Novelas PaiPai - Capítulo 122
That year, she was twenty-five years old.
The Lonely City (The Princess Who Fell in Love with a Eunuch) Long smoke and setting sun, the lonely city closed, Consort Shu
Chapter word count: 4043 Update time: 09-07-05 10:48
Consort Shu
(3665 words)
I returned to the Hanlin Painting Academy as an ordinary eunuch, doing similar work to that of my youth. Every day, I silently organized the paintings and handled miscellaneous tasks for the painters. Everything seemed the same, except that people who knew my past would occasionally point and whisper behind my back.
Since returning to the former province, I have not seen the current emperor again. However, in August of the seventh year of Jiayou, he suddenly came to the painting academy to find me in person. He seemed to be walking there casually, with only two close attendants by his side.
He summoned me to a secluded studio, dismissed the servants, and ordered me to close the door before asking me, "Are you and Cui Bai good friends?"
I nodded in agreement, and then he slowly took out a scroll from the pomelo and handed it to me without saying a word.
I took it and unfolded it, and was shocked to find that it was the draft letter that I had sent to Qiu He on behalf of Cui Bai years ago, used for arranging marriage. It contained the names of three generations of Que Bai and his birth date and time.
"Madam Dong is very ill and bedridden. One of her maids was tidying up her dowry when she found this note deep inside," the Emperor said expressionlessly.
I immediately knelt down and kowtowed, saying, "Although Madam Dong and Cui Bai were once engaged, that was before she served Your Majesty. They have had no contact since then. Please, Your Majesty, be clear and do not punish them."
The Emperor looked at me and asked calmly, "This draft letter, was it sent to the palace by you?"
I confessed, bowing my head and saying, "I know that this action is contrary to the palace rules and is an unforgivable crime. I beg Your Majesty to punish me, but I only hope that Your Majesty will forgive Lady Dong and Cui Bai and not pursue this matter."
After he finished speaking, I bowed to him and prostrated myself on the ground.
He sighed and said, "You may rise. I came here today only to verify this matter, not to investigate anyone's guilt."
He took the post back from my hand, looked at it again, and suddenly asked me, "When was this post given to her?"
I answered truthfully: "At the end of the seventh year of the Qingli era."
"At the end of the seventh year of the Qingli reign..." The Emperor seemed lost in thought. He was probably recalling the palace turmoil that followed, and his eyes were filled with melancholy. The cause and effect of the events were not difficult for him to understand.
“No wonder she’s been unhappy all these years…” he murmured, then asked me to fetch a tinderbox, lit the straw paper, watched it turn to ashes in silence, and then got up and walked outside.
Seeing that he was walking unsteadily, I went up to help him, and he did not refuse. With my help, we walked to the vicinity of the west wing of the painting academy, but we heard a commotion not far ahead, as if we were arguing about something.
The speakers were two guards. The attendant who was with them wanted to step forward to inform them that the Emperor had arrived, but the Emperor waved his hand to stop them, took two steps forward himself, and hid behind a pillar to listen to the guards continue.
Guard A said, "The nobility or lowliness of a person's life is determined by fate. What is destined to be yours will eventually come, and what is not destined to be yours cannot be forced. This is a profound truth that should not be disbelieved."
Guard B said, “That’s not right. The nobility and baseness of people in the world are determined by the emperor. You may be the prime minister today, but tomorrow the emperor can issue an imperial edict and demote you to a commoner. You may be as rich as the country today, but tomorrow the emperor may confiscate your property if he is unhappy. Therefore, the emperor is the supreme ruler of the world and has the power of life and death.”
The two continued arguing, neither able to convince the other, until their faces were flushed red. The Emperor, observing this, did not intervene, but instead returned to his studio, ordering me to fetch pen, ink, and a letter. I then wrote a personal imperial edict: "The first to arrive will be recommended for a position; I am grateful for your favor." Two copies were made, sealed in separate letters. I then summoned two guards, ordering the second to take one letter to the Inner East Gate. After waiting a while, estimating the second guard was halfway there, I then ordered the first guard to take the other letter and depart.
The Emperor remained in the Painting Academy to wait. According to his plan, B should have arrived first and, after being confirmed by the Inner East Gate, would have been granted an official position through imperial favor. However, shortly afterward, the Inner East Gate sent someone back to report that A had been recommended for the position. The Emperor was surprised and asked the reason. The answer he received was that B had run too fast and twisted his ankle halfway there, resulting in A overtaking him, so A arrived first.
After hearing this, the Emperor remained silent for a long time, finally letting out a long sigh: "Indeed, it is fate!"
The next day, he ordered Hanlin Academician Wang Gui to draft an edict, officially establishing his adopted son Zhao Zongshi as a prince and bestowing upon him the name "Shu". It is said that Wang Gui once asked him if he could wait a little longer to see if the concubines in the harem could give birth to a prince, to which the emperor sadly replied: "If Heaven had given me a son, then Prince Yu would not have died young."
Upon discovering the draft edict, the Emperor not only did not blame Qiu He, but also promoted her to the rank of Consort in mid-September. With the prince now enthroned, the Emperor, following protocol, personally went to the Mingtang in the suburbs to perform sacrificial rites and fast. During this time, Qiu He's condition worsened, and she passed away before the Emperor returned to the palace. On her deathbed, she pleaded with the Empress not to send anyone to inform the Emperor of her critical condition, saying, "I am unfortunately dying soon, and I am unable to continue serving Your Majesty and the Empress. Your Majesty has been working tirelessly for the country these past few days, and is currently fasting. Please do not tell Your Majesty this matter, lest it cause him worry and distress, and harm his mind."
