2
‘I must be getting old.’
King Xuan’s heart was still troubled. No matter how he tried to forget, the nursery rhyme the children had been singing kept swirling around in his head. When he was young, this had never happened. He had been celebrated far and wide as a bold and wise sovereign. But after passing sixty, he was turning into someone so sensitive that he could not overlook even the smallest matter.
‘I must shake this off.’
King Xuan turned his steps toward the Inner Palace.
Whenever his mind was troubled, he always rested in the Inner Palace. It was cozy and comfortable. King Xuan knew well that this was all thanks to Queen Jiang. The queen refers to the primary wife of the Son of Heaven. Ha—until the Yin Dynasty, the primary wife of the Son of Heaven had been called Fei. However, upon entering the Zhou Dynasty, the term had been changed to Hou.
Queen Jiang was a woman of the Qi royal house. She had married him when he was still the Crown Prince.
It was around the time when King Li died and the Crown Prince, King Xuan, ascended the throne. King Xuan had had a habit of sleeping in since childhood. Because of this, all the women of the harem, including Queen Jiang, could not leave their rooms until the king awoke.
To break King Xuan of his bad habit, Queen Jiang devised a plan. Like a criminal, she removed her hairpins and earrings, confined herself to a room, and knelt on the floor. Then she sent a palace maid to deliver a message to King Xuan.
“I am an insufficient woman. By revealing my licentious heart, I caused Your Majesty to lose propriety and leave for court late. Because of this, Your Majesty has come to hear criticism that you are fond of feminine charms. All of this is the fault of your humble subject, so I beg for punishment.”
Hearing these words, King Xuan came to his senses as if drenched in cold water.
“To think that Queen Jiang suffers because of my lazy conduct.”
From then on, he rose early and went to court, only returning to the Inner Palace late at night. Diligently attending to state affairs, he finally earned the fame of being a “king of restoration.” Such was Queen Jiang.
‘A wise woman!’
But that evening, the Queen Jiang who greeted King Xuan was different from usual. Her movements were unsteady, and her complexion was pale.
“What happened?”
After hesitating, Queen Jiang answered.
“The truth is… a bizarre incident has occurred in the palace.”
“A bizarre incident, you say?”
A chill ran through King Xuan’s heart.
“There is a palace maid in the palace now who served the late king, King Li. She is over fifty years old. The strange thing is, she became pregnant during the reign of King Li, yet did not give birth for over forty years, and only last night did she deliver a baby girl.”
“How could such a thing happen? Could she not have secretly met with a man?”
“I summoned and investigated her, but it does not seem to be the case. For a woman of sixty…”
“Where is the newborn that the old palace maid birthed?”
“No matter how I thought about it, it seemed a monster, so I had people take her and abandon her in a river twenty li away.”
It was an unbelievable story. How could a woman conceive and bear a child without a man?
“I shall question the palace maid myself.”
The old palace maid who had given birth came in. Her hair was half-white, and her skin was heavily wrinkled. Even to King Xuan’s eyes, she was not of an age to be pregnant.
“How did you come to conceive?”
The palace maid hesitated for a while before opening her mouth.
“I do not know if you will believe me, but everything I am about to report is the truth.”
“Do not worry. I shall believe your words.”
“The circumstances of my conception are as follows. It is said to have been an incident from the time of King Jie of Xia, long ago.
“…There was a divine being in the land of Baocheng. One day, that divine being transformed into two dragons and descended into the palace courtyard. The dragons spoke to King Jie, froth dripping from the corners of their mouths.
“‘We are the lords of Baocheng.’
“King Jie was seized by fear. He summoned the Grand Historian.
“‘I intend to kill those two dragons. Perform a divination.’
“The divination was ‘inauspicious.’ King Jie commanded again:
“‘I intend to drive the two dragons away.’
“Again, the divination came out ‘inauspicious.’
“Even so, when King Jie tried to kill the dragons, the Grand Historian offered a frank statement:
“‘These two dragons are transformed divine beings. This is an auspicious matter. The foam that the dragons have shed is their vital essence. If you preserve it well, a blessed event shall come of it.’
“The king had another divination performed. This time, it was ‘greatly auspicious.’
“King Jie performed sacrifices to the two dragons and collected the dragons’ foam in a golden vessel, then placed it carefully inside a red wooden box. Only then did the two dragons part the clouds and fly away.
