Now, when Lord Bao had had Guo Huai seized, the runners gave the court cry and he took his seat in the court hall, with another seat set to one side for Chen Lin. Then Lord Bao called out, “Guo Huai! When you plotted to destroy Consort Li all those years ago, how did you swap the crown prince? Confess the whole truth!” “What makes Your Excellency say such a thing?” said Guo Huai. “In those days Consort Li gave birth to a monster, and that was why the late Emperor, in his fury, banished her to the Cold Palace. How could there have been any swapping?” Chen Lin took it up at once: “If there was no swapping, why was the personal attendant Kou Zhu told to carry the crown prince out, strangle him with her skirt sash and throw him under the Jinshui Bridge?” At this Guo Huai said, “Steward Chen, why are you bearing witness against me? You and I both serve in the inner palace. Don’t you know Her Majesty the Empress Dowager’s temper by now? If a command from the Empress Dowager should arrive by and by, I’m afraid you won’t be able to answer for it either.” Lord Bao gave a thin, cold smile. “Guo Huai, do you dare use Empress Liu to browbeat this Academician? Had you not brought up Empress Liu, well and good. But since you have, there’s nothing for it: I shall have to give offence.” And he ordered, “Take him down and give him twenty heavy strokes of the bamboo.” The attendants answered with a great shout, threw him face down on the ground and gave him his twenty. He was beaten until his skin split and his flesh burst open; he bared his teeth and grimaced, and his moans never stopped. “Guo Huai,” Lord Bao asked, “will you still not confess?” By now Guo Huai knew only too well how much hung on this, and he had set his heart against ever confessing. “In those days Consort Li gave birth to a monster and brought her punishment on herself,” he said. “What has that to do with me, Guo Huai?” “If there was no swapping,” said Lord Bao, “then why was Kou Zhu put to death?” “Because Kou Zhu was insolent to the Empress Dowager,” said Guo Huai. “That was the only reason the Empress Dowager had her punished.” Chen Lin, at the side, spoke up again: “There you’re wrong again. When Kou Zhu was put to the question, it was I who wielded the rod. Empress Liu kept pressing her: where had she taken the crown prince when she carried him out? How can you call that insolence?” Guo Huai glared at him. “If you wielded the rod, then it was you and no one else who struck the cruel blows. You beat Kou Zhu until she couldn’t bear any more, and that’s why she dashed her head against the steps and died. Why turn round and ask me?” “You villain!” said Lord Bao. “How dare you deny it so shamelessly!” And he ordered, “Attendants! Put the finger press1 on him!” Again the attendants gave a shout. They put Guo Huai’s hands side by side, fitted the finger press on them and pulled the cords apart, one to the left and one to the right. All that could be heard was Guo Huai squealing like a stuck pig. “Guo Huai,” asked Lord Bao, “will you still not confess?” Guo Huai clenched his teeth. “There’s nothing to confess — ohh!” Seeing him steaming with sweat like a bamboo steamer, his face changing colour, Lord Bao ordered the torture stopped and the finger press loosened. Guo Huai went on moaning without a pause, his wits all astray, so for now there was nothing for it but to send him back to the jail and question him again the next day. Meanwhile Chen Lin was asked to go back and give His Majesty an interim report on the day’s questioning.

Lord Bao left the court, went to his study and told Bao Xing to ask Mr. Gongsun to come. Before long Gongsun Ce arrived. He already knew how matters stood. When he had paid his respects to Lord Bao, he took a seat to one side. “When the imperial decree came today and was read out,” said Lord Bao, “I expect you understood the whole affair, sir, so I need not go over it again. The trouble is that Guo Huai will not confess. When we had him in the finger press, I saw the sweat break out on his head and his face change colour, and I fear something worse may happen to him. He is a prisoner of state, sent to us by imperial decree, and he cannot stand up to heavy torture. What are we to do? That is why I asked you here, sir: to think out some method that hurts only the skin and flesh and leaves sinew and bone untouched, and that will still make him confess.” “Let your junior think it over and draw up a design,” said Gongsun Ce, “and then I will submit it for your inspection.” With that he withdrew to his own room. He pondered for a long while until an idea came to him. Then he hurriedly took up his brush and drew it, thought up a name for it as well, and went back to the study to report to Lord Bao. Lord Bao took the drawing and looked. The measurements were marked on it. The thing looked rather like a big iron for pressing clothes, except that its face was not flat: it was covered all over with little round-headed nails, like hanging beads, and it was to be forged of iron. When it was to be used, it would be heated red-hot in a charcoal fire and pressed on the fleshy parts of the prisoner’s body, where it could never harm sinew or bone; only the skin and flesh would suffer. When he had looked it over, Lord Bao asked, “Has this instrument a name?” “It is called Apricot Blossom Rain2,” said Gongsun Ce, “for the fallen red, dot upon dot.” Lord Bao laughed. “So cruel a torture, and so elegant a name! You are a true man of letters, sir!” He told Gongsun Ce to send for a blacksmith at once to forge it. By the day after next the instrument had been forged, and on the third day Lord Bao took his seat in court and had Guo Huai brought up for questioning.

