Upon the Imperial Throne, the emperor remained silent for a long while.
Then he raised a hand to rub his brow and said hoarsely, "Now that matters have come to this, must I simply endure the humiliation these Foreign States have inflicted today?"
Kou Yuan remained bowed, not daring to straighten.
Only after the emperor finished speaking did he lift his eyes to meet his gaze.
"Your Majesty, a ruler must be capable of what ordinary men cannot."
Kou Yuan's voice was level and deep:
"When ordinary men suffer humiliation, they grow angry; in anger, they raise armies.
When rulers suffer humiliation, they endure; through endurance, they gather strength.
Long ago, Gou Jian, King of Yue, was trapped at Kuaiji. He became a prisoner of Wu, his wife a concubine of Wu. He slept on firewood and hung bitter gall above him to taste, going ten years without restful sleep.
The people of Wu thought Gou Jian was dead; the people of Yue thought Gou Jian had forgotten.
Yet twenty years were spent honing a single sword. On the day Suzhou fell, Fuchai fell upon his sword, Gou Jian ascended the dais, and all the Feudal Lords trembled."
"At the banquet at Hongmen, Emperor Gaozu of Han bowed his head and declared himself Xiang Yu's subject.
When he escaped, he was as panic-stricken as a dog that had lost its home.
Han Xin asked whether he felt humiliated. Emperor Gaozu laughed and said, 'I can endure, but the world cannot endure me.'
Later, at the battle of Gaixia, Songs of Chu rose on every side, and Xiang Yu cut his own throat beside the Wu River."
"At the temporary bridge over the Wei River, Emperor Taizong Wen of Tang swore a blood oath over a White Horse, personally entered the