Empress

FIVE

Ruby ran to me so quickly that she tripped. She leapt back to her feet and cried: “The messenger from Court has just left! The Emperor wishes to come to the monastery to burn incense, make offerings to the late sovereign’s spirit, and distribute gifts to the former imperial concubines. Mistress, he has not forgotten you!”

The community was gripped with fevered activity. Rumor and whispering echoed behind every wall. The nuns, who had once been so gifted in the art of intrigue, had guessed that the Son of Heaven was coming to see a woman. Irritated and honored in equal measures, the Council of Great Nuns had no choice but to restore the temples and dormitories and to erect a pavilion intended as his August Resting Place. Fences sprang up around the building sites to shield us from the workmen’s eyes, but the symphony of hammering put an end to silence and meditation. I felt responsible, guilty, for this all-consuming confusion, but I was more disturbed at the thought of seeing a face that had so faded in my memory.

A delegation of eunuchs came to inspect the premises and to establish the laws of protocol. Then, at dawn on the twentieth day of the first moon, the imperial regiments circled the forest, and we knelt before the gates of the monastery. A long time passed before we saw golden panels with ornate calligraphy appearing on the horizon. The wind dropped, and the birds fell silent. Eunuchs and imperial guards marched past us in a two by two procession that went on for many hours, then the Emperor eventually stepped over the Threshold of Purity.

After three years of separation, Little Phoenix was unrecognizable. He wore a beard that gave him an air of authority, and he walked with quiet purpose. While he received the prostration of the nuns, he sat like a statue on his tall seat, a sacred icon, an inaccessible god. After the celebration, the gifts were distributed: One after the other the nuns approached the sovereign, and he gave each of them a tunic and a sandalwood rosary. Their gray dresses, shaven heads, and unpowdered faces filed past in ceremonial silence. Little Phoenix did not recognize me. Heavenlight had died inside Perfect Clarity’s body!

The Emperor withdrew to eat a vegetarian meal, and I ran to my cell to weep. Someone knocked at my door. A senior nun informed me of an imperial summons: His Majesty wished to speak of religious piety with me.

Several eunuchs took me to a pavilion and closed the door behind me. Little Phoenix was sitting in the middle of the room. He looked astonished at the sight of me, and all at once I could measure the suffering I had endured. My legs gave way, and I sank to my knees. He rushed over to me and supported me in his arms.

“Heavenlight, I’ve missed you!”

His voice was deeper. His hands that gripped me were those of a stranger. When he drew me to him, I stiffened and stepped back.

“Are you not happy to see me again?” he asked, surprised. “Are you angry? You know full well that everything I do has become a major event requiring protocol and preparations and the deployment of thousands of servants. It has taken me a long time to find a pretext to foil the Empress and my uncle Wu Ji who oppose my every decision.”

He tried to stroke my face, but I lowered my head. He led me over to the imperial bed, which was already prepared for him to sleep. Prostrating myself on the ground, I broke down and wept.

“What is it, Heavenlight? Do you no longer love me?”

I was speechless with despair.

“Heavenlight, these three years have been like a long, dark nightmare to me!”

The Emperor turned me over onto my back. I struggled in silence. His hands tore my dress feverishly. Muttering incoherent supplications, he crushed me beneath his weight. His hands were more experienced, his caresses more brutal. In the past, overcome with emotion, he would climax quickly, but now he knew how to prolong his pleasure. After three years of abstinence, the moment of penetration was painful to me. My tears fell, and Little Phoenix became more and more aroused. Eventually he collapsed with a long sigh.

While we ate together, he was happy and relaxed, giving me news of my horses. He told me about the building work he had undertaken and described the artists and poets he had discovered. The winter sun came through the casements and danced on the tables between the dishes. I recognized the flush on Little Phoenix’s cheeks when he had climaxed. A vanished world slowly reappeared and wrapped me in its indecipherable melancholy.

A eunuch scratched at the door and warned the sovereign that it was time for him to change. The happiness fell from his face; he frowned and fell silent. We had not yet talked of my future. Was he going to leave and disappear from my life forever?

The eunuchs became more insistent. Wearily, he drained the last cup of tea.

“Heavenlight, do you know that I have been very unhappy? Last year my sister the High Princess Sun of Gao plotted against me with her husband, the son of Fang Xuan Ling, a minister who was a close confidant of the previous Emperor. They managed to enlist support from my aunts, the Great High Princess Sun of Dan and the Great High Princess of Ba Ling, and my uncle the King of Jing. My own family wanted to overthrow me to put my brother the King of Wu on the throne. I had to let my uncle Wu Ji arrange their trial and sign the papers sentencing them to death. Up on my imperial throne, I am like a man sitting alone at the top of a mountain, surrounded by vultures ravenous for power. Heavenlight, I am already tired of reigning. Every morning I strive to be worthy of Sovereign Father, but the ministers take my orders lightly and obey only my uncle Wu Ji. In the evenings, in the Inner Palace, I find it hard to sleep. I am possessed by the obsessions that have tormented every Emperor before me. Lying in the dark, I listen for the drip, drip of poison, the sly footsteps of an assassin, and the rumblings of revolt.

He broke off to wipe away his tears. Standing before this unveiled divinity, I let my torments subside. I held out my arms to him, and he wept on my shoulder. Then I helped him change and repowder his face. As he stood before the mirror, he explained: “For you to return to the Palace, the Empress must draw up a decree and affix her seal to it. She is a jealous, unpredictable woman, and she supports her uncle whom I appointed Great Minister in a rush of generosity. He now dares to disagree with me over everything. Tired of resisting him, I have often given in to his absurd demands. But this time I am determined to see the fight through to the end. That is why I have left my seed in your belly. It is proof of our love. The heir who is born of your belly will give me the courage to defy the impossible.”

Looking in the mirror, I thought I could see a malicious smile on his face. Little Phoenix had just caught me in a trap. If I were with child, I could no longer stay at the monastery and would have to go back to the Palace. After he left, I collapsed at Buddha’s feet. Let him show me the way!

Barely five days later a miracle happened: The Empress called me back to Court, appointing me as one of her ladies-in-waiting. A carriage escorted by eunuchs and soldiers came to collect me from the monastery. I left the nuns, their thin bodies, and their silent loathing of men without regret. Buddha had spoken. My fate lay elsewhere.

FASHION HAD CHANGED in the Side Court. Women wore their hair in elaborate topknots, shaped like birds with outstretched wings, dragons coiled on themselves, and galloping horses. They pinned fresh flowers and long strings of pearls into them. On their red-powdered cheeks, they stuck bees in yellow silk. They wore long, pleated skirts just under the rib cage to exaggerate their nearly bare breasts and expose their shoulders, which were veiled under wide-sleeved muslin tunics.

I was cradled within the eternal landscape of the Middle Court. The palaces, lakes, and gardens were all still the same color, in the same light, breathing to the same rhythm. Their immutable music played itself out to the very end of the sacred world. But the servants’ faces had become overrun by wrinkles; the dead would be absent forever; the survivors had been subject to promotion or deposition. Some areas were now full of life, others had been condemned to dust.

