[Kung-yang Kao, 5th and 4th centuries B.C., a commentator on the Annals of the Lu State.]

WHAT is meant by a Great Exodus? Extinction. Who extinguished? The Ch'i State extinguished. Then why not say Ch'i extinguished? To avoid the name of Duke Hsiang of Ch'i. In such cases in the Annals, the name of a good man is always omitted. 

What goodness was there in Duke Hsiang? He avenged an injury. 

What injury? Owing to slander by the then Marquis of Chi, a distant ancestor of his had been boiled alive at the suzerain's capital; and what Duke Hsiang did on this occasion was actuated by an overwhelming sense of duty to the manes of this ancestor. 

How many generations back was this ancestor? Nine generations. 

May an injury be avenged even after nine generations? It may be avenged even after one hundred generations.