Now, Guo Huai lay in the jail. What with his aching hands and the sores from the bamboo, he moaned without end and had no appetite for food or drink, and in the space of two days he had grown wasted and worn. Yet he thought to himself: “I’ve been here three days now. Why hasn’t the Empress Dowager’s command come?” Then it suddenly struck him: “The Empress Dowager is unwell. I suppose she hasn’t heard about this yet. As for me, I’ll clench my teeth, harden my heart and never confess. With no confession, even Black Bao will find it hard to settle the case. But why should His Majesty suddenly have thought of this business? I really can’t make it out.”

He was still puzzling over this when a jailer came up and said, “His Excellency is holding court. He asks for you, Steward Guo.” Guo Huai knew he was to be questioned again, and his heart began to pound — thump, thump — in spite of himself as he followed the runners into the court hall. There he saw a brazier of glowing red charcoal with something heating in it, though he could not tell what it was for. He had no choice but to kneel facing the bench. Then he heard Lord Bao ask, “Guo Huai, why did you lay a plot to destroy Consort Li all those years ago and put something in the crown prince’s place? Confess the truth and spare yourself a beating.” “There was really no such thing,” said Guo Huai. “Where am I to begin confessing? If there had been, never mind lying hidden all these years — it would have come out long ago, I promise you. I beg Your Excellency to look into it carefully.” At this Lord Bao’s hair all but stood on end with fury. He slammed down the startle block. “Villain! Your wicked plot has already come to light — even His Majesty knows of it — and still you dare to wriggle out of it! You are truly loathsome!” And he ordered, “Attendants, strip off his clothes!” Four runners came forward and stripped him, baring his back, and two of them held him fast, one on either side. One took a cloth, gripped it together with his hair and forced his head down; on the other side, another took hold of the wooden handle sticking out of the brazier, lifted out the Apricot Blossom Rain and stood behind the villain. “Guo Huai,” Lord Bao asked, “will you still not confess?” Guo Huai had hardened his heart and said not a word. Lord Bao ordered the torture to begin. Down came the Apricot Blossom Rain, and at once skin and flesh were seared, with a stench that was hard to bear. The pain set the villain shaking all over. At first he could still cry out piteously, but in the end all he could do was gasp. Seeing this, Lord Bao had no choice but to order, “Stop. Let him get his breath back, and then we’ll question him again.” The attendants held him up — but how could Guo Huai still struggle to his feet? He had already collapsed on the floor. Lord Bao had him carried out. Gongsun Ce had already given the runners secret orders to carry him to the shrine of the prison god3.

When Guo Huai had been carried to the shrine of the prison god, the jailer came up to him all smiles, holding a covered bowl in both hands, and said softly, “Sir, you’ve had a terrible time of it. I’ve nothing worthy to offer you, but I’ve managed to find a dose of pills for the pain, and I’ve brought a cup of yellow rice wine to take them with. Please take them, sir. I promise they’ll put the strength back in you and settle your spirits.” He was so attentive and spoke so kindly that Guo Huai took the bowl before he knew it. “I’m much obliged to you,” he said. “If ever I see the light of day again, I won’t forget you.” “Why, sir, what a thing to say,” said the jailer. “Once you’re out of Kaifeng, if you’d only lift a finger for me, sir, that would do a great deal for a man like me.” Those few words of flattery filled the villain’s heart with delight. He swallowed the pills with the wine and at once felt easy in heart and spirit. “Is there any more of this wine?” he asked. “Yes, yes, plenty of it,” said the jailer, and he called for more to be brought at once. He took it himself, sent the man away again, and with every mark of respect poured for the villain. Seeing him so careful and so attentive in everything, Guo Huai was delighted beyond words. As he drank, he asked, “These last few days, have you heard of anything going on at court?” “Nothing much that I’ve heard,” said the jailer. “I did hear the Empress Dowager was poorly — Kou Zhu’s ghost was haunting her, they say — but she’s well again now. His Majesty goes to the Renshou Palace every day to ask after her. I’d say in a day or two at most the Empress Dowager’s command is bound to come, and then you’ll be quite safe, sir. Even His Excellency our master wouldn’t dare go against her command.” At this Guo Huai’s heart grew light, and he drank several cups one after another.

