Lu Na had lamented that he could not choose a husband for his beloved daughter according to his own wishes, yet now he said there was a way: so long as Chen Caozhi agreed to follow his advice, he could marry Wei Rui to him. These contradictory words greatly surprised Chen Caozhi, who could not guess for the moment what Lu Na meant to say.
Lu Na gazed steadily at Chen Caozhi and said slowly, "Wei Rui loves you deeply and will marry no one else. I know her disposition, and I truly cannot prevail against her. I, Lu Na, have only this one daughter. How could I bear to see her heartbroken? But marriages among the great aristocratic clans demand families of equal standing. This is not something in which I alone can insist on having my way. The celebrated scholars who are said to be unrestrained and independent in their conduct actually have their own profound sorrows and invisible fetters. They cannot truly act however they please. The Rites of Zhou says, 'Marriage joins the goodwill of two surnames, above to serve the ancestral temples, and below to continue the generations to come; thus the gentleman esteems it.' Marriage concerns the ancestral temples and future generations, so Wei Rui's marriage is not mine to decide. It is a matter of the wishes of the entire Wu Commandery Lu Clan. A marriage alliance represents the clan-"
Here Lu Na paused, then continued even more slowly, "You, Caozhi, also love Wei Rui deeply, and have said that if you cannot have her, you will remain unmarried all your life. That moved me greatly-" Abruptly changing tack, he asked, "Caozhi, do you know the story of Liang Hong and his wife Meng Guang of the Former Han?"
The moment Chen Caozhi