Now, when Queen Jiang heard the sound of music, she asked those about her and learned that King Zhou was feasting with Daji. She nodded and sighed in spite of herself: “The Son of Heaven is sunk in debauchery and the people have lost their livelihoods: this is the road to disorder. Only yesterday a minister of the outer court remonstrated with him and met a cruel death for it. What is to be done? I can see with my own eyes that the realm of Cheng Tang is about to change hands. I am the queen — how can I sit by and watch?” Queen Jiang set out in her carriage, palace women ranged on either side and red lanterns flickering, the whole train crowding about her, and came to the Shouxian Palace. The attending officer announced, “Her Majesty Queen Jiang has come to the palace gate and awaits Your Majesty’s command.” It was deep in the night and King Zhou was in his cups, his eyes bleary and squinting with drink. “Su, my beauty,” he said, “go and receive Our queen.” Daji took the command and went out of the palace to meet her. Lady Su paid her respects to the queen, and the queen bade her rise. Daji led Queen Jiang to the front of the hall, and the queen made her bows to the king. King Zhou said, “Have a seat set, and ask Our queen to sit.” Queen Jiang thanked him for his kindness and sat down on his right — mark this, reader: Queen Jiang was King Zhou’s first wife, but Daji was only a Beauty2 and might not sit, so she stood in attendance to one side. King Zhou offered the queen a cup of wine. “Your coming to the Shouxian Palace today, my queen,” said the king, “is a joy and a blessing to Us.” He ordered Daji, “My beauty, have your palace maid Gunjuan tap the sandalwood clappers lightly, and sing and dance a while yourself for the queen’s pleasure.” So Gunjuan tapped the sandalwood clappers lightly, and Daji began to sing and dance. This is what they saw:

Daji’s waist was lithe and supple, her singing soft and light, like a wisp of cloud swaying in the wind above a ridge, like a tender willow brushing the water of a pond. Gunjuan and the maids on either side cheered, knelt and cried “Ten thousand years!” all together. Queen Jiang did not so much as look at her, but kept her eyes on her nose3 and her nose toward her heart.

Suddenly King Zhou noticed how Queen Jiang was behaving, and asked her with a smile, “My royal wife, time passes in the blink of an eye and the years flow by like water, and such sights do not come often: this is just the moment to enjoy ourselves. Daji’s singing and dancing is a marvel of heaven, rarely seen in the world of men — a true treasure, one might say. Why is it, my royal wife, that you show no pleasure, but keep a stern face and will not look?” At this Queen Jiang left her seat, knelt and said, “Daji’s singing and dancing is nothing rare, nor is it any true treasure.” King Zhou said, “If this music is no rare treasure, then what is a rare treasure?” Queen Jiang said, “Your handmaid has heard that a ruler who follows the Way holds goods cheap and virtue dear, puts slanderers away and keeps far from women: these are the treasures by which a ruler examines himself. As for what are called treasures, Heaven has its treasures, the sun, moon and stars; Earth has its treasures, the five grains, the gardens and the woods; a state has its treasures, loyal ministers and good generals; a family has its treasures, dutiful sons and worthy grandsons. These four are the treasures that Heaven and Earth, states and families possess. But Your Majesty is sunk in wine and women. You send for singers and run after performers, indulge every extravagance and every desire, listen to slanderers and trust flatterers, cruelly kill the loyal and good, drive away upright men, cast off the old and keep company with the wicked, and heed only the words of a woman: this is ‘the hen crowing at dawn4 — the ruin of the house’. To take such things as treasures is to treasure what overturns families and destroys states. Your handmaid hopes that Your Majesty will not be slow to mend your faults, but will cultivate your virtue, draw near to your tutors and guardians and keep far from your waiting women, set up the bonds and uphold the laws. Do not give yourself up to feasts and outings; do not drown yourself in wine; do not let women make you idle and wild. Labour every day at the business of government and never be self-satisfied or vain. Then perhaps Heaven’s heart may be won back, the people may be at peace, and the realm may hope for the great peace. Your handmaid is only a woman and does not know what may not be said; I have presumed to trouble Your Majesty’s ears. I hope Your Majesty will mend your past faults in earnest and strive to put this into practice. Your handmaid would be most fortunate! The realm would be most fortunate!” When Queen Jiang had finished, she made her bows and took her leave, mounted her carriage and went back to her palace.