But he had eaten nothing for the past two days, and now he had drunk several bowls one after another on an empty stomach. Before he knew it his face was flushed, his heart racing and his eyes blurred; all at once he was thoroughly drunk and beginning to sway this way and that. Seeing this, the jailer cleared the wine away and took himself off as well. That left the villain all alone, lonely and forlorn. For all he had drunk, the affair still weighed on his mind and he could not put it aside. He turned it over to himself: “The jailer said just now that the Empress Dowager had been unwell, and that it was Kou Zhu’s ghost haunting her. Luckily she’s well again now, so any day her command will come down.” Then he thought, “Kou Zhu died wronged, it’s true. No wonder she haunts the place.”

As these wild thoughts ran through his head, he felt the chill wind blow in gust after gust, and dust and grit came pattering down on the window lattice. It was late spring, too. In the midst of this dreary, desolate scene he suddenly saw what seemed to be a human shape in front of him, now near, now far, and heard a faint whimpering and murmuring. At the sight Guo Huai’s heart quailed in spite of himself. He was about to call for someone when the shadowy figure came right up to him and said, “Guo Huai, don’t be afraid. I am none other than Kou Zhu, the personal attendant. I have come to ask you, sir, to settle one thing with me face to face. Yesterday the Empress Dowager and I gave our evidence in the Senluo Hall4, and the Empress Dowager said that you, sir, were the one who arranged it all. That is why they let the Empress Dowager go back to her palace. What is more, the records show that the Empress Dowager and you, sir, both have twelve years5 yet to live. I cannot stay long in the dark realm. I have come today to have the truth of those old events made plain between us, and then I can go to be reborn.” At this Guo Huai’s hair stood on end and a chill ran through his bones. He saw, too, that the figure before him had her hair hanging loose and her face streaked all over with blood, and all he could hear was a thin, faint voice. He knew then that this was Kou Zhu’s ghost appearing to him — just as the jailer had said a little while ago — and before he knew it he answered, “Kou Zhu, you truly died a wrongful death. In those days it was Mrs. You and I who laid the plan: we swapped a skinned civet cat for the crown prince and destroyed Consort Li. You weren’t in on it at the time, and yet you died bearing the wrong. Now, since I have twelve years yet to live, if I can only get out of jail, I’ll have eminent monks and Taoist masters perform the rites to deliver your soul.” Then he heard the female ghost weep and say, “Master Guo, since you have so kind a heart, I cannot thank you enough. In a little while, when we come to the Senluo Hall, if only you will tell plainly what happened in those days, I shall be free to be reborn. What need of monks or Taoists to deliver me? But if your repentance is not sincere, it will only breed more sin…”

She had got only this far when he heard a shrill twittering of ghostly voices, and out came two imps holding a soul-catching rope6 and a warrant tablet. “Yama, the Son of Heaven, has ascended his throne,” they said. “He summons the living soul of Guo Huai at once, to go with the ghost of the woman who died wronged and confront her.” With that they seized Guo Huai and dragged him off. By now the villain was in a daze, and he followed them whether he would or no. Twisting and turning, they came to a great hall, so black and dismal, so dark and eerie, that he could not tell east from west or north from south. Suddenly he heard the imps say, “Kneel!” and the villain hastily went down on his knees. Then a voice called: “Guo Huai! What you and Empress Liu did is already written down in the registers, and by rights you should be cast into the wheel of rebirth7. But since your allotted years are not yet ended, you must return to life in the world above. There remains only the wronged soul of Kou Zhu: the underworld cannot well take in a woman’s ghost left wandering like this. You must tell plainly what happened in those days, and then she will be free to be reborn. Things having come to this, you may hide nothing.” At this Guo Huai hastily kowtowed toward the dais and told the whole story from the beginning: how Empress Liu had schemed for the Empress’s throne, swapped a skinned civet cat for the crown prince and destroyed Consort Li. Suddenly the lamps blazed up bright, and there, seated on high, was Lord Bao himself, with the runners ranged in rows on either side — every bit as fearsome as the Senluo Hall. A clerk was already handing up the statement, and another clerk, who had been in the shrine of the prison god, handed up what Guo Huai and the female ghost had said to each other there as well. Lord Bao read them together and ordered, “Take it down to him and have him put his mark to the confession.” By now the villain was helpless. He knew he had fallen into a trap, and there was nothing for it but to put his mark to it.