Courtesy required that I introduce myself to the Mistress of the Palace as soon as I arrive and thank her for signing the decree for my return. Not to awaken her jealousy, I had chosen a tunic in saffron-colored brocade and leggings in crimson satin, and I wrapped a mauve turban around my head to hide my shaved scalp.

I thought she would send me away contemptuously, but she received me eagerly. In the days when I had served the previous emperor, I had seen her from a distance, and she must not even have known I existed. She sat, frozen in a majestic pose, on a platform before a screen painted with powdered gold and bearing the calligraphy of a great master. Her hands lay in her lap, and she had a pink peony pinned into a topknot two cubits high. Her features were pure and regular, finely chiseled by her distinguished birth in which the noblest bloodlines in the Empire had been combined. She must have been twenty years old, but she looked fifteen. Her face was expressionless. Only her huge eyes, examining me from head to toe, betrayed her inner turmoil. To her left, at the foot of the steps, there was a woman who was nearly forty. From the resemblance between them, I guessed that this must be the Lady Mother.

I prostrated myself at the Empress’s feet before bowing deeply to her mother. I expressed my profound gratitude, and the sovereign asked me a few questions about my living quarters, then fell silent. She had the voice of a little girl. I sensed that she was shy and reserved-in noble women, silence was a sign of elegance. I was preparing to ask her permission to withdraw when the Lady Mother spoke out in her haughty voice: “Talented One, when the sovereign returned from his pilgrimage to the Monastery of Rebirth, the Empress learned of the sin that had been committed. Given that her heart knows no jealousy and that, as an exemplary wife, she considers her master’s happiness as her own, she suggested that he should recall you to the palace to quell the scandal that would have damaged his august reputation. We here are well aware that you served the previous emperor. To obtain your return, the mistress had to disobey ancestral codes, and this offense attracted reprimands from the Outer Court. I hope that you now recognize the error of your ways and that this boundless generosity will be repaid with your grateful devotion.”

I struck my forehead against the ground several times, repeating the words: “Majesty, your servant shall never forget your goodness.”

The Lady Mother eyed me with a hostile sneer and went on: “Talented One, you are already familiar with the laws of the Inner Court, and I shall not enumerate them for you. The Empress rewards worthiness and punishes crime. She may occasionally choose to offer lapsed women a second chance, but she expects absolute obedience in exchange for this clemency. To ensure that you do not commit a further error that would cost you your life, Her Majesty has instructed me to warn you against a particularly perverse and dangerous person: Lady Xiao. She was born into a lowly, fallen family. As a child she knew poverty and trailed through the streets of the eastern capital. Our family took her in out of pity, and I appointed her as a maid to Her Majesty during her childhood. We lavished her with care, and this creature-so full of bad manners learned in the depths of Luoyang – metamorphosed in a few short years. When Her Majesty was married to the sovereign, she took Lady Xiao with her to Long Peace. Unbeknown to her mistress, Lady Xiao seduced the prince and plotted to ensure that she was raised to the rank of Resplendent Wife. This distinction only fuelled her excessive ambition and her insatiable greed. Under her evil spell, the Emperor is forgetting his duties and losing his mind. The Empress called you back to the Palace because she is counting on you to exorcise the sovereign and to help him return to the path he must tread.”

The Lady Mother’s words clarified the ambivalent nature of the hasty ruling made on my behalf. Jealous of the favors enjoyed by the Resplendent Wife, the Empress wanted to use me to deflect the sovereign’s passion. On my return to the lodgings in the Side Court, I came across a woman whose beauty was stupefying. The Resplendent Wife Xiao feigned surprise and introduced herself to me. She was sheathed in a dress of crepe and a muslin tunic, and above her right breast she flaunted a beauty spot in the form of an avaricious wasp.

I curtsied deeply before her.

She returned my greeting and said in an eager, affable voice: “It is indeed you, the Talented One of two reigns! I have heard that you are twenty-eight, but you look ten years younger. Is it true that the nuns have magic recipes to preserve eternal youth? It seems that your friends, the monks, know the secrets of ecstasy and are more virile than ordinary men. Come and talk to me of all this when your Empress gives you the time. I invite you to take lunch on my boat. The poor girl must have spoken to you of me, anyway. I expect that, once again, she ground her teeth and shed many tears! So much the better if her morbid jealousy drives her insane! She is barren, and she resents every belly capable of bearing a child. No one is stopping her from conceiving, but her own perfidious nature has dried her out!”

She came closer to me and hissed in my ear: “I know that the Empress had you brought back to the Palace to steal the sovereign from me. You should know that she has already pushed a number of unfortunate girls into his arms. Alas for her, at the moment, it is I who command His Majesty’s heart in this Inner Palace. Every woman who has tried to dispute his favors with me has met an unpleasant end. Some died, struck down by the lightning wrath of the heavens; others were sent away to the Cold Palace. Do you know that frozen place where women fester in dank dungeons and in their own excrement? It makes me laugh to think of the beauties who have ended up in those dung heaps. Only the other month, the Emperor authorized me to expedite some shrew who wanted to poison me. Do you know what became of her? I had her arms and legs cut off and threw her into a vat of wine. She died blind drunk!” Then, with a peel of laughter, she walked away.

IN THE CLOSED world of the gynaeceum, despite the gardens and parkland extending beyond the horizon, despite the insurmountable walls separating pavilions and palaces, the tangled web of our fate was inescapable. Why did these women love each other to the point of madness? Why did they loathe one another so vehemently, and why did sworn enemies feel such horror and fascination for one another? Why should furious hate become obsession, then intoxication and the very reason to live?

Because love and hate were the two heads of the demon.

The Empress had been married at fourteen, and now, at twenty-two, her stomach was still flat, while in the other palace, a succession of concubines and slaves brought imperial children into the world. Infertility is a major crime committed toward the ancestors, and any man whose wife is sterile is free to repudiate her. Many former Empresses had lost their title on these grounds, and the Empress Wang was well aware of the danger that threatened her.

Like the noble women who grew up in the closed world of the gynaeceum’s apartments, she valued the comfort and refinement of an artificial existence. She was afraid of life’s urges and enthusiasms, bored by copulation; from the very day she was married, she had received the Emperor’s advances by playing dead. But, to conceive a son, she would suffer anything, even rape. At first light every day, she prepared herself feverishly to appear beautiful. Her Lady Mother forced her to drink medicinal infusions for fertility and to have warm fluids injected between her thighs. As the sun began to fall still, there would be no sign of the Emperor. She would sit in the middle of her day room, with her hands on her knees, a black silhouette against the vermilion silk carpets covering the ground, and her heart would curse him. She swore to herself that she would no longer live in such humiliation once she had delivered a son. Night stole through the palace, and servants lit candles and lanterns. Her face lit up at the tiniest rustling sound; she would get up and run to the door. The women she sent out as spies came back one after the other: His Majesty had finished dining! He had ordered his litter to be prepared. His Majesty was about to leave his palace! He was heading for the apartments of the Resplendent Wife!

