Julian Stockwin - THE SILK TREE

‘Let no one move!’ shouted an officer at the door.

Ying Mei’s heart beat wildly but she remained by her father’s side, her hands tightly clasped within her sleeves. There was no sound from behind the yellow gauze hanging.

The officer walked about warily among the stock-still figures until, apparently satisfied, he gestured to one of the soldiers.

Minutes later the stillness was interrupted by voices outside and then, with a shocking suddenness, the warlord Kao Yang was in the doorway, feet planted astride, thumbs hooked belligerently into a broad belt. Under a rich scarlet battle cloak he still wore his lapped plate armour. A tall, gold-tasselled hat looked out of place on his stout figure.

He glanced about arrogantly. ‘Emperor of the Wei!’ he bellowed. ‘I’ve come!’

There was no indication from behind the yellow gauze that he had been heard.

The Grand Chamberlain came forward and bowed low. ‘The ancient ways of piety and respect are not so easily to be set aside. The Son of Heaven is not accustomed-’

Contemptuously, Kao Yang knocked him sprawling. Ying Mei gasped but held still, trapped in thrall to events, as was the rest of the court.

Kao Yang strode up to the canopied dais and ripped away the fine gauze in savage tugs until the Emperor of the Wei was revealed. Sitting calmly, and dressed in full imperial regalia, he stared back unblinking at the intruder.

‘Yield up the throne to me. Your reign has ended this day!’

‘Make your obeisance, Lord Kao Yang,’ the Emperor demanded quietly. ‘The Mandate of Heaven has not passed from my hands.’

‘Ha! Then how do you account for me being here, with you at my mercy like a common cur? The gods have withdrawn their favour, Yuan Shan Chien, and better you know it!’

A smothered gasp went up at the great disrespect shown by the deliberate use of the Emperor’s common birth name.

‘You would risk the wrath of heaven, Lord Kao Yang? To seek to depose the rightful emperor is-’

‘I will have the throne! Take him,’ he ordered the soldiers, gesturing savagely.

They hung back, clearly reluctant to lay hands on the person of their emperor.

‘Remove him or I’ll have you craven scum gutted and hung like sheep!’

In visible consternation, they still hesitated, some making ineffective attempts to move forward.

Kao Yang went red with fury but was forestalled as the Wei Emperor rose painfully and said, ‘We do declare that we have been overborne by forces beyond our power to control and therefore this day must yield up our ancestral rights to another.’ He moved to the front of the dais and with the utmost nobility descended the steps, ignoring Kao Yang. His five guards fell prone in a kowtow, remaining in the position even after their emperor had left the Throne Room.

Regaining his composure, Kao Yang snapped to the officer, ‘Take them out and decapitate them.’

As the guards were dragged away, he challenged the room with a fierce glare, then turned and mounted the steps. At the top he wheeled about triumphantly. ‘Take heed, you people of Wei! Know that you see before you your new emperor, the first in line of a new dynasty – the Northern Ch’i!’

It was done. It was now manifest that the gods had seen fit to withhold their protection, and thus whatever the fate of the old, allegiance and duty would transfer to the new.

In the appalled silence first one, then several quavering chants rose. ‘ Wan wan siu! Wan wan siu! Wan wan siu! ’ Others joined in, then more, until the hall rang with fervent shouting.

Kao Yang held up a hand and the noise quickly died. ‘Each of you will make his obeisance.’

As figures came forward to fall prostrate in the ceremonial kowtow, his eyes roved suspiciously over them.

‘Send for scribes, secretaries,’ he commanded. ‘We wish set down from this hour the first records of the Northern Ch’i.’

The Emperor leant back in the throne, his hands casually stroking the lion knobs on its armrests. ‘We shall now decide on our court,’ he declared, a brief nod inviting a first candidate.

‘Son of Heaven and Extreme Ruler, I am First Eunuch Yuan,’ the man said in oily tones, falling to his knees before him, ‘as has served the previous emperor to his entire satisfaction. Should you require a discreet and worthy-’

‘Yes, we know. A eunuch who has had the ear of the Dragon Throne for far too long.’ The Emperor looked down on him with contempt. ‘We must make sure your secrets stay with you, dog. Strangle him.’

Three soldiers fell on the stupefied man, pinioning him as he knelt. A fourth wound a silken tie around his wrists and with a knee in the eunuch’s back looped it about his throat and deftly twisted it tight, holding it in place while the body jerked and writhed. After it shuddered and gave a last spasm the soldiers dragged it swiftly away, feet first.

A few in the court turned to try to escape but were quickly held with a clash of weapons.

Sick with horror, Ying Mei watched the swelling nightmare.

‘So. A new emperor reigns.’ Kao Yang demanded loftily, ‘Bring me wine, fruit from the ice pit. If we’re an emperor we mean to live like one!’

There was a terrified hesitation, then a courtier was pushed forward. He fell to a grovelling kowtow. ‘S-second Eunuch Liu, Great Ruler. Does the Emperor of Ch’i prefer-’

‘Honest rice wine, toad!’ The man scurried away as if all the demons of hell were after him.

With a suddenly benign expression the Emperor gazed about. ‘Now which is the Grand Chamberlain? Step forward that minister and we’ll take a look at you.’

He approached, then performed a measured kowtow in neat, formal motions. ‘Kuo Ming Lai, if it please the Celestial Dragon.’

Heart in mouth, Ying Mei watched as her father waited for his fate.

‘Kuo. And you stayed by your emperor. What does this mean, then? That you do not recognise the succession of the Northern Ch’i? That you’ll refuse to disavow the dynasty of the Eastern Wei that is now past?’

The silky menace was chilling but Kuo replied in calm, even tones. ‘If I had abandoned my emperor then I would not be worthy of respect as first minister to the throne. The next emperor would be wise to distrust any protests of devotion and thus cast me aside.

‘However, the Son of Heaven knows that the sage Confucius confides that of all qualities in a gentleman, filial piety is the greatest. And if the Dragon Throne intercedes for us all, then it must be said that the greatest piety is due the Emperor. Sire – if the first emperor of Ch’i occupies the Celestial Throne, then all piety is due to his person. There is my loyalty and that is my duty.’

‘Ha! They said you were good, Kuo, and they were not wrong. A wordy scholar, perhaps, but you mean well.’

The eunuch Liu returned with a platter of fruits, accompanied by a younger attendant who bore the imperial wine jug and white jade goblet. Shaking, Liu began to pour from the magnificent jug, aware that on it a sinuous carved dragon with five toes was entwined about a haughty crane, the insignia of the Eastern Wei.

‘I t-tremble that the Lord of Ten Thousand Years does take offence at this poor article – about its decoration, I m-mean,’ Liu stammered.

‘Never mind that, you cretin – pour the wine!’ roared the Ch’i emperor.

Liu hastened to obey and when the goblet had been snatched and drained, he carefully refilled it, then proffered the fruit.

The new emperor picked some grapes up suspiciously. They were fat and dewy from the ice pit and glimmered with a soft inner glow of red.

In an explosion of rage he threw them aside. ‘They have seeds? These are not fit for an emperor, you vile cockroach! Get me mare’s nipple grapes or by heaven I’ll see you leave your bones at the Great Wall workings!’