Now King Zhou was already drunk, and when he heard Queen Jiang’s speech, his face filled with rage. “The bitch doesn’t know what’s good for her! We had my beauty sing and dance a while for her pleasure, and instead she goes on at Us with this and that, talk and more talk. If she weren’t the queen, We would have her beaten to death with the golden melons — nothing less would ease my hatred. How infuriating!” By now the third watch was over, and King Zhou had sobered up. “My beauty,” he called, “just now We were vexed. Dance for Us again and drive away Our gloom.” Daji knelt and said, “From now on your handmaid dare not sing or dance.” “Why not?” said the king. Daji said, “Queen Jiang rebuked your handmaid severely: this singing and dancing, she said, is a thing that overturns families and destroys states. And what the queen sees is very right. Your handmaid enjoys Your Majesty’s gracious love and favour and dare not leave your side for a moment. But should Her Majesty spread it beyond the palace walls that your lowly handmaid has bewitched Your Majesty’s judgment and led the Son of Heaven astray, so that he does not govern with humanity, and should the ministers of the outer court take this up to call me to account — then even if I tore out every hair on my head, it would not pay for my crime.” And as she finished, her tears fell like rain. When King Zhou heard this, he flew into a rage. “My beauty, you just go on waiting on Us. Tomorrow We will depose the bitch and make you queen. We shall decide this Ourself — don’t you worry, my beauty.” Daji thanked him for his grace, and once more music was called for and the wine went round, day and night alike. But no more of that.

One day, on one of the days of the new or the full moon, Queen Jiang was in the Central Palace, and the consorts and concubines of every palace came to pay her their respects. Consort Huang of the Western Palace — Huang Feihu’s younger sister — and Consort Yang of the Xinqing Palace were both in the queen’s palace. Then a palace woman came to announce, “Su Daji of the Shouxian Palace awaits Your Majesty’s command.” “Bring her in!” the queen commanded. Daji came in and saw Queen Jiang seated on her throne, with Consort Huang on her left and Consort Yang on her right. When Daji had come in and made her obeisance, Queen Jiang, as a special favour, bade the Beauty rise. Daji stood in attendance to one side. The two consorts asked, “So this is Lady Su?” “It is,” said Queen Jiang, and she turned to Lady Su and reproached her: “The Son of Heaven stays in the Shouxian Palace night and day alike, flaunting his lust and taking his pleasure; he pays no heed to the government, and law and order are in confusion — and you have not said one word to admonish him. You have bewitched the Son of Heaven: songs in the morning and dances at night, drowning in wine and women, rejecting remonstrance and killing the loyal, wrecking the great statutes of Cheng Tang and the safety of the state — and all of it began with you. From now on, if you do not mend your ways and lead your lord onto the right path, but go on as unbridled as before, I shall deal with you by the law of the Central Palace! Now go!”

Daji swallowed her anger and held her tongue. She bowed her thanks and left, her face burning with shame, and went back to her palace in a black mood. Gunjuan was there to meet her, greeting her as “my lady”. Daji went in, sat down on an embroidered stool and heaved a long sigh. “My lady,” said Gunjuan, “you have just come back from paying court to the queen. Why all these sighs, long and short?” Daji ground her teeth. “I am the Son of Heaven’s favourite, and Queen Jiang, presuming on being his first wife, humiliated me past bearing in front of Consort Huang and Consort Yang. How can I not pay her back for this?” Gunjuan said, “Only the other day our lord promised you himself that you would be queen. Why worry that you can’t pay her back?” Daji said, “He promised, yes. But with Queen Jiang still there, how can it be done? We need some clever plan to destroy her; only then will it be settled. Otherwise the officials won’t accept it either — they’ll go on remonstrating as before and give us no peace. How could I ever rest easy? Have you any plan that would work? There would be no small good fortune in it for you, too.” Gunjuan answered, “We are only women, and your slave is no more than a waiting maid. What deep schemes or far-sighted plans could I have? If you ask your slave, you had better call in a minister of the outer court and talk it over with him; that would be the safe way.” Daji pondered for a long while. “How could an official of the outer court be called in here? Besides, there are eyes and ears everywhere, and he wouldn’t be someone we could trust. How could that work?” Gunjuan said, “Tomorrow the Son of Heaven is going to the royal garden. My lady can send out an order in secret, summoning the Counsellor of Remonstrance, Fei Zhong, to the palace, and let your slave give him his instructions. He is to work out some clever plan, and if he destroys Queen Jiang, promise him high office and more rank and pay. He has always been known for his cleverness, so he is sure to put his mind to it, and it cannot fail.” “It’s a fine plan,” said Daji, “but what if he won’t do it?” Gunjuan said, “He is one of our lord’s favourites too: our lord heeds his every word and follows his every plan. Besides, my lady, it was he who recommended you for the palace in the first place. Your slave knows he will do his utmost.” Daji was overjoyed.