“King Jie stored the box inside the palace treasury. Afterward, spanning the Yin Dynasty, for over nine hundred years, no one opened the box.
“But it was during the reign of King Xuan’s father, King Li. One day, a ray of light leaked out from that wooden box. Having received a report from the treasury keeper, King Li grew curious.
“‘What is contained within that box?’
“When the treasury keeper spoke of events from over nine hundred years ago, King Li’s eyes lit up.
“‘Open the box.’
“When the keeper opened the lid, a golden vessel indeed emerged from inside the box. The ministers received the golden vessel with both hands and presented it to King Li.
“Just then, as King Li was receiving the vessel, he accidentally dropped it. The golden vessel fell to the ground. In the process, the dragons’ foam contained within the vessel spilled out.
“‘Ah!’
“Exclamations burst from the mouths of the watching crowd. It was not because King Li had dropped the vessel. The spilled dragon’s foam transformed into a lizard the moment it touched the ground.
“While everyone stood frozen in shock, the lizard swiftly hid in the grass.
“‘Capture it!’
“At the command, the ministers raised an uproar searching for the lizard. …
“At that time, I was eight years old. I happened to be passing through the rear palace garden when I stepped on the track where the lizard had crawled. I thought nothing of it then, but on a certain day in my fifteenth year, my stomach suddenly grew hot, and from then on my belly began to swell. When my belly finally grew bulging as if with child, King Li confined me in a deep room, saying that I, who had not even married, was pregnant. Then, after forty years had passed, I gave birth only last night. I could not hide this fact and reported it to the queen. The queen said she could not tolerate such a monster and had the child cast into the river.”
He had said he would believe her, but how could he believe such words as they were?
King Xuan was in a very foul mood. It was not because of the old palace maid. The story she had told was what left him feeling sickened.
“‘A woman may bring ruin to the state.’”
The words of Grand Historian Bo Yangfu crossed his mind once more.
“I understand. You may go.”
King Xuan fell deep into thought. After a moment, he called for the palace maid waiting outside the door and commanded:
“Go to the river now and see what became of the abandoned baby girl.”
The palace maid did not return until midnight.
“The river current seems to have swept her away; I could not find the baby girl.”
“Is she dead?”
“Perhaps so, it seems.”
He nodded at the palace maid’s answer, but King Xuan’s heart remained as heavy as lead.
King Xuan spent the night in feverish dreams. He could not tell whether he was asleep or awake. It was only near dawn that he fell into a deep sleep, and when King Xuan opened his eyes, the sun was already high.
Even after sleeping through the night, King Xuan still wondered whether the newborn baby girl birthed by the old palace maid was alive or dead. No, it was not mere curiosity—it weighed on his mind.
‘If she is alive… I shall find her and kill her!’
The moment King Xuan went to court, he summoned Grand Historian Bo Yangfu. After relating what he had heard from the palace maid the previous night, he commanded:
“Perform a divination to see whether the baby girl lived or died.”
Bo Yangfu performed the divination and then presented the oracle text.
Crying and then laughing,
Laughing and then crying again.
The goat is devoured by a ghost,
The horse is chased by dogs.
Beware, beware,
The bow made of mountain mulberry
And the quiver made of ji wood.
King Xuan could not understand its meaning.
Bo Yangfu interpreted it for him.
“In terms of the Twelve Earthly Branches, the goat is yang, which corresponds to Wei, and the horse refers to Wu. That is, it speaks of the years of Wu and Wei. Crying and laughing signify sorrow and joy. This subject believes that though the evil spirit may have left the palace, it is not completely gone. It would be best to quickly search for that newborn baby girl.”
King Xuan felt his premonition had been proven right. His heart grew urgent. He summoned the senior official Du Bo and issued an edict as biting as frost.
“Search house to house without exception, inside and outside the capital, for a newborn baby girl pulled from the water. It does not matter whether she is dead or alive. Whoever presents the baby girl shall be rewarded with three hundred bolts of silk. However, if anyone is found hiding and secretly raising her, put everyone to the sword—old and young, male and female—without distinction.”
Du Bo received the order and withdrew.
Without pausing, King Xuan also summoned the senior official Zuo Ru and issued another order.
“You shall post notices on every street that bows and quivers may neither be made nor sold. Any who violate this shall be shown no mercy and executed.”
In a single day, the atmosphere inside and outside the palace turned into a sheet of thin ice. The people of the capital trembled and dared not even think of making or selling bows and arrows.