Shan Sa - Empress

As I drew aside the door to his offices, I saw the color drain from the Emperor’s face. A scroll of paper was spread out on a low table before him; the ink was still wet. He tried in vain to cover it with the sleeves of his tunic. Behind him the Great Secretary Shang Guan Yi had backed away as I came in, and he had melted into the shadows.

I fell to my knees.

“Twenty five years of agreement and happiness, four imperial princes-the fruits of a union that I believed would last forever-is all this already coming to an end? Majesty, have you forgotten our daughter’s death, have you forgotten Future’s difficult birth, all the turmoil we have confronted? If I were sterile, I would be resigned to the dishonor of dismissal and the pain of abandonment without speaking out to defend myself. But the heir to the throne and the imperial princes will demand an explanation. What should I tell them? Ever since Your Majesty conferred the position of Empress on me, not one day, not one night has passed when I have not thought of my responsibilities and my duty: to incarnate celestial goodness, to help Your Majesty, to keep harmony in the Forbidden City, and to be a model to all Chinese women. If I have committed unforgivable errors, if I have failed in my commitments, if I have neglected my virtue as a woman, please tell me of these things before repudiating me!”

Unsure how to react, the Emperor stammered: “I have been told that you brought a Taoist into the palace and that you asked him to use evil magic. I have been told that you wanted to dispose of me and become regent. You know that the use of witchcraft is punishable by death.”

“I knew Your Majesty,” I interrupted him, “when he still bore the title of King of Jin. Ever since then my fate has been tied up with his. I have followed Your Majesty as you have risen. Now I am like a wave carried by the power of the ocean. Without his support, without his generosity, I would be the froth on the beach that evaporates at dawn. I cannot help but wish Your Majesty ten thousand years of life. Have you already forgotten? When you were first struck with a migraine, you ordered me to find monks who might exorcise the demons haunting the Inner Palaces. The leader of the Taoist monks on the Mountain of the Celestial Terrace recommended Master Gou. To trick the evil spirits that manifest themselves a thousand different ways, he disguised himself as a eunuch and proceeded to pursue them with utmost discretion. I said nothing of this to not frighten Your Majesty. You could speak to him yourself and to the leader of the Taoist monks and to the eunuch who is Great Intendant of the Inner Court. The malicious rumors you have heard are trying to destroy the harmony between us, which is the envy of many, but lies can never stand up to the clarity of the truth. Majesty, please verify what your servant has told you before accusing her unjustly: Call for an enquiry! The facts and the witnesses will persuade you of my innocence.”

“It is true,” said the Emperor, scratching his head, “that the hatred and ambition people have attributed to you are unlikely from you. I do now remember that order…”

My anger and my indignation finally exploded: “Am I a usurper? Am I a plotter and an assassin? While empresses from previous dynasties tried to submit governments to the authority of their relations from outside the Palace, I exiled my own brothers to distant provinces to show the entire world my selflessness. What more could I ask for in this life when my husband is the Emperor, my son is the heir, and I carry twenty-four trees in blossom on my headdress? Granted, I read the political reports that Your Majesty entrusts to me, and I occasionally give the Court advice, but my position as Empress and my duties as Mother of the People grant me those responsibilities. How could I silence my opinions when Your Majesty has always encouraged me to express them? For ten whole years, I have been working constantly for the prosperity of the dynasty. How can my commitment to the greatness of the Empire be confused with ambition or my devotion to Your Majesty be distorted into crimes of a usurper?”

I moved toward him on my knees.

“Majesty, show me what you have written.”

The Emperor flushed with shame. He picked up the imperial decree and tore it to pieces.

“It was not I; it was Shang Guan Yi who wrote it. Do not hold this against me.”

“Shang Guan Yi,” I said, turning toward him, “when His Majesty raised you to the position of Great Secretary, it was so that you could act as his best adviser. Instead of showing gratitude and serving the cause of the Empire, you have manipulated his trust and sown discord through the Palace! Do you acknowledge your crimes?”

Silent and quaking with fear, the traitor struck his forehead on the ground.

Once back at my palace, I sent a letter to the Great Chancellor Xu Jing Zong, ordering him to lead an investigation into Shang Guan Yi and the eunuch Wang Fu Sheng who had slandered my name. In three days he untangled the threads of a dark plot: Ten years earlier Shang Guan Yi had been an advisor in the Eastern Palace of the heir Loyalty where the eunuch Wang Fu Sheng was in charge of running the palace affairs. When Loyalty lost his title and was banished from the Capital, the two vassals had sworn to ensure their master’s return. By pretending to be upright and loyal to the sovereign, they had earned his trust and duped the vigilance of the government.

On the morning of the thirteenth day of the twelfth moon, eunuch messengers ran constantly to and fro through the corridors of the Forbidden City bringing me news of the audience.

After the prostrations, the Great Chancellor’s resounding voice boomed: “Majesty, ever since her accession, the Empress’s virtue has illuminated the entire land of China. The fragrance of her reputation has been carried on the wind and spread to the furthest limits of the deserts and the very extremities of the oceans. Not one day has passed in which the Yellow People in this vast world under the heavens have not rejoiced in this favor granted them by the gods. Defaming the Mistress of the Empire and plotting against the Mother of the Supreme Son is to commit a crime against the sovereign who appointed her. Behind these traitors whose faces have been revealed today lurks the shadow of the commoner Loyalty, who was banished from Court for addressing disrespectful words to Your Majesty. Instead of meditating on filial piety, the banished commoner has disguised himself as a woman and trained in witchcraft; he intends to raise an army against the Court, clinging to the feverish hope that he will one day be Master of the World. He is behind this plot that stands to serve his ambitions! Here are his servants’ confessions and the intercepted letters between Shang Guan Yi and his former master.”

A good many ministers stepped forward from their positions and took turns to speak. Some praised me, and others denounced the conspiracy. The sovereign ordered the arrest of the guilty parties. The soldiers of the guard took up their arms and seized Shang Guan Yi, who protested his innocence in vain. They tore off his cap that had distinguished him as a scholar, his ivory tablet, and his dignitary’s belt. With his hair awry and his tunic torn, he was dragged from the audience hall.

It was not long before judgment was passed: Three ministers of justice unanimously called for the death sentence against the principle conspirators. The imperial decree fell, and Shang Guan Yi and Wang Fu Sheng were executed along with their entire families. In the house where he was living under close surveillance, Loyalty received orders to commit suicide. In Court, Liu Xiang Dao lost his title of Great Minister for having been a close friend to Shang Guan Yi. I exiled every politician about whom there was the least whiff of suspicion.