A Chinese Biographical Dictionary/Ch'ao Fu

by Herbert A. Giles

200 Ch'ao Fu 巢父 or 巢居子. A recluse who lived in the time of the Emperor Yao, B.C. 2357. As he grew old he began to seek shelter among the branches of trees, and removed still farther from contact with the world. Yao offered him the throne, but he declined, and immediately went and washed his ears to free them from the defilement of such worldly contamination. Another story runs that when the throne was offered to Hsü Yu, and the latter washed his ears in a brook, Ch'ao Fu would not even let his calves drink of the water.