The Empress would collapse, and her shrill cries would echo round the room: “Snuff out the lights! Snuff out the lights!” She would shrug off every hand offering to help her and would spend the night on the spot where she had fallen. With day break the servants would come and open the shutters. The hope and disappointment began again with the sun as it circled endlessly across the sky.

Her rival, the Resplendent Wife, had had her belly filled three times, and her son had been given the crown of Yong, the kingdom-province that boasted the capital Long Peace and one that was usually reserved for the eldest son of the Mistress of the Palace. Every time the Empress heard her accursed name, she faltered and dissolved into tears: She wanted to drive this whore out of the Forbidden City. She accused her of practicing black magic to make her sterile; she was a demon incarnate in a woman’s body who wanted to steal her throne and destroy the Empire!

At twenty-three the Resplendent Wife’s heart was ravaged. The more the emperor cherished her, the more she feared. At the height of her beauty, aging obsessed her and she trembled to be abandoned one day. In government, ministers despised her very existence, and in the gynaeceum the women leagued against her. Her desperate loneliness, her violent sensuality, and her fierce struggle to survive had a strange hold over the Emperor, who was weary of bland, characterless women. With the Empress he had to observe rituals and ensure he spoke in imperial vernacular. Sleeping with the Mistress of the World was a sacred duty, an attempt at procreation, an anxiety that chilled his entrails. In his favorite’s palace, he could dispense with the solemn poses and courteous conventions. His pleasure had only one aim: to be satisfied.

Despite his renewed promises to the Resplendent Wife, the Emperor could not remain faithful. He succumbed to all temptations, and his every adventure was devastating to her. On those evenings when he disappeared into other pavilions, she could see herself reduced once more to the starving orphan wandering barefoot through the streets of Luoyang. The thought of losing her savior, her boat in the ocean of misery, drove her demented with worry.

Younger and more beautiful ladies constantly challenged her. With the passing of every moon, when the blood flowed between her legs, she had to resign herself to the nights of silence, alone with her own stain.

She always had to think, calculate, lie, and smile when she wanted only to weep. Her adversaries were as cunning and determined as she was. She confronted her rivals more and more often, but her strength was flagging. The Empress and her Lady Mother had declared war: They were waiting for the sovereign to grow weary of her and throw her into the Cold Palace. She sought relief in drugs, but found the mornings all the more painful. One morning she decided that the title of Empress would be the remedy to so much suffering that she should now fight to give her son the title of heir. She enlisted her slanderous tongue and her fevered imagination: Night after night, she succeeded in inciting the sovereign’s disgust for his sacred wife.

The duel between the two rivals spread terror throughout the Inner City. The two camps in this battle had concentrated the energies of all these women on the brink of madness. Poisoned wine, toxic clothes, and fans dusted with fatal powders were frequently found in their palaces. Servants died mysteriously instead of their mistresses, but the investigations never went any further than the eunuch valets. Some servants were punished for their betrayal: They were beaten to death, put into a sack, and thrown into the imperial river that flowed beyond the thick walls and into the outside world. The Emperor became fearful: Unable to untangle the web of crimes and to impose his authority, pursued by fits of weeping and threats of suicide, he wanted to escape but did not know which way to turn.

Once again he relied on me to give him counsel, to support his will, and to provide a haven of peace.

I HAD LOST some of my naivete and gained strength. These women with their pointless scheming could not contain me, and I watched the volatile world of the gynaeceum with a detached eye. The Forbidden City had buried my youth, and in the monastery, I had died and come back to life. Friends, enemies, and mistresses had all disappeared. I was a ghost from a lost world, still going from one season to the next and still living for one man alone.

But this time it was not a provincial adolescent terrified by the sensuality and corruption of the Inner Palace: Women would bow to my strategy and my experience. From the very first day, I succeeded in securing the loyalty of servants who had grown weary of the despotic Empress and the vindictive favorite. My instructions were respected and carried out; the Court Ladies wanted to escape the conflict between the two mistresses, and, in me, they found the peace and wisdom they sought. At first they were disconcerted by my disdain for tunics that revealed too much flesh, then they decided that modesty was more sensuous. The Court started to imitate my warrior-nun style. The young girls tried in vain to squeeze their ample waists into the wide belts of sculpted leather in an attempt to make themselves attractive. They had neither my slender figure, nor my muscles, nor my fine waist. They did not know that my habit was my armor.

I was ashamed of our sex and disgusted by its aggressiveness. I attended to the daily management of the Palace as a way of forgetting all the misery it harbored. The Middle Court appreciated my abilities, and the Empress entrusted me with more and more responsibility. Little Phoenix tried to find me the whole time and constantly sought my advice.

At night, despite his supplications, I refused to join him in his palace. He then alighted on the idea of summoning me to his offices to dictate letters. He had the entrance to the pavilion closed and welcomed me in the entrance to the secret passage. He would smile at me as he tore off his tunic, untied his silk trousers, and bared his vigorous body. My heart would beat wildly. I would let him kiss me and draw me down to the carpet. Our muscles rubbed against each other; our sweat mingled. When Little Phoenix penetrated me, I was surprised that I did not feel pain, but I recognized the pleasures of this act. Soon a feeling of warmth would roll around within my belly and spread throughout my body. I kept my eyes open and saw Little Phoenix’s face blending with the frescoes on the ceiling. I saw the gods dancing on clouds and pouring millions of petals on us. I saw myself raised up from among the hordes of chained women who were still struggling. Then, at last, I was borne away from this life, from its short-lived seasons and its murderous weakness.

After making love, Little Phoenix would rest his head on my knees and whisper all his problems to me. When he had acceded to the throne, he had had no experience and had left important matters to his uncle Wu Ji. Since then the Great Chancellor had taken a liking to ruling the Empire and paid little attention to his opinions; Little Phoenix was inexplicably afraid of his all-powerful uncle, and he lamented that he had betrayed his Emperor Father’s wishes and become a puppet sovereign. I encouraged him to impose his authority gradually on the government. To avoid the balance of power falling once again into the hands of an ambitious lord, I offered to read political reports for him and to help him prepare for his audiences.

Having served the Eternal Ancestor as a secretary for many years, I still remembered his words. When Little Phoenix spread out the various ministers’ requests before my eyes, the words they used held no mystery for me, and I had no difficulty finding answers. Soon Little Phoenix reported back that, unaware of the authorship of these suggestions, the Council of Great Ministers had praised them, and Wu Ji had bowed before his resolutions for the first time. The Outer Court ’s reaction boosted my confidence, and I returned to work in Little Phoenix’s offices every day. After his moment of jubilant ecstasy, the sovereign would succumb to sleep while I read State reports and wrote up my commentaries. With every sentence, the teachings dictated by the Eternal Ancestor on his deathbed came back to me. By dictating his book The Art of Being Sovereign to Little Phoenix, he had linked me to his future reign.

At twenty-nine years old, I saw a ray of light for the first time: My life was beginning to have some meaning. Fifteen years earlier, when Little Phoenix had still been King of Jin, he had come over to me when he saw me mastering a horse. For him, I would master an empire.

