One day in the fourth year of the Zhenguan era of the Tang Dynasty (A.D. 630), Emperor Taizong, personal name Li Shimin, was having a meal when he tasted a melon of exceptional sweetness. Suddenly, however, he stopped eating. His expression darkened with sorrow, and he ordered that the remaining half of the melon be taken and offered before a memorial tablet.
The man commemorated there was Du Ruhui, the recently deceased Right Vice Director of the Department of State Affairs. Du had died after a serious illness in the fifth month of that year, at the age of only 46. Deeply grieved by his death, Emperor Taizong posthumously appointed him Minister of Works and changed his title to Duke of Lai.
For the ruler of an empire to be unable even to finish a melon because of the death of one minister raises a natural question: What kind of man was Du Ruhui?
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