Later, after becoming the emperor, Cao Pi remembered that Yang Xiu once said that the sword originally belong to Wang Mao (王髦).

[6] Yang Xiu's death was commonly related to the story of "chicken ribs", which was mentioned in Pei Songzhi's annotation of the Sanguozhi,[7] and was popularized by the novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms.

When he arrived, he did not talk to his servants about their work but instead wrote a character, "活", meaning "alive", on the door.

On the gravestone were four sets of words, "huang juan (yellow silk fabric), you fu (young woman), wai sun (grandson), and ji jiu (powdering mortar)" (黃絹、幼婦、外孫、齏臼).

Yang Xiu then explained that "huang juan (黃絹) is a synonym for se si (色絲)' (which meant "coloured silk").

If you combine the character si (絲; silk)' with se (色; colour), you get jue (絕; absolute).

If you combine the character nü (女; woman) with shao (少; young), you get miao (妙; wonderful).

Wai sun (外孫) is equivalent to nü er de er zi (女兒的兒子; "daughter's son"), if you combine take the two major characters out and combine nü (女; "daughter") with zi (子; son), you get hao (好; good).

Ji jiu (齏臼) is basically shou wu xin zhi qi (受五辛之器; a device which receives and grinds the five Chinese spices).

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.