ONE MORNING, PREY to nausea and dizziness, I stayed curled in the depths of my bed and could not rise. From the other side of the curtain, the imperial doctor took my pulse and congratulated me. I was carrying within me an imperial descendant! This news struck me dumb. Little Phoenix was overcome with joy: He sent me jewels, bolts of silk, and dishes that were served at his table. His delight only increased my confusion. I had decided not to attempt to rival the Empress Wang and the Resplendent Wife Xiao. I did not want to quarrel over a man’s favors with any woman in the gynaeceum. I had sworn to myself that I would be free of women’s servitude, but this imperial embryo made me its slave. This was no ordinary child stirring in my belly: I could be carrying a king, a pretender to the throne.

My breasts swelled; my skin became clearer; my waist tripled in size. I had to abandon my leather belt and tie a long ribbon around my hips. The doctors forbade me to ride; I lost my sprightly stride and now took only small steps. When I saw the Emperor pressing his ear to the great mountain of fat that was my stomach, I found it hard to hide my bitterness. Never again would I be his mother or his older sister. When the child was born, I would become a concubine, dependent on his capricious desires.

I had been slender, slight, and strong. I was becoming heavy, nervous, and vulnerable. I was afraid of tripping; I would wake in the night dreaming of the assassins sent by the Empress and the Resplendent Wife. Fearing I might be poisoned like the Delicate Concubine Xu, who had lost her child at the end of the eighth month, I ate only dishes prepared by Ruby and Emerald on a stove set up in my room.

The hatred between the Empress and the Resplendent Wife was reaching its height. Having ruthlessly put pressure on the sovereign, the favorite wrenched a promise from him that he would designate her son as heir. But in the Outer Court, the Great Ministers were unanimous in opposing this pernicious nomination that would inevitably bring about the deposition of Empress Wang. They suggested to the Empress that she should adopt Prince Loyalty, who had been borne of a slave girl, then force the Master of the World to recognize him as the Supreme Son.

The turmoil churning in the Forbidden City afforded me unhoped-for peace. I made sure I was forgotten. Ruby and Emerald hid me in one of those countless modest pavilions in the heart of the Side Court. The midwife hung a wide ribbon from the top of the bed and told me to pull on it with all my might in moments of extreme pain. In my dark burrow with its shutters and windows closed, I lost all notion of time. The contractions became increasingly violent. My sweat mingled with my tears. Between my shrieks, I could hear the women weeping, and one voice saying my hips were too narrow. No, I don’t want to die! I am stronger than suffering. I push, I tear, I dig into the depths of my entrails to bring this life out into the light!

The loud cries of a newborn baby bring me around.

“Mistress, greatest congratulations! It is a prince!”

When Mother brought me into this world, did she know that she would have a king among her descendants? Emerald showed me the swaddled bundle of life. Through his veins the divine blood of the Son of Heaven flowed. It was a miracle that my mind had trouble grasping. His name would be Splendor. Splendor like the legendary first name of Lao-tzu, the founder of Taoism, the glorious ancestor of the Tang dynasties.

WHEN THE DAYS tainted with blood had passed, Little Phoenix ran to my pavilion. As he came toward me, I realized that childbirth was a huge upheaval from which every woman emerges transformed. I could tell from his eyes that I was radiant. I heard my voice ring out, it was more human, more soothing. I was more alert, my senses more acute; I could read my sovereign’s thoughts as if they were in an open book. I could make his heart quiver and dictate my wishes to him with a smile.

The Emperor presented me with the Palace of Wandering Clouds. By his decree, I was granted the seal of Courteous Concubine of the second rank, the highest remaining position in the gynaeceum. Little Phoenix also immediately offered my son the kingdom of Dai, thereby having me venerated by the entire world as the mother of a king.

Splendor’s birth was my own rebirth. Every ray of light, every last caterpillar on a tiny leaf, every twinkle of sunlight on the lake, and every startled flight of a bird made me tremble with joy. A gray curtain had been raised, a world of delights had been proven possible in the Forbidden City.

My dearest wish was finally realized: An imperial regiment galloped to the province of Bing, Mother stepped into a carriage that I had hastened to her, and she left the village of Wu amid great pomp and ceremony. She received from the sovereign’s hand a vast residence staffed by countless servants in the noble quarter of Long Peace. Elder sister, who had been widowed four years previously, joined Mother in the capital. Both were given permission to enter the gynaeceum. Our tears set free all the sorrow of our separation; a wound was wiped from my heart. My glory and fortune were now theirs. Thanks to me, they would now know happiness.

The Emperor deserted the Empress’s bedchamber. The Emperor neglected the Resplendent Wife. The Emperor spent all his nights at the Palace of Wandering Clouds where my family had become his. I ignored the Empress Wang who screamed that it was scandalous and her Lady Mother who accused me of betraying my mistress’s goodness. I no longer forbade myself happiness nor tried to hide my maternal pride.

Since her son had been removed from succession to the throne, the Resplendent Wife had shut herself away in her palace and drugged herself. When, on my insistence, the Emperor determined to force his way in, he no longer recognized the favorite who was reduced to little more than a skeleton. She wept as she enumerated her aching disappointments and heaped insults on me. She wagged an accusing finger, bony as a chicken’s leg. A torrent of confused words and bestial groans streamed from her scrawny frame. She threw herself at the sovereign and begged him to love her.

Little Phoenix came back to the Wandering Clouds in tears. He blamed himself for destroying this woman who had once been so beautiful. I comforted him and gave him a cheering piece of news: His seed had impregnated my belly a second time.

My name was on everyone’s lips in high society in Long Peace. Dignitaries who were only now discovering my existence could not understand this miracle: The Empress was in disgrace, and all the glory of the Resplendent Wife was a thing of the past. In two years, I had banished both women from the Emperor’s heart.

My origins and my past were a source of gossip. Born of an ennobled commoner, a Talented One in the previous Emperor’s court, a nun in the Monastery of Rebirth, my life had been an adventure worthy of popular legend. As they approached thirty, Court ladies-however beautiful-became almost worthless, but I had the love of a sovereign three years my junior! Vipered tongues claimed that I had magical sexual powers and boundless ambition. The Empress and the Resplendent Wife were determined to depict me as a she-devil. They took turns slandering me before the sovereign. While one accused me of pouring poison in her glass, the other claimed that I had taken a monk as a lover, and he had fathered Splendor. Then, when they saw that the Emperor did not believe a single word, these mortal enemies became inseparable friends. The Empress praised the Resplendent Wife’s gentleness, and she in turn recognized her former mistress’s generosity.

Confronted with these violent attacks, I had to organize my defense. At five months pregnant, I was forbidden all sexual relations. For fear that Little Phoenix would go back to frequenting other pavilions where he might give credence to the spiteful gossip, I offered him Elder Sister’s body.

The rumors and defamation did not reach the sovereign while he was blinded and deafened by a new carnal passion. Purity took over for me in the imperial bedchamber and fought valiantly for our mutual happiness. Knowing that she was beside Little Phoenix meant I could concentrate on the forthcoming birth. My narrow hips might kill me yet. If I were to die, I would be delivered from the abuses of the Forbidden City. If I were to live, I would be reborn stronger than ever!