The Empress tearfully complied and did not send the bad news to the Zhai Palace.
When the Emperor returned to the palace, he found Qiu He had already passed away, and there was no way to bring her back to life. He was immediately overcome with grief and personally suspended his court duties, put on his mourning clothes, and wept bitterly before her coffin. At the time of the memorial service, the Emperor announced that Qiu He would be posthumously granted the title of Wanyi. Two days later, the Emperor's grief and sorrow intensified, and he further posthumously granted Qiu He the title of Shufei. He also specially promoted the official positions of her father and four of her brothers and nephews.
Perhaps the current emperor still felt that this was not enough to express his debt to Qiuhe, so he ordered his ministers to posthumously grant Qiuhe a posthumous title, which was unprecedented. In the dynasty, only empresses had posthumous titles, and concubines had never received such treatment. Moreover, the current emperor also announced that he would hold a ceremony to confer the title of Consort Shu on Qiuhe and grant her the ceremonial regalia that was only available to those with military merit on the day of her burial.
Since Wen Cheng, he had never expressed such deep sorrow over the passing of any concubine, which caught Sima Guang's attention. He submitted a memorial strongly advising the current emperor to abandon the discussion of posthumous titles and investiture ceremonies for Consort Dong, and to exempt her from the imperial procession on the day of her funeral. He also suggested that all funeral necessities should be reduced or eliminated, and that the full rites of a first-rank official should not be required... so as to show that Your Majesty is less concerned with female favorites and more concerned with the common people.
The Emperor did not immediately accept Sima Guang's advice, leading to much discussion both inside and outside the palace, with everyone speculating who would compromise this time. It was said that the Empress later broke the deadlock, advising the Emperor: "Consort Shu is gentle and kind, naturally detached from worldly affairs. During her lifetime, Your Majesty repeatedly tried to promote her, but she always declined, admiring Your Majesty's virtue and wholeheartedly upholding Your Majesty's frugal and modest lifestyle. Now that Your Majesty has bestowed such favor upon her, Consort Shu's virtue is certainly worthy of it, but Your Majesty's excessive favor is not what she desires."
"If Consort Shu were alive, she would surely decline the investiture ceremony again. And if she knew of the posthumous title and ceremonial procession, she would find it even more difficult to find peace of mind."
The Emperor recalled Qiu Heping's life and agreed with the Empress's point of view, and thus the matter of the marriage ceremony, posthumous title, and imperial procession was not mentioned.
The incident involving the princess had already exhausted the Emperor, aging him considerably. Now, Qiu He's death was another heavy blow, further damaging his health. Moreover, ever since the establishment of the princes, he seemed to have lost all hope for life. His health deteriorated rapidly, and he grew increasingly despondent. Once, I saw him from afar outside the Jiying Hall and found him emaciated and haggard, his hair and beard white, looking every bit like an old man, even though he was only fifty-three years old at the time.
In November of that year, news spread through the palace that Li Wei had been reinstated as the Imperial Son-in-Law. It is said that the Emperor proposed this to the Princess while he was on his sickbed, as he had always hoped that his daughter would change her mind and remain a member of the Li family. The Princess agreed to nominally reconcile with Li Wei, but requested to remain in the palace and not return to her residence to live with him.
I can guess what she's thinking. She has long since given up hope of being able to marry anyone, so it's not unacceptable for Li Wei to be restored to his status as the emperor's son-in-law, as long as his status as her husband remains nominal.
Therefore, the current emperor immediately issued an edict to promote Princess Yi to Princess Qi; Li Wei, the military governor of Jianzhou and prefect of Weizhou, was changed to military governor of Anzhou and reinstated as the imperial son-in-law.
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On the last day of the third month of the eighth year of the Jiayou reign (1891), the current emperor passed away in the Funing Palace.
During the day, no one in the palace noticed anything amiss with him. Although he was ill, his eating and sleeping habits remained normal. Shortly after falling asleep that night, he suddenly got up, called for his attendants to fetch medicine, and repeatedly urged his close servants to summon the Empress immediately.
According to the servants in the Funing Palace, when the Empress arrived in the palace, the Emperor was already exhausted and unable to speak. Upon seeing the Empress, he shed tears and pointed to his heart.
The Empress hurriedly summoned the physicians to examine him, and tried various emergency methods such as administering medicine and moxibustion, but to no avail. Helpless, the Empress could only sit by his bedside, half-embracing him, and whisper in his ear something that no one else could hear.
At night, the Emperor released the Empress's hand under her tearful gaze and passed away.
After the physician confirmed the Emperor's passing, the palace officials in the palace wanted to open the palace gates to summon the ministers. At this moment, the Empress wiped away her tears, stood up, and sternly stopped them: "How can the palace gates be opened at night! You should secretly instruct the ministers to enter the palace at dawn."
Then, she summoned the eunuch who served the emperor's daily needs and calmly instructed him, "His Majesty wants to drink porridge tonight, so go quickly to the imperial kitchen and fetch it."
Looking around the hall, she noticed that the physician had already left. She immediately ordered someone to summon him back and then had several eunuchs guard him, forbidding him from leaving the Funing Hall without permission.
Later, her guidance of Zhao Shu, the leader of the Thirteen Militia, to the throne became a legend circulating both inside and outside the court.