Now, Fei Zhong wrote out his scheme in full, in the utmost secrecy, and passed it to Gunjuan on the quiet. Gunjuan took the letter and reported it to Daji in secret. Daji was overjoyed: before long the queen’s palace would be hers.

One day, when King Zhou was idling in the Shouxian Palace with nothing to do, Daji said to him, “Your Majesty is so attached to your handmaid that for ten days you have not gone up to the golden hall. I hope Your Majesty will hold court tomorrow, so as not to disappoint the officials, civil and military, who look up to you.” The king said, “My beauty, what you say is rare indeed! Not even the wise consorts and sage queens of old could do better. Tomorrow We shall hold court and decide the business of state, so as not to slight the kind thought of a wise consort.” — Mark this, reader: this was the scheme of Fei Zhong and Daji; how could it be kindly meant? But no more of that.

The next day the Son of Heaven went to hold court. With the chamberlains guarding him on either side, he left the Shouxian Palace, and the royal carriage passed the Longde Hall and came to the Fengong Tower, amid clusters of red lanterns and swirling clouds of incense. As they went along, a man burst out from beside the corner of the Fengong Tower’s gate — fourteen feet tall, a headcloth bound round his head and a sword in his hand, coming on like a tiger or a wolf. With a great shout he cried, “Benighted king, without the Way, sunk in wine and women! By order of my mistress I am here to kill you, benighted king, so that the realm of Cheng Tang will not be lost to others and my master can be made sovereign!” And down came his sword. But with so many guards on either side, the officers had seized him before he could come near; they bound him with ropes and cords and brought him forward to kneel on the ground. King Zhou, alarmed and furious, rode on to the great hall and took his seat. The officials, civil and military, offered their greetings, none of them knowing what had happened. The king said, “Summon Huang Feihu, Prince Wucheng, and the Second Chancellor Bi Gan.” The two ministers stepped out of the ranks at once and prostrated themselves: “Your servants are here.” “Ministers,” said King Zhou, “on Our way to the hall today, a most strange thing happened.” “What strange thing?” asked Bi Gan. The king said, “At the Fengong Tower an assassin came at Us with a sword. Who can have sent him?” Huang Feihu was aghast. “Who was on night duty in the palace yesterday?” he asked at once. Among the officials was a man whose name was on the Investiture List6: a Commander7 by rank, Lu Xiong by name. He stepped out of the ranks and prostrated himself. “Your servant was on night duty, and there were no spies. This man must have slipped into the Fengong Tower with the officials at the fifth watch, and that is how this strange thing came about!” “Bring the assassin here!” Huang Feihu ordered, and the officers dragged the assassin to the foot of the eaves. The Son of Heaven issued a command: “Ministers, which of you will question him for Us, get to the bottom of it and report back?” Out of the ranks stepped a man, who bowed and said, “Your servant Fei Zhong, unworthy as he is, will question him and report.” — Mark this, reader: Fei Zhong was no judge. This was a trap he had laid to destroy Queen Jiang, and for fear that someone else might get the truth out of the man, he asked to do the questioning himself.

