Story from the history of China (8)

The purport of Confucianism was restricting the power of emperor or king in polite or humble way. One of the method was using reputation. After a person satisfied with all the material life what he cared about should be reputation. So since the thousand years ago, the ruler of 周Dynasty set three group of characters to indicate the life of a certain emperor or king. These characters was called 谥号. The first group was characters of good meaning, the second group was characters of neutral meaning and the last group was characters of bad meaning. They stipulated that only after the emperor died the later generation court could decide which character might suitable for him.  That is to say, during his life, he didn’t even know what would be his谥号. The emperor 幽was in fact his谥号 (it was a bad character). His real name was宮涅. Now he had died the four nobles taking the helm of state were decided to welcome the old 太子, 宜臼 who had been abolished by emperor 幽 and 褒姒as the new emperor.  

Story from the history of China (7)

At night when Marquis of 申 heard that all armies of the four estates arrived outside of the city, he was very glad. To help them he told the barbarous king sent his army bringing all the robbed treasures home first, so the king would have no army at night. The barbarous king didn’t think it was a trap, accepted it willingly.

Everything happened as planned. They drove the barbarous king out of capital city. 褒姒didn’t follow the barbarous king but commtted suicide. Then the five masters decided to welcome the old 太子; son of old emperor 幽 as the new emperor, for at that time people believed a country could not without emperor even one day.

Story from the history of China (6)

Emperor translate into Chinese is 皇帝, king is 王, then duke公, marquis侯, earl伯, viscount子 and baron男. Legal heir of emperor was called太子. All the masters of kingdom, dukedom, marquisate, earldom, viscount territory and barony were called as 君. Legal heir of king, duke, marquis, earl, viscount and baron had a special name as 世子.  As earl of 郑 died, his son the 世子named 掘突sworn to revenge for his father. He summoned an army of three hundred chariots. He was only 23 years old, didn’t know much about military tactics. With rashness, he lost the battle. When he withdrew his army. He met the 君of other three estates.  

As they knew that the barbarous king had robed the capital city. They decided to attack the city from three side, only left west gate allowed them to escape and 世子 of 郑 ambushed there.

Story from the history of China (5)

The barbarous king caught the emperor first. He killed him and made the 褒姒 his concubine. When Marquis of 申 know this, he was shocked for at that time killing emperor was a great sin. Yet the barbarous king thought killing the emperor was a great feat. For this reason he could have the right domineers over the people. His behave stimulated them. They complained that the Marquis of 申 introduced them to the city. Marquis of 申 worried about this very much for a society without law any one could die dreadfully for public opinion. He had no choice but sent letters to three of the noble 秦，卫，晋. Besides this as an earl of 郑 had defend the emperor and died bravely. Marquis of 申 sent a letter to his son and told him to drive the barbarous king out of this territory.

Story from the history of China (4)

To do another favour for the褒姒, the emperor made her his empress, her son伯服his crowned prince and abolished old empress 申, her son 宜臼as crowned prince.

Now the ex-empress was the daughter of marquis of 申. He had a small marquis-states and army. The emperor afraid that the father would revenge for his daughter, so he strike first to gain the initiative to attack the marquis of 申.

The marquis of 申 was so scared of the troop from the emperor. His chancellor gave him advice that to seek help from some barbarous tribe. Marquis of 申 did what he was told. In a short time, he joined the barbarous troop surrounded the emperor. The emperor was threatened he light the beacon tower to summon the troops of his nobles. But this time no one came for they thought that emperor was making fun of them again. In this case, Marquis of 申 and the barbarous king win the battle easily.

Story from the history of China (3)

The emperor 幽 loved 褒姒 so much that he gave her any precious thing he had. But the strange thing was that 褒姒 seemed unhappy with anything, even after she born a baby named 伯服 for the emperor. The emperor dethroned his old empress and conferred褒姒as the new empress. Yet she never smiled since she entered the palace. It made the emperor so sad, he sworn he would do anything that could make the new empress smile for one time.

One of his chancellors offered a scheme that light the beacon tower would do the job. The emperor did it.

At that time, as a big country, whenever the emperor called together his troop from the nobles to resist foreign invasion that would light the beacon tower. But this time, there was no enemy, he did this in a careless way. All the nobles with their army came to the capital city and they were ready to fight with their enemy but when they found it was but a jest to make the empress smile they were so crazy as if being insulted.

Yes the empress did smile on the wall of the capital city when she saw so many nobles coming to the capital like a drowned mouse. This was the original Chinese term of 烽火戏诸侯

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Chinese Culture and History (2)

The legend started nine hundred years ago that was around 1700 BC. It was still the 夏Dynasty, the first dynasty of China. One day, people found there were two dragons making love in the royal court. After consult with a sorcerer, the emperor at that time collected the semen of that dragon in a box. And after nine hundred years later, the history has changed two dynasties already the royal court still kept this semen.

Until one day the emperor 厉 opened the box. By accident the semen spilt over and no one could clean it. After consult the sorcerer the emperor ordered some palace maids dance in naked body to drive out the evil spirits. Then the splashed semen turned to be a turtle. When the turtle escaped from royal court, it collided a 16 year’s old palace maid and this girl was pregnant. The period of pregnancy was eight years long. When she was 24, she gave birth a baby girl. The palace maid was so scared of it, she abandoned the infant along a river side.

That was the later beauty褒姒. A sterile couple found this baby and carried it to the small kingdom named 褒, later their chief contribute the girl to the emperor 幽.

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Chinese Culture and History (1)

1046 BC. The last emperor of 商Dynasty named 纣. When he was busy in a battle with some minority people, on his back one of dukes rose in rebellion and successfully seized the power and that was the first emperor of 周Dynasty. This was the third dynasty of China. At that time, whenever a new dynasty was into power, the tradition normally arranged a fief for the old emperor instead killing him. But the emperor纣 was a person staunch with moral integrity. He committed suicide. The new emperor had no choice but arranged his two sons as noble and provide them a good fief.

Then this Dynasty ruled peacefully for two hundred years, until an emperor named 幽. The Chinese historian called this emperor as sex mania. 799 BC.  A small country named 褒 contributed a 13 year’s old beautiful girl named 褒姒 the emperor indulged in love with her. As there was no historian record her background some legend teller fabricated a story for her.

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