During the reign of Emperor Tai-tsung of T’ang China, General Li Ju-hsien, son of General P’eng-tzu, was sent by imperial order to subjugate northern barbarians. His army of several hundred thousand troops was lost, and he himself was captured and detained for forty long years. Meanwhile, he married a barbarian woman and had a child. As a prisoner he always had to wear leather clothes with a leather belt except during New Year’s Day, when he was allowed to wear Chinese clothes. He felt homesick with tears and heart-breaking grief year after year. Meanwhile T’ang China sent another expeditionary army to the north. Li Ju-hsien saw an opportunity to run away, leaving behind his barbarian wife and child. T’ang soldiers mistook him for a barbarian and almost killed the former general. Listening to his claim, they sent him to the T’ang Emperor Te-tsung. The Emperor, however, refused to listen to him and exiled him to the borderland between Wu and Yüeh in the South. Li Ju-hsien grieved: “I can neither go back home to Liangyüan nor go to see my wife and child.” Although Li Juhsien was deeply loyal to his country, he had to suffer this grief.

I, Nichiren, am like Li Ju-hsien. I thought of Japan and gave warning to the country; nevertheless, I was chased away from my hometown, left the place of exile, and began living deep in this mountain. This is similar to the fate of Li Ju-hsien, but I didn’t leave a wife or a child to make me worry both in my native town and in the place of exile. I only worry about how my parents’ tombs are, and how my acquaintances are.

Myōhō Bikuni Go-henji, A Reply to Nun Myōhō, Nyonin Gosho, Letters Addressed to Female Followers, Page 210-212