A princess opened her eyes to the world one spring morning. I gave my daughter the most beautiful cradle in the world and the fattest wet-nurses. Her cries made me smile and weep in turn. She would be happy and fragile like her father and ardent and stubborn like her mother. She would be impetuous as the Eternal Ancestor and gentle and good as Mother. I would make her an erudite poetess, a peerless horsewoman. She would experience every happiness that is forbidden to women and the freedoms I had never known!

The Court ladies filed through my palace to present their compliments. Entire halls were filled with gifts from dignitaries. I received the Empress and the Resplendent Wife, who decided to make the trip to see me together, hand in hand. Even though Ruby and Emerald whispered to me that their good wishes were not heartfelt, I thanked them warmly. I would find a way of being reconciled with them.

The Emperor accepted my suggestion and granted a special audience to General Li Ji, who had recommended me to the Court sixteen years previously. The warrior had been promoted and was now an eminent member of the Council of Great Ministers. His face had not changed, and his silvery beard was still magnificent. From his embarrassed expression, I could see that there was nothing about me that resembled the little girl devastated by mourning for her beloved father. I had become a woman who could exercise both charm and authority over him. Sixteen years after our first meeting, the conversation had changed, but time had not broken our bond. He had been put to the side by Wu Ji, who had been contemptuous of his commoner’s origins, and he was now prepared to offer me his loyalty and to defend the sovereign’s authority.

My belly was growing smaller, and my agility was returning. Childbirth had been a trial, an initiation from which my strength had emerged all the greater. The Emperor put his trust in me blindly. The chief eunuchs, the Great Intendants of the six inner ministries, and the directors of the twenty-four departments took orders only from me. I was no longer an anonymous woman among ten thousand beauties, but the true mistress of the Inner Palace.

At that time I was maneuvering to regain the supreme power that had been confiscated by the ministers. I worked day and night urgently sorting through case files so as to pre-empt Wu Ji’s decisions sent out by his chancellery. As I toiled, I forgot the rancorous feelings that were never far away.

One afternoon when Little Phoenix and I were riding through the Imperial Park, Ruby, Emerald, and a group of eunuchs appeared at the end of the track. They threw themselves to their knees and beat their chests, wailing lamentations.

“Your slaves deserve a thousand deaths!” they cried. “The imperial infant has just departed this life!”

My head spun, and my voice was strangled: “Only this morning she was laughing with me.”

Ruby struck her forehead on the ground so forcefully that she split her scalp. The blood flowed down over her face, and she wept as she explained: “Majesty, Highness, early this afternoon the Empress came to see the infant. She took her in her arms and played with her. Looking into the cradle a little later, the nurse noticed that the baby had turned blue. She had stopped breathing!”

I faltered, my ears were buzzing, and somewhere I thought I heard Little Phoenix sobbing: “The Empress has dared to poison my daughter!”

The cortege returned to the Inner City. I let myself be led, stiff, mute, dead. I do not know how I was able to dismount and climb onto a litter. Trees, pavilions, walls, countless faces… all these things appeared before me and only deepened my pain. My governesses, servants, and valets were all kneeling at the gates of my palace. Our two litters were borne across a garden seething with people, a place already like the most dismal of cemeteries. Emerald brought the tiny babe to the Emperor, and he bathed her with his tears. I refused to touch her ice-cold body.

For seven days, I stayed huddled in my room with the shutters closed, and I did not open my eyes. For seven days I could not keep food down; everything seemed to taste of fish. I would hear a baby crying, and panic would surge through me. I would call Ruby: “Why does the Princess keep crying? We must change her wet nurse!”

Emerald and Ruby concluded from this strange behavior that I had been put under a spell. They suggested secretly calling for an exorcist, but Mother rejected this practice that was forbidden in the Palace and had a statue of Buddha installed in my room. The monotonous droning of her prayers filled my heart that had been so dried by grief. Deprived of food, my body became lighter and lighter, and one day it flew away. I slipped into a moonless, starless night. I struggled in vain to find a glimmer of light, then I realized that I had become deaf and dumb. I was dead! Dead? No, I must live and have my revenge. I was not yet defeated! It was then that two faces appeared in the darkness: Father and the Eternal Ancestor. Their features became confused and formed one dazzling moon that started to speak: “The Resplendent Wife and the Empress have been exposed. They summoned sorcerers to the gynaeceum and wanted to see you dead. I have had the objects of their curses burned and those two madwomen imprisoned. Now your sickness will expire; you can sleep in peace.”

I opened my eyes. Little Phoenix was lying beside me on my bed, resting his head on his arm, and watching me lovingly. I turned my head: Mother had disappeared, but in the center of my room, lit up by hundreds of candles, was a gleaming golden statue of Buddha.

He drew me into his arms and asked me if I would like to have some soup. I remembered then that my daughter was dead. My tears fell for the first time since her death.

A servant brought a tray. Little Phoenix wiped my tears with a handkerchief, then he picked up the bowl and fed me with a spoon.

“Heavenlight, when I met you, you were no taller than I, and you were galloping on a magnificent horse. When you came over to greet me on that day, it felt to me as if every part of you was entering into my body, and I told myself: ”I would like to marry a woman like her.“”

He paused for a long time and sighed: “Then I became a man. Women revealed their mystery to me. I became the prey of my desires, explored passion and sensuality, the sweet tragedy of love. Young girls fought one another off to please me, but, in exchange, I had to satisfy their sexual demands and sentimental wants. I would have liked to experience the thrill and the agony, but I knew only scheming, self-interested embraces: One wanted a relation to be nominated for government, another demanded a golden necklace, a third wanted a bigger palace and to wear new dresses. So I opened the treasury wide; I squandered it. I learned to lie in order to console, to promise in order to escape. I alternated between compliments and lecturing because I am weak and a coward. The feigned tenderness, the jealousies, the treats, and the tears sickened me, but I was so very afraid of being alone!

“When you returned from the monastery, you were so changed: You had become more intense, more determined. By your side, I felt free, at my ease, delivered. I was so happy to be able to count on your strength once again! And yet, even in those moments of happiness, I still did not know that it was love. You were merely a breath of reason in all the madness, a dependency that did me some good, a habit that made my life a little easier…

“When I came to see you yesterday, your face was ashen. Your hair was wrapped around you like a black shroud. Thinking you were dead, I screamed in despair. It was then that I realized that you alone exist, that we two alone exist in this world, and that the rest is just shadows, ideas, and absurd dreams. A wave of heat surged through me. Borne by this extraordinary force, I knew that I would readily die for you. All the anxieties and the nameless torments that have haunted me since my childhood suddenly disappeared. Heavenlight, now I know what it is to love!

“Heavenlight, I want to prove to you that I love you, I want to protect you from the slander, the poisons, and the black magic. I want to offer you the honor you deserve. The world shall prostrate itself at the feet of the woman who has brought me grace. The Empress will be dismissed. You shall take her place. Together we shall reign over Earth for a thousand years, for ten thousand years, until the skies fall in.”

