father Yang Biao, reproaching him for his son's arrogance. After news of his execution, Yang Biao was struck by grief and self-blame, becoming gray-haired and thin. Upon hearing this, Cao Cao sent Yang Biao many gifts to compensate for the loss of his son. Anecdotes In Romance of the Three Kingdoms In the 14th-century historical novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Cao Cao thinks that Yang Xiu is too boastful and overconfident in his cleverness, and eventually kills him after what is known as the "chicken rib" incident. At the time, Cao Cao's army was fighting against Liu Bei during the famous Hanzhong campaign. The battle had been going unfavorably for Cao Cao and he planned to retreat, but did not openly admit this. One evening, when a messenger asked him for that night's verbal passcode, Cao Cao saw some chicken ribs in his soup and thoughtlessly answered "chicken rib." Yang Xiu interpreted Cao Cao's message as a metaphor for "retreat" and instructed all generals to have their soldiers pack their bags and break camp. Yang Xiu's logic was thus: chicken ribs are inedible, but not completely worthless, similar to the difficult situation that Cao Cao was facing. When Cao Cao was alerted of Yang Xiu's action, he was enraged and executed Yang Xiu. Later on, as the battle turned even more against him, Cao Cao finally ordered a retreat. Remembering Xiu's prediction, Cao Cao had his subordinate's body collected and gave him a proper funeral. In an earlier chapter, Yang Xiu was described by Mi Heng as one of the two sole "talented" officials under Cao Cao (the other being Kong Rong). However, this should be taken with a grain of salt, as Mi Heng's other opinions, actions, and ultimate fate suggest he is a poor judge of character. See also Lists of people of the Three Kingdoms Notes References Chen, Shou (3rd century). Records of the Three Kingdoms (Sanguozhi). Fan, Ye (5th century). Book of the Later Han (Houhanshu). Luo, Guanzhong (14th century). Romance of the Three Kingdoms (Sanguo Yanyi). Pei, Songzhi (5th century). Annotations to Records of the Three Kingdoms (Sanguozhi zhu). Sima, Guang (1084). Zizhi Tongjian. Yuan Shu and associates Officials under Cao Cao 175 births 219 deaths Executed Han dynasty people 3rd-century executions People executed by the Han dynasty 2nd-century Chinese people 3rd-century Chinese people