And who, you may ask, was the female ghost? Gongsun Ce had secretly sent Geng Chun and Zheng Ping to a brothel to fetch a prostitute named Wang Sanqiao. Thanks to Gongsun Ce’s patient coaching and rehearsing, she played the ghost and tricked the truth out of him. She was given fifty taels of silver and sent home.

Lord Bao now had Guo Huai held in the jail again for the time being, with men set to guard him closely. At the fifth watch the next day he went to court, reported to Renzong and humbly presented the confession for His Majesty’s eyes. Renzong tucked the confession into his sleeve. When the court had dispersed, he went back into the palace and made his way to the Renshou Palace. There he found Empress Liu lying in a stupor, her hands and feet thrashing about as though she were warding off blows. Suddenly she woke and saw the Emperor standing before her. “Guo Huai is an old servant of the late Emperor,” she said. “We hope, my son, that you will show him special mercy.” Renzong heard her but made no reply. He drew Guo Huai’s confession from his sleeve and tossed it down in front of Empress Liu. Seeing this, Empress Liu picked it up and looked. At once she was frightened out of her wits, and her breath stuck in her throat. Long ill as she was, how could she bear it, with crimes against the laws of Heaven on her head? One fright, and — alas and alack — she breathed her last. Renzong ordered Empress Liu carried into a side hall and laid in her coffin with the rites of a consort, and her coffin was taken away with scant ceremony, no more. He issued a decree at once to have the palace and its courtyards swept clean.

The next day His Majesty took his throne in the audience hall, and when the ministers had cried ‘Long live the Emperor!’ three times, he summoned Lord Bao: “Empress Liu has died of fright. We charge you, Minister Bao, to draft a decree in Our name to be proclaimed throughout the realm, and so set the laws of the realm right.” Only then did the common people, and the officials at court and beyond, learn that the mother of the realm, the Empress Dowager, was surnamed Li8 and not Liu. His Majesty then had the Directorate of Astronomy choose an auspicious day. He fasted and bathed, and announced the event with offerings9 at all the temples; then, with the imperial carriage drawn up in state and all the civil and military officials of the court in his train, he went in person to the Nanqing Palace to receive the Empress Dowager and bring her home to the palace. All the rites were performed as the ceremonial code prescribed, and there is no need to describe them in detail.

Her Majesty the Empress Dowager rode in the imperial carriage, and the virtuous Consort Di followed her into the palace in a jewelled carriage of her own. Emperor Renzong, once he had invited the Empress Dowager to set out, went back ahead of her to wait on her in the palace. By now the consorts of the princes and the titled ladies had all come to court, and they stood in their ranks to welcome the phoenix carriage. The Empress Dowager entered the palace, took her seat on the throne and received their congratulations. When that was over, she rose and changed her robes, and sent down a command summoning Lady Li, the wife of Bao Zheng, Grand Academician of the Longtu Pavilion, into the palace. The Empress Dowager and Consort Di still greeted each other as sisters, and rich gifts were showered on Lady Li. Renzong too gave rewards in thanks. But there is no need to tell of it in detail.

Outside, when the ministers had offered their congratulations, the Emperor issued a decree that Guo Huai be put to death by slicing at once. Mrs. You was already dead by then, so, as the law prescribed, her corpse was mutilated10. The Emperor also decreed that the grounds of the Hill of Longevity and Sea of Fortune11 in the Renshou Palace be surveyed and measured out. On the left a memorial hall to Kou Zhu was to be built by imperial command, to be called the Shrine of the Loyal Martyr; on the right, one to Qin Feng and Yu Zhong, to be called the Shrine of the Two Righteous Men. When the work was finished, he went in person to burn incense there.

One day the old Chancellor, Wang Qi, sent up a memorial: he was old and his strength was failing, and he asked to be allowed to retire. His Majesty, mindful of his elder statesman, let him retire and live out his days in peace, still drawing his full salary. At the same time he raised Lord Bao to be Chief Minister12. Lord Bao in turn reported to the throne that Gongsun Ce and the four brave men had served him again and again with counsel and deeds of merit. So Renzong made Gongsun Ce Registrar and the four brave men sixth-rank captains, all of them to go on serving at Kaifeng Prefecture. And by command of the Empress Dowager, Chen Lin was made chief steward and Fan Zonghua a Gentleman of Trust13. The old kiln was made into a temple, and the Emperor granted it a thousand taels of silver and ten qing of land14 to keep its incense burning. Fan Zonghua was made keeper of the temple, with sacrifices there every spring and autumn, so that it would stand for all time.

To learn what happened next, read the next chapter.