Now, Fei Zhong had the assassin brought out and questioned him outside the Meridian Gate. Without any need for torture, the man confessed to treason. Fei Zhong went into the great hall, came before the Son of Heaven and prostrated himself to report. The officials, not knowing that it was all a plot laid in advance, waited in silence to hear his report. The king said, “What has the questioning brought out?” Fei Zhong said, “Your servant dare not report it.” The king said, “You have questioned him and got to the bottom of it, minister. Why will you not report?” “Pardon your servant’s offence,” said Fei Zhong, “and then I can report.” “You are pardoned,” said the king. “You shall bear no blame.” Fei Zhong reported: “The assassin is named Jiang Huan, one of the household guards of Jiang Huanchu, Lord of the East. At the command of Queen Jiang of the Central Palace he made an attempt on Your Majesty’s life. The aim was to seize the throne and give it to Jiang Huanchu, to make him Son of Heaven. Happily the spirits of the ancestral temple and the altars of the state were watching, August Heaven and Sovereign Earth gave their protection, and Your Majesty’s great good fortune is as high as Heaven: the treasonous plot came to light, and he was caught on the spot. I beg Your Majesty to send the matter down to the Nine Ministers and the officials, civil and military, to deliberate as is due to the nobility and to the royal kin8, and decide it.” When King Zhou heard this report, he struck the table in a towering rage. “Queen Jiang is Our first wife, and yet she dares such outrage, plotting treason in defiance of the Way! What deliberation does she deserve, as noble or as kin? Besides, the evils of the palace are hard to root out: here is disaster lurking within the forbidden walls, at Our very elbow, where it is hardest to guard against. Have Consort Huang of the Western Palace question her at once and report to Us!” His fury breaking like thunder, King Zhou went back to the Shouxian Palace. But no more of that.

Meanwhile the great ministers were all talking at once, unable to tell what was false and what was true. Among them the Senior Counsellor Yang Ren said to Prince Wucheng, “Queen Jiang is chaste and quiet, virtuous and good, kind and loving, and she rules the inner palace by the proper rules. As this humble official sees it, there must be some hidden twist in this that has not come to light; someone in the palace must be in secret league with others. Your Highnesses, fellow counsellors, we must not leave the court. Let us wait for word from Consort Huang of the Western Palace, and only then come to a conclusion.” The officials all stayed in the Nine-Bay Hall and did not disperse.

Now, the chamberlain took the royal command to the Central Palace. Queen Jiang received the command and knelt to hear it read. The chamberlain read it out:

“By royal decree: The queen holds her rightful place in the Central Palace; her virtue is the match of Kun, the primal Earth9, and her rank rivals the Son of Heaven’s. Yet instead of keeping watch on herself in fear and trembling day and night, reverently cultivating her virtue, bringing no shame on the teaching of her governess and helping her lord in harmony within the palace, she has dared to commit the most heinous treason. She kept a fighting man, Jiang Huan, who made an attempt on Our life before the Fengong Tower. Happily the spirits of Heaven and Earth were watching, and the great villain was caught at once. Sent to the Meridian Gate for questioning, he confessed that the queen and her father, Jiang Huanchu, had plotted wickedness together, hoping by a stroke of luck to seize the throne. The constant order of human relations is violated; the Three Bonds are utterly broken. The chamberlain is to take her to the Western Palace, beat her soundly and get to the bottom of it, and fix her guilt with all severity. Let there be no favour shown and no wilful leniency: let the guilt fall where it belongs. By special decree.”

