In Chinese proverbs, jade is a frequent metaphor for honor and virtue;each originates in a story.
The proverb: "Rather be a fragment of jade than a complete clay tile," dates back to the year 550, when Emperor Xiaojing of the Eastern Wei Dynasty was ousted by his Prime Minister Gao Yang, who then established the Northern Qi Dynasty. The following year, Gao Yang killed Emperor Xiaojing and his three sons. In the tenth year following Gao Yang's usurpation of the throne there occurred a solar eclipse¬—a bad omen in ancient China. Fear that celestial phenomenon presaged a threat to his throne prompted Gao Yang to slay the 700 members of Emperor Xiaojing's 44-family clan. When news of this atrocity reached the more remote branches of the imperial family, all were terrified of suffering asimilar fate. At a gathering to discuss ways and means of escaping death, a county magistrate named Yuan Jing'an suggested adopting the surname Gao as a sign of loyalty to the Northern Qi Dynasty. Jing'an's cousin Jinghao was contemptuous of this suggestion, saying, "Of what use is abandoning our ancestral clan merely to stay alive? A true man would rather die a fragment of ade than live as a complete clay tile."
Treacherous Yuan Jing'an reported his cousin's brave words to Gao Yang, and Jinghao was arrested and summarily executed.
After changing Jing'an's family name to Gao, the emperor promoted him, but died of illness three months after Jinghao's execution. Eighteen years later the Northern Qi Dynasty perished. Jinghao's brave words "Rather be a fragment of broken jade than a complete clay tile" may have cost him his life but nonetheless immortalized him, having been quoted over centuries by outstanding Chinese men and women of distinguished valor.
