At the Hour of the Dragon on the seventh day of the seventh month, Murong Ling, Heir Apparent of the King of Wu, and Shen Shao, Left Assistant Director of the Department of State Affairs, came to the Court of State Ceremonial Official Guesthouse to invite the Jin envoy Chen Caozhi and the Qin envoy Xi Bao to the ceremony at the Shrine of Ximen Bao. After the ceremony, Lord of Yan Murong Wei would hold a banquet for his ministers in the shrine hall-
Xi Bao was delighted. This showed that the Yan Kingdom did not regard them as prisoners, and there was still considerable hope of returning home. He immediately set off gladly with several attendants. Chen Caozhi was accompanied by Ran Sheng, Shen Chiqian, and Su Qi. The four mounted their respective steeds and left Ye City through the north gate in the company of Murong Ling and Shen Shao-
Chen Caozhi was somewhat surprised. The Zhang River lay south of Ye City, and was the Shrine of Ximen Bao not beside the Zhang River? Why were they leaving through the north gate? He asked Murong Ling, who replied, "The Zhang River changed course more than ten years ago. Its old and new channels lie more than ten li apart from north to south. The northern one is the old channel. The Shrine of Ximen Bao stands north of Ye City and south of the Zhang River, about three or four li from here."
Carriages and horses clogged the road along the way. A great many Yan Kingdom nobles and officials were heading to the Shrine of Ximen Bao. Whenever they saw Murong Ling and Shen Shao, their first question was where Chen Xima was. They admired Chen Caozhi greatly. As it turned out, the marvel of