When Queen Jiang had heard it, she burst out sobbing. “I am wronged! I am wronged! What treacherous villain has stirred this up and trapped me with a crime beyond pardon? All these years in the palace I have been diligent and frugal, up early and late to bed — how would I ever dare do anything rash or wild, and shame my governess’s teaching? And now His Majesty, without looking into where this came from, has me taken to the Western Palace, and whether I live or die, no one can say!” Queen Jiang wept and wept, her tears wetting the front of her robe. The chamberlain brought her to the Western Palace. Consort Huang set the decree in the place of honour, in deference to the law of the land. Queen Jiang knelt and said, “I, a daughter of the Jiang, have always been loyal and good: August Heaven and Sovereign Earth can see into my heart. Now by ill luck someone has trapped me. I beg you, worthy consort, consider how I have always conducted myself, take my part and clear me of this wrong!” Consort Huang said, “The royal decree says that you ordered Jiang Huan to murder the king, so as to hand the state over to Jiang Huanchu, Lord of the East, and usurp the realm of Cheng Tang. This is a matter of the gravest weight. It defies all propriety and overturns the order of human relations; it betrays the great duty between husband and wife and cuts off the love owed by a first wife. If it is proved true, your kin to the ninth degree10 should be wiped out!” Queen Jiang said, “Worthy consort, hear me. I am Jiang Huanchu’s daughter. My father holds Eastern Lu at the head of two hundred lords; his rank is the highest there is, above even the Three Dukes; he is kin to the royal house, his daughter is queen of the Central Palace, and he stands above the four great lords besides. What is more, I have borne a son, Yin Jiao, who is already installed as heir in the Eastern Palace. After His Majesty’s ten thousand years, my son will succeed to the throne, and I shall be queen mother. Who ever heard of a woman whose father had made himself Son of Heaven being given her place beside her husband in the Ancestral Temple11? I may be only a woman, but I am not so foolish as that. Besides, my father is not the only lord in the realm. If all the lords of the realm rose together and sent armies to punish him, how could he hold on for long? I beg you, worthy consort, look into this closely and clear me of this monstrous wrong: there was no such thing. I implore you, when you report to His Majesty, tell him what is in my foolish heart. That would be no small kindness!” Before she had finished speaking, a royal command came to hurry them. Consort Huang went in her carriage to the Shouxian Palace and waited for the king’s command. King Zhou summoned her in, and she paid her respects. “Has the bitch confessed or not?” said King Zhou. Consort Huang said, “As commanded, I questioned Queen Jiang closely. There is not the least thing underhand about her; she truly has the virtue of a chaste and quiet, wise and able woman. The queen is your first wife. She has served you for many years and enjoyed Your Majesty’s favour, and she has borne a prince who is already installed as heir in the Eastern Palace. After Your Majesty’s ten thousand years she will be queen mother. What could she lack, that she should dare go against her own conscience and bring on a calamity that would wipe out her clan? Besides, Jiang Huanchu holds office as Lord of the East and has risen to be kin of the king; the lords at court hail him as Your Highness; he has reached the highest rank a subject can hold. That he should dare send a man to assassinate you — there is no sense in it. Queen Jiang is wounded to the marrow of her bones, and she bears a wrong as hidden from the light as the inside of an upturned bowl. Even were Queen Jiang the greatest fool alive: never yet has a man become Son of Heaven while his daughter could still be queen mother and his grandson still carry on the royal line. As for throwing away the noble to take up the base, turning from those above to those below, not even a fool would do it — let alone Queen Jiang, who has held her rightful place these many years and has always understood the teachings of propriety! Your handmaid hopes Your Majesty will look into this wrong and clear her of it, and not let your first wife suffer slander, to the harm of your sage virtue. And I beg you to remember that she is the crown prince’s own mother, and to have pity on her and pardon her. Your handmaid would be most fortunate! Queen Jiang’s whole house would be most fortunate!” When King Zhou had heard her out, he thought to himself: “What Consort Huang says is very clear. If there was truly no such thing, there must be some hidden twist to it.” Just as he was hesitating, unable to decide, Daji, at his side, gave a faint, cold smile. Seeing her smile, King Zhou asked, “My beauty, you smile and say nothing. Why?” Daji replied, “Consort Huang has been taken in by Queen Jiang. People who do such things always trumpet the good they do and push the bad off onto others. And treason and wickedness is a matter of the gravest kind — how would she confess to it so lightly? Besides, Jiang Huan is a man in her father’s service. Since he has testified that she put him up to it, how can she deny it? And of all the queen and consorts of the three palaces, why did he not drag in someone else, but name Queen Jiang alone? There must be something in it. I fear that unless she is put to heavy torture, she will never confess! I hope Your Majesty will look into it closely.” “What you say makes sense, my beauty,” said King Zhou. Consort Huang, at his side, said, “Su Daji, you must not talk like this! The queen is the Son of Heaven’s first wife and the mother of the realm; her rank rivals the sovereign’s own. Ever since the Three Sovereigns ruled the world and the Five Emperors reigned, even when a queen has committed a great fault, she has only been demoted and sent away; there has never been any law for putting a queen to death.” Daji said, “The law was made for the whole realm. The Son of Heaven proclaims and spreads his teaching on Heaven’s behalf, and even he may not bend it to suit himself. Besides, when the law is broken, it makes no difference whether the offender is exalted or kin, noble or base: the crime is the same. Your Majesty can send down a command that if Queen Jiang will not confess, one of her eyes is to be gouged out. The eyes are the sprouts of the heart: dreading the pain of losing an eye, she will naturally confess. Let the officials, civil and military, know of it — this is only the ordinary course of the law and nothing harsh.” “Daji is right,” said King Zhou.