Tears sprang to my eyes. Did I deserve such distinction? The sovereign had chosen me among the thousands of women in his gynaeceum. He was offering me the supreme title, proof of absolute love. What could I give him in return? I was already his slave; I had already given him my body and my soul. He was the only man I had known. Like a dog devoted to his master, like a newborn babe clinging to the breast that feeds it, had I loved him wholly and sincerely? Little Phoenix was my destiny, and I was his Heavenlight. He freed me from the prison of those women condemned to a slow death, I delivered him from his frigid existence in the Forbidden City. We were two children joined together by pity and a feeling of revolt.

Did an emperor and his concubine have the right to know the pleasures of love, so carefree, so light, and so insolent?

ANOTHER PREGNANCY WAS a sign sent from the gods to consolidate my legitimacy. Removing an empress regarded as the Mistress of the World proved a delicate affair of state and required an agreement from the dignitaries of the Council of Great Ministers. A confrontation with these powerful lords would be a bitter and dangerous one, but I was determined to break through this final barrier so that I could embrace my freedom and join Little Phoenix on top of the world.

On my advice, the sovereign first dismissed Empress Wang’s uncle who had the title of Great Minister.

My name, Wu, was an insignificant one, and my commoner’s background a handicap in that Forbidden City where men and women placed much weight on how noble their blood was. I decided to proclaim my father’s glory to increase my prestige. It was, therefore, decided that the Emperor should hold a ceremony commemorating the dynasty’s veterans while traveling in the province of Bing. Among the thirteen now-dead individuals who received homage from the sovereign, Father was promoted to the posthumous title of Great Governor of Bing of the first imperial rank.

The Empress of China had to be a perfect Mistress of the Palace and a model of virtue for all Chinese women. I wrote a book called Inner Warnings in which I denounced the luxury and idleness of Court ladies and praised hard work and thriftiness.

The birth of a second prince gave me an opportunity to rise up in the imperial hierarchy. As the four seals for wives of the first rank had already been allocated, I suggested we create a fifth one called the Luminous Wife. When the sovereign mentioned the plan during an audience, Wu Ji, who was already very worried by my ascension, said it was scandalous. His supporters backed him up, saying that ancestral institutions could not be modified and any changes would debase the Inner Court and undermine the Empire. I learned of their indignation and advised Little Phoenix to save our efforts for other things and give up on this idea. Wu Ji would be the instigator: I would go straight from a Courteous Concubine to an Empress.

In the sixth year of Eternal Magnificence, tension grew at Court. The sovereign’s determination to remove Empress Wang in my favor was common knowledge among Court officials. With the exception of Great General Li Ji, every member of the Council of Great Ministers remained united behind Wu Ji, who was frustrated that his nephew no longer followed his recommendations. Trying to find grounds for reconciliation, I urged Little Phoenix to visit his uncle, and we deigned to present ourselves at his door with ten carriages filled with bolts of brocade and golden tableware. During the banquet, the sovereign promised honorary distinctions to Wu Ji’s three sons and tentatively broached the contentious subject. Without looking up at me once, the Great Chancellor cut short all my illusions. Disobeying a father’s wishes is a sin, he told us sternly. It is impossible to repudiate an Empress chosen by a deceased sovereign.

Little Phoenix was not a gifted speaker. As Wu Ji had made him emperor, he was unwilling to raise his voice or disobey his charismatic uncle. On our return to the gynaeceum, he shed tears of despair in my arms, ready to accept fate. The humiliation I had just endured seared my very soul. Suddenly, I perceived the truth that lay beneath Wu Ji’s words: As a chancellor designated by the previous sovereign, he was defending the barren Empress to ensure the power of his regency. For his partisans and himself, dismissing the Empress would not simply be a breach of the Eternal Ancestor’s wishes, but it would also disrupt the Empire’s ancient orders and culminate in Little Phoenix taking political command.

Wu Ji’s cold calculation could not kill the flame of love. To win the duel, I buried my feelings and deployed my most manipulative strategies. His weapon would be turned against him. I would be icier and more merciless than him.

The Court had been suffering the rule of the sectarian old man for too long. This Chancellor, trusted by the previous emperor and the sovereign heir, had been the author of frequent bloody purges. It was not long before I identified his implacable enemies and promised them the opportunity for revenge. I rallied the talented officials, mostly commoners who had been neglected by the imperial uncle, leader of the aristocratic clique. I gave them the hope of rising in the court’s hierarchy, when the concubine of modest origins would become the Mistress of the World.

A low ranked official called Li Yi Fu was the first to dare to break the silence Wu Ji had imposed on the Court: He publicly called for the Empress to be removed from office because she was barren. After the audience, the Emperor and I received him in the Inner Palace. His courage was rewarded with a flagon of rare pearls. He was soon raised to the position of Vice-Chancellor. From then on more officials resolved to follow his example every day, and they made sure the government was aware of their exasperation. When I could see that opinion was swinging in my favor, I encouraged Little Phoenix to make his determination clear to the Council of Great Ministers.

On that particular day, after the morning salutation, the sovereign called the Council into his offices in the Inner Palace. I hid behind a gauze screen and heard Little Phoenix stammering the words I had dictated to him: “The greatest crime a wife can commit is to fail to procreate. The Empress has no descendants; the Courteous Concubine has two sons. I would like to name her as Empress. What do you think of this?”

Chu Sui Liang, one of Wu Ji’s faithful followers, spoke up loudly: “The Empress is descended from an illustrious clan. During the last reign, she served the previous Emperor without committing the least misdemeanor. Before leaving this world, His Majesty took your servant’s hand and told him: ”I entrust to you my son and my daughter-in-law.“ That voice still rings in my ears to this day. The Empress is still young. She might one day bear a child. The crime of which you accuse her is unfounded. Your servant does not dare obey you and betray the wishes of the Eternal Ancestor.”

Irritated, the sovereign raised his voice: “The Empress has committed crimes too shameful to mention. The Chinese people cannot venerate a woman who has failed in her moral duties and sunk into perversion. The Courteous Concubine is dazzling in her virtue; she would be a perfect model for the women of China.”

“There is absolutely no proof to support the accusations leveled at the Empress,” Chu Sui Liang replied. “Some doctors feel that the imperial child suffocated as a result of gases released by the coal in her overheated bedchamber. Others say that someone might have poisoned the princess to attribute the murder to the sovereign lady who was unlucky enough to be near her. As for the crime of practicing black magic, I am very much afraid that there is some plot against her and that the sovereign lady may fall into the trap a second time. Ambitious women have unfathomable hearts. If Your Majesty is determined to designate a new sovereign lady, I beg you to choose one among the Empire’s noble families. Why this lady Wu? The Courteous Concubine served the previous Emperor; everyone knows that, and Your Majesty cannot deny it. When you have reigned for ten thousand years, what will people say of this incest? Your Majesty follows the path of light. Why would you cover yourself with mire? The decline of the Empire will begin the day the Courteous Concubine ascends to the throne. By resisting your wishes, your servant surely deserves ten thousand tortures, but I would willingly choose death to not fail in the duty entrusted to me by the previous Emperor!”

If Chun Sui Liang was to be believed, I had killed my own daughter to achieve the rank of Empress. I could remain silent no longer; I burst out: “Have this hideous creature destroyed, this vile animal who dares to suggest such slander before the sovereign!”

