s deeds and gave him a lot of rewards.

When Tian Yu was 70 years old， the court promoted him to be the Lieutenant Commander of Imperial Corps and also appointed him as the Magistrate of Cizhou. Tian Yu made several proposals to the court， asking for the retirement. The court rejected his proposals， saying that he was healthy enough to work in these positions.

Tian Yu said： “I do not retire for my age. I just think that a man older than 70 still take the high positions in the government is just like a water clock which has run out of its water and a morning bell that is still ringing in the evening. It is like committing crimes to the ordinary people.”

The court could not think of any excuses to stop Tian Yu’s retirement. Tian Yu finally gave up his positions in the government and returned to his hometown for the rest of his life.

Later， the phrase about “bell and water clock” is used to describe old people.