Qi Jiguang (November 12, 1528 – January 5, 1588) was a Chinese military general and national hero during the Ming Dynasty. He was best remembered for his courage and leadership in the fight against Japanese pirates along the east coast of China as well as his reinforcement work on the Great Wall of China. According to historical accounts, Qi Jiguang's father, Qi Jingtong, was an honest and upright man. He cultivated in his son a yearning for knowledge as well as a firm set of morals. When his father died, Qi Jiguang took over the commandership of the Dengzhou Garrison at the age of seventeen. The rest, as they say, is history.

Qi Jingtong was rather old at 56 before having a son, Qi Jiguang and he loved the child dearly. He personally taught Qi Jiguang to read books and to practice martial arts. However, he was very strict with Qi Jiguang's character cultivation and moral conduct.

One day, when Qi Jiguang was 13, he tried on a pair of exquisitely made silk shoes and fell in love with them. He walked back and forth in the courtyard lingering and relishing in its elegance. This caught the eyes of his father.

His father called him to the study and admonished him angrily, "Once you put on good shoes, you will naturally want to wear good clothes. Once you wear good clothes, you will naturally think about eating good food. At such a young age, you have already developed the yearning for good food and good clothing. In time to come, you will be insatiably greedy and when you grow up, you will pursue delicious food and beautiful clothing. If you were a military officer, perhaps you would even embezzle the soldiers' pay. If you continued like this, it would be difficult for you to succeed in any undertaking honestly."

Qi Jingtong learned that the silk shoes were a gift from Qi Jiguang's maternal grandfather. Even so, he ordered Jiguang to take off the shoes and instantly ripped them to pieces to prevent Jiguang from developing the bad habit of indulging in luxury.

The Qi family’s dozen dilapidated thatched huts were in disrepair for many years so Qi Jingtong hired several craftsmen to renovate them. In order to have a presentable place to receive officials from the royal court, he asked the artisans to install four engraved doors in the main hall and had Qi Jiguang supervising the installation.

The artisans considered the Qi family a prominent and prestigious household and thought that it would not be befitting if there were only four engraved doors. They talked to Qi Jiguang privately, "Your family are generals. For such a prestigious household, all doors throughout the compound should be engraved with flowery embossments, which would be twelve leaves in total. Only this can match the prestige of your family." Qi Jiguang thought their suggestion was reasonable and brought it up with his father.

Qi Jingtong reprimanded Qi Jiguang sternly for his vain and flashy idea and warned him, "If you pursue vanity, you won't be able to accomplish great things when you grow up." Qi Jiguang accepted his father's criticism and told the artisans to install only four engraved leaves.

Qi Jingtong also taught Qi Jiguang that the purpose of studying literature and practicing martial arts was not to pursue personal fame and fortune but to serve the country and the people, and to cultivate moral conducts such as, "loyalty, filial piety, incorruptibility, and proprieties" etc.

Under his father’s personal instruction through his words and deeds, Qi Jiguang was content with a quiet and modest existence. He focused on his studies and his practice of martial arts in earnest. Later, he became a celebrated general and defended the country against foreign invasion as well as an outstanding military strategist in the Ming Dynasty. His legacy was firmly etched in the annals of history.

Showing off, wallowing in and attaching to one's own external appearance, wealth, knowledge, achievements, status, and so on in order to gain adulation and praise are all signs of vanity. The root of vanity is egotism. It will undermine one's lofty aspirations and cause one to fall short of being anything great. If one becomes slave to such illusory glory and fights with or even harm others, it will be lamentable indeed.