Wu Ji’s icy voice replied: “Sui Liang received a decree from the previous Emperor: ”All his sins shall be forgiven.“ No one can touch him.”

Chu Sui Liang suddenly launched himself at the platform on which Little Phoenix was sitting and cracked his head against one of the steps. His head split open, and the blood ran down his face.

“Majesty,” he proclaimed, “if you do not listen to me, your servant would rather die!”

“Get out!” the Emperor exploded angrily. “Throw this insolent creature out of my palace! Get out, all of you, out, leave me alone.”

But the Great Ministers had decided to see their fight through to the end. That very evening, Han Yuan had this letter sent to the sovereign: “Your servant has heard that if the king appoints his queen, then they are to represent Heaven and Earth. Their complementary virtues, like the sun and the moon, are to light up the four oceans; but if the sun and the moon are darkened, darkness reigns over the world. Like husband, like wife-even the common people can find their own kind. Can the Son of Heaven act against his nature? An Empress is the mother of ten thousand kingdoms; she is a conductor of good and evil. That is why the Emperor Yellow was assisted by Mo Mu, whose face was ugly, and the King of Yin lost his way because of the very beautiful Lady Da Ji. As for the great Zhou dynasty, it was destroyed by mistress Bao Si, a be-witchingly beautiful woman. I hope Your Majesty will choose in such a way that he is not a laughing stock for all eternity.”

Lai Ji wrote, “Your servant has read that the Emperor appointed his empress to honor the temples of the Ancestors, to watch over the earth and the heavens, to represent the forces of this earth, and to act as a model for the imperial princesses. That is why she was chosen from an illustrious family. She must be peaceful, virtuous, submissive, and unselfish; she must earn the respect of the four seas and satisfy the wishes of the gods. That is why the Emperor of Letters founded the Zhou dynasty, but the commoner Bao Si ruined it with her smile; the Emperor of Piety of the Han dynasty married a slave girl, the slender dancer Summer Swallow; he had no further descendants, and his empire collapsed. Look at the tragedies of these two dynasties and think about our own!”

Wu Ji was clearly behind all this slander. He and his companions were already stained with the blood of their political enemies; how could they scorn my name, I who had neither poisoned nor made curses, nor organized assassinations? They knew my face; they could see I was no devastating beauty. Could they then not see that something other than physical pleasure tied me to Little Phoenix and that we were determined to be together for eternity? How dare they announce that they had spied some evil force in me because I was of lowly origins! By calling me a conspirator capable of destroying an entire dynasty, these men were betraying their fear: With my help, the sovereign would wrest the power that they had held for too long. I, a concubine imprisoned in the Imperial City, had enough will to confront every one of these men!

The caricature the ministers painted of me hurt, but the insults only strengthened my resolve. I adopted the fierce determination they attributed to me, stripped Chu Sui Liang of his duties for treason, and drove him out of the Capital. Great General Li Ji secured the army’s support for me. Wu Ji was powerless as he watched his enemies taking orders from the Emperor and the officials who were commoners climbing to the rank of minister. In the depths of the gynaeceum, I received permission from Little Phoenix to correspond with our supporters in the Outer Court. And so, under my instructions, Great General Li Ji announced that the government should not concern itself with the sovereign’s private affairs. Xu Jing Zong, the Minister of Rites, exclaimed, “When a peasant becomes rich after a good harvest, he feels the temptation to take a more beautiful wife. When a prince ascends to the imperial throne, should he not choose a wife of higher quality? The Son of Heaven is master of the four seas; why does he not have the right to appoint his empress? This is no one’s business. Let us not weary ourselves!”

A petition was put before the Great Secretariat and transmitted to the Emperor: One hundred officials wanted the Empress to be revoked. The Council of Great Ministers was forced to accept this imperial decree immediately: “The Empress Wang and the Resplendent Wife Xiao, having committed murder, are stripped of their positions and deposed to become commoners. Their mothers and brothers shall be exiled to the south of the Extreme Mountain.”

Six days later, in keeping with ritual, the Court called for a new mistress. The Emperor published the edict that I had written myself: “Lady Wu is descended from an ancient and glorious lineage. She has been chosen by the Inner Court, which values her intelligence and virtue.

Her presence has swiftly filled the garden of orchids with light. She has spread her goodness and sweetness to the women of the gynaeceum. In the past, I fulfilled my filial duties to the Emperor Father, who granted me the privilege of never leaving his side. Seeing that I tended him so well that I forgot to sleep and without ever being disturbed by the beauties all around me, the Emperor decided to reward my attentions by offering me Lady Wu, like the concubine Zheng Jiun whom the Emperor of Annunciation of the Han dynasty gave to his heir long ago. In keeping with the wishes of the previous sovereign, I have decided to appoint her Empress.“

On the first day of the eleventh moon in that sixth year of Eternal Magnificence, I was dressed in a full tunic of dark indigo painted with pheasants, those venerated symbols of power and fertility, and I wore my leather belt with the gold clasp hung with jade ornaments. The Great General was appointed as the Imperial Envoy, and I received from his hand the Empress’s seal and golden blade. So for this event to be a celebration of victory, I would not settle for holding the festivities in the intimacy of the gynaeceum, as prescribed by Imperial Protocol. At my instigation, the Emperor summoned kings and princes, ministers and generals, governors and foreign ambassadors, and a gathering of ten thousand subjects before the gates of the Inner Palace.

Twelve trees of gold set with pearls and diamonds, twelve carved flowers, and two phoenixes with their wings outstretched were pinned to my topknot that was two cubits high and crafted over many hours by the imperial hairdressers. My head weighed down on my shoulders like a palace, a mountain, a star. As I climbed the steps to the top of the Gate of Serene Loyalty, I saw the immaculate blue of the sky draw nearer. The music played by three thousand musicians and the cheers from dignitaries who had come from the four corners of the Empire faded as I rose up. Suddenly I stepped into the silence of vastness. Up there, there was not a breath of wind; eternity spread its wings like a giant bird. An intense heat and a proud, dazzling light emanated from the sun. Beside Little Phoenix, I could see the earth unfolding like a painting: the fields, rivers, mountains, and the millions of Chinese souls prostrating themselves at my feet and begging for my protection.

I was thirty years old, and my second life was beginning. I had no more fears or worries. A new path appeared for me at the top of the Gate of Serene Loyalty, inviting me to reach heights not known to any man. With Little Phoenix, I would build the greatest dynasty of all time; I would beget the most beautiful civilization.

On that day I knew that I would face other difficulties, that loneliness would be my faithful companion, that this new life would be a succession of deaths and rebirths, and that intense joy would be born from the depths of suffering and despair. I, the ordinary restless child, the plain adolescent, the commoner who had been a nun twice, would prove to be a Daughter of Heaven.

WITH THE NEW Year, a new cosmic cycle began. May the nightmares of the past be erased forever! May the Empire know peace and prosperity! Convinced that words had magical benedictory powers, I advised Little Phoenix to inaugurate an era named Dazzling Prosperity.

