On the twenty-ninth day of the eighth month of Jinghe Year Fifteen, news of the death spread throughout the Capital.
Outside the Feng Residence, a sea of white-clad mourners had already knelt.
An old minister came leaning on a staff. Before reaching the entrance, he bowed below the steps.
Scholars in plain mourning clothes held incense at the mouth of the lane, tears falling as they dared not raise their voices.
When Kou Yuan received the news, he remained silent for a long time, then personally wrote a funeral couplet and sent it to the Feng Residence. It read:
"For forty years we served in the same hall; you were the lofty mountain I gazed up to.
Now you have departed; the mountain falls, the great timber breaks. Who will stand firm amid the current?"
Upon receiving the news, Qin Yan fell gravely ill and could no longer rise.
That same day, in the Palace of Heavenly Purity.
The emperor suspended court for three days and wore plain mourning clothes.
Wang Cheng stood attending in a corner of the hall, watching the emperor lift his bowl, set it down, lift it again, and set it down once more.
"Imperial Grandfather..." Wang Cheng knelt.
"Were the Grand Tutor still here, he would not wish to see you like this."
Hearing this, the emperor twice stopped eating.
That same day, the emperor personally issued a decree at court:
``` [We have heard that a wise man has passed, a loss mourned by the realm. With the loss of a master of the Way, court and country grieve alike.
Thus, the grace and honors bestowed must be of the utmost generosity, and the rites of commendation of the utmost grandeur-not merely to favor one man, but to encourage all under heaven.
Feng Yan,