Lü Shang was a native of Ji Zhou. He was born with inner wisdom and could foresee the rise and fall of things — a quality central to the Dao. To avoid the chaos under King Zhou, he hid in Liaodong for forty years. He went to Western Zhou and took refuge in Nanshan Mountain, fishing by a stream. For three years he caught no fish; the people of his neighborhood all said, "You may as well give it up." Shang replied, "That is beyond your understanding." Soon after, he indeed found a military seal inside the belly of a fish. King Wen dreamed that he would obtain a sage; upon hearing about Shang, he took him aboard and returned with him. When King Wu attacked King Zhou, Lü Shang once composed more than a hundred chapters of secret strategies. He consumed the essence of Zhi grass and earth marrow from Fuze — a practice of cultivating the Tao through natural substances; after two centuries, he announced his death. When difficulties arose, he was not buried; later, his son buried him, but there was no body — only six chapters of the "Yuqian" were found in the coffin.

Lü Shang fished in hiding; an omen brought him a crimson-scaled fish. He communicated through dreams with King Wen of Western Zhou and joined him as a minister on the same journey. His profound strategies were recorded for the world, and his body was refined by the essence of virtue and merit. Praised in later generations, how admirable is this sage of heaven and humanity!