Plants germinated in the depths of the soil. Rivers wakened to the call of spring. Trees covered themselves in green veils. At the ministers’ insistence, Loyalty was discharged from the position of heir, and Splendor was named Supreme Son. I freed the prisoners in the Cold Palace and shut up the former Empress and the Resplendent Wife there, having stripped them of their titles.

I was right to be wary of my husband’s capricious heart. My people intercepted a poem that the Resplendent Wife had written to him, using her own blood as ink and a piece of her dress as paper.

I questioned the sovereign: “I’ve heard that you have been to see those two commoners in their cell. Their tears and their lies moved you, and you have promised them your mercy. Have you forgotten their dark plots that disturbed the peace of your Palace? Do you want me to abandon the imperial seal and give myself up to them once more? Your pity is a dangerous thing: It puts the Empire in danger!”

Little Phoenix had never seen me angry, and he was quite dumbstruck like a child seeing his mother’s rage for the first time.

I had always despised fits of jealousy but-by raising my voice, by playing the wounded wife and the cruel stepmother-I realized that this device that millions of women had been using since the dawn of time was more effective than a considered conversation. Paralyzed by my angry screams and my blazing eyes, he tried to justify the weakness he had demonstrated by saying that he had been put under a spell by the two women. I pretended to believe him: “Both those commoners are familiar with black magic; it is hardly surprising if they cast evil spells on you from the depths of their dungeon. I can see only one way of exorcising you. According to the laws of the Inner Court, any criminal who tries to put spells on the sovereign instead of repenting is condemned to one hundred lashings with a wooden plank.”

I immediately wrote out the order for this to be carried out and affixed my seal as Mistress of the Palace. Little Phoenix was silent and ashamed, letting me act as I saw fit and lacking the courage to intervene. To be sure that the punishment would be severely enforced, I sent Ruby and Emerald to watch the procedure. It was not long before they reported that Wang, the dethroned sovereign, had prostrated herself three times in the direction of the Middle Court and wished the Emperor a long life and the Empress much happiness before being reduced to a seething mass of meat. The demoted Resplendent Wife had sworn that in her next life, she would be reincarnated as a cat and I as a rat, and she would drink my blood and tear me into a thousand pieces. Her voice soon stuck in her throat as the black lacquered planks tore off her skin and broke her bones. Her blood, flesh, and excrement mingled together, and she had her last breath after twenty strokes.

I had the bodies thrown into the leopards’ den. I forbade the two criminals’ families to bear the names Wang and Xiao. From then on they would be called Python and Stray Cat.

I slept fitfully in the Forbidden City: My rivals appeared to me in my dreams with their hair torn out and their flesh bloodied. I was haunted by the thought that their supporters would want revenge. But I decided to preempt any reprisals. To demonstrate my generosity, I requested promotions for Han Yuan and Lai Ji who had dared to write to the sovereign, and I praised their sense of responsibility and the courage they had shown in being so candid. Ashamed and frightened, they refused the titles the Emperor offered them and left Court.

Chu Sui Liang and Liu Shi, the uncle of the deposed Empress, received orders to go into exile at the ends of Earth. But Wu Ji was still chancellor. The old man, furious in his isolation, publicly contested my every decision. I had to wait for years to orchestrate his downfall. Wu Ji was indicted in the fourth year of Dazzling Prosperity. In a letter of accusation that covered a full three scrolls of paper, the imperial magistrates demonstrated that the Great Chancellor had been the instigator of my daughter’s death: Through Liu Shi, he had supplied the then sovereign lady with a phial of aconite.

Little Phoenix wept when he heard these shocking revelations. Then he was gripped by anger, and he exiled him from the Capital. On his journey, the former chancellor received orders to kill himself: He hanged himself from the rafters of an inn. The death of Wu Ji-the previous Empress’s brother, and the sovereign’s uncle, who had been a chancellor for two reigns-announced a new era. This man who had been feared and venerated as a demi-god had proved to be fragile as a clay statue. His demise would serve as an example to anyone who might dare wish me harm.

Even though they had retired, Han Yuan and Lai Ji did not escape capital punishment. Chu Sui Liang was already dead, but the deposed Empress’s uncle was called back from exile and decapitated at Long Peace. The Court confiscated the assets and lands that these noble clans had accumulated through a succession of dynasties: I distributed this fabulous fortune to the commoners who were now ministers and who would be devoted to my cause.

In his tomb, Father received the posthumous title of Master of the Kingdom of Zhou. His funeral stone was now in the temple of the Emperor Eternal Ancestor, and the Court made daily offerings to him. An imperial decree raised Mother to the rank of Lady of the Kingdom of Dai, and Elder Sister to Lady of the Kingdom of Han.

In this world beneath the Heavens, no one could fail to know the glory of the Wu family. My brothers and cousins hastened to Court to offer me their obsequious congratulations. The men of the clan had aged. They groveled before the sovereign and prostrated themselves at my feet in the hopes that I would promise them elevated positions. In the annals of other dynasties, there were many empresses who had granted the men of their own clan command of the armies and key posts in government. Once in Court, these relations from the outside helped to defend the sovereign’s authority against ambitious princes and powerful ministers. My brothers and cousins had neither the political vision nor the necessary education to take on any administrative responsibility. I could not forget the misery they had inflicted on us. They were shameless, thankless creatures; they would never set an example as men of State. Little Phoenix was prepared to welcome them to Court for the sake of my prestige and his imperial dignity: It was hardly fitting for close relations of an empress to remain simple administrators. But I was reluctant to include these worthless individuals in the government simply because they were lucky enough to be born my brothers and cousins. If men like that were granted promotions without earning them, without any effort, would they swear unfailing loyalty to me, would they prove perfectly obedient? After weighing up the arguments for and against, I decided to raise the men of my clan to a symbolic rank within the hierarchy, and I accorded them modest responsibilities that would mean they could take part in the morning salutation.

A few months later, during the Feast of the Moon, Mother gathered all the members of the family in her palace and asked them, “Do you still remember our lives yesterday? And what do you think of the abundance and honor we enjoy today?”

Cousin Wei Liang, who was disappointed not to have been given a more significant promotion, replied: “We are descended from the most highly skilled warriors in the dynasty, and we have climbed through the administrative ranks by our own efforts. Having no claim to the highest ranks in the hierarchy, we are forced to accept these new positions to please the Empress. This special favor weighs on our conscience. Good Lady, there is truly no glory in this!”

When Mother told me of this conversation, their lack of gratitude now and their oppression in the past inflamed me. I immediately wrote the Emperor a long letter, my hand working furiously across each page, denouncing the privileges of these relations from outside the Court and citing frequent historical examples when unworthy men had been heaped with honors and had usurped supreme power. To cut the evil back to the very root, I suggested my relations be sent away from Court to far off provinces. The ministers greeted my request with enthusiasm. My determination had dissipated their fears that my family would become embroiled in politics. The men of my clan had barely taken up their positions before they were driven out of Court like criminals.

Shortly thereafter, I received letters from them begging for my clemency, and I replied to their supplications by writing the book A Warning to Relations from Outside.

My brothers died in their postings. Their bodies were taken to the Cemetery of Ancestors. And so I buried the shadow over my glory forever.