In 550 AD, Emperor Xiaojing of the Eastern Wei Dynasty was forced to abdicate to his ruthless prime minister, Gao Yang, who then founded the Northern Qi Dynasty. The very next year, Gao Yang, determined to eliminate all threats, poisoned the former emperor and his three sons.
On the tenth year of his reign, in the sixth month, a solar eclipse occurred. Gao Yang feared it was an ill omen that his usurped throne was in jeopardy. So, he summoned a trusted confidant and asked:
"At the end of the Western Han Dynasty, Wang Mang seized the Liu family's empire. Why was Emperor Guangwu Liu Xiu later able to take it back?" The trusted aide couldn't explain the reason and casually replied, "Your Majesty, this is Wang Mang's own fault. He failed to exterminate all members of the Liu clan."
The ruthless Gao Yang actually believed his trusted confidant's words and immediately resumed the killing: he executed over 700 people from 44 families of the Eastern Wei imperial clan, including infants, with no one spared.
When news spread, even distant members of the Eastern Wei royal clan panicked, fearing that Gao Yang's blade might fall on them at any moment. They quickly gathered to discuss a plan. A county magistrate named Yuan Jing'an said, "The only way to survive now is to beg Gao Yang for permission to renounce the Yuan surname and adopt the Gao surname instead."
Yuan Jing'an's cousin Jing Hao firmly opposed this approach. He said angrily:
“How can I abandon my clan and change my surname to save my life? A true man would rather be shattered jade than remain whole as a clay tile. I would rather die preserving my integrity than live in disgrace!”
To save his own skin, the despicable Yuan Jing'an reported Jinghao's words to Gao Yang. Gao Yang immediately arrested Jinghao and had him executed. For his betrayal, Yuan Jing'an was rewarded with the imperial surname Gao and a promotion.
But such brutal purges could not save the crumbling Northern Qi regime. Three months later, Emperor Gao Yang died of illness. Eighteen years after that, the Northern Qi dynasty itself met its end.
Later, the idiom "Better to be a shattered piece of jade than an intact tile" came to mean preferring to maintain noble integrity rather than live in disgrace.
Source: *Book of Northern Qi*, "Biography of Yuan Jing'an"
Meaning of the Idiom: Later, the Chinese idiom "宁为玉碎，不为瓦全" came to describe preferring to maintain noble integrity rather than live in disgrace.