When Consort Huang heard that they meant to gouge out Queen Jiang’s eye, she was frantic, but there was nothing for it but to mount her carriage and go back to the Western Palace. Getting down from her carriage, she went to Queen Jiang, weeping and stamping her feet. “Oh, my queen, Daji is your enemy from a hundred lives past! She has poured her jealous words into the king’s ear: if you will not confess, one of your eyes is to be gouged out. Do as I say — confess and be done with it! No king in any age has ever done harm to his queen. At worst you will be demoted and sent off to the Buyou Palace12, and that will be that.” Queen Jiang wept as she said, “My good sister, I know you say this for my sake. But all my life I have known something of propriety and its teachings. How could I confess to so heinous a treason, bring shame on my father and mother and commit a crime against the ancestral temple and the altars of the state? What is more, a wife who murders her husband harms the morals of the age and wrecks the bonds and the constants. It would make my father a disloyal, unrighteous traitor, and me a base creature who disgraced her family and ruined her house, with an evil name for a thousand years, so that people in ages to come would grind their teeth as they spoke of it; and it would leave the crown prince no safe place as heir. So much hangs on it — how could I rashly confess to what I did not do? Never mind gouging out one of my eyes: even if they threw me into the cauldron to boil, hacked me ten thousand times and hammered me a thousand, that would only be payment in this life for evil done in a life before — but how could I go against the great principle? As the ancients said, ‘Ground to powder13, body broken, I fear none of it; I leave only my spotless white among men.’ …” Before she had finished, a royal command came down: “If Queen Jiang will not confess, take out one of her eyes at once!” “Quick, confess!” cried Consort Huang. Queen Jiang sobbed aloud. “Even if I die, how can I confess to what I did not do?” The chamberlain pressed her every way he could, until he could hold off no longer. He gouged out one of Queen Jiang’s eyes. Blood stained the front of her robe, and she fell senseless to the floor. Consort Huang hastily had the palace women about her lift her up and try to revive her, but for all their haste she did not come to. Alas! There is a poem to prove it. It says:

Seeing Queen Jiang suffer so cruel a punishment, Consort Huang could not stop weeping. The chamberlain put the gouged-out eye, still dripping blood, on a plate, and went with Consort Huang, who rode in her carriage, to report to King Zhou. Consort Huang got down from her carriage and went into the palace. “Has the bitch confessed?” King Zhou asked at once. Consort Huang said, “Queen Jiang did no such thing. Under the harsh questioning there was no escape for her: she has suffered the wrongful punishment of losing an eye. But how would she give up her integrity? As commanded, one eye has been taken.” And Consort Huang held up Queen Jiang’s eye, dripping with blood, to show him. King Zhou looked, and when he saw Queen Jiang’s eye, his heart could not bear it. They had loved each other for many years; now his remorse came too late. He hung his head without a word, deeply grieved. Then he turned and rebuked Daji: “Just now We believed one word of yours too lightly and had one of Queen Jiang’s eyes gouged out — and still she has not confessed. On whom is the blame to fall? This was all your rash and reckless doing. If the officials will not accept it, what then? What then?” Daji said, “If Queen Jiang does not confess, the officials will naturally have plenty to say; how will it ever end? Besides, the Lord of the East holds a whole state, and he too will want to clear his daughter’s name. In this matter we must get Queen Jiang to confess; only then shall we stop the mouths of the officials and the people.” King Zhou brooded without a word, his heart in torment, like a ram that has butted into a hedge and caught its horns, unable to go forward or back. After a long while he asked Daji, “What is to be done now? How can this be settled safely?” Daji said, “Now that it has come to this: either don’t start, or don’t stop. If she confesses, all will be quiet and nothing more said; if she doesn’t, the talk will blow up like a wind and there will be no peace anywhere. The only thing to do now is harsh punishment and cruel torture; then there’s no fear she won’t confess. Send down a command now: the consort is to take a bronze pan, put charcoal in it and heat it red-hot, and if Queen Jiang will not confess, sear both her hands with it. The ten fingers are joined to the heart, and the pain will be past bearing. No fear that she won’t confess then!” King Zhou said, “According to Consort Huang, Queen Jiang had nothing whatever to do with this. If We now use this cruel punishment as well and torture the queen unjustly, We fear the officials will have more to say. Gouging out her eye was already a mistake — how can We make it twice?” “Your Majesty is mistaken!” said Daji. “Things have come to such a pass that you are riding a tiger and cannot get off. Better to wrong Queen Jiang under torture than for Your Majesty to offend the lords of the realm and all the officials at court.” King Zhou, at his wits’ end, could only send down the command: “If she still will not confess, sear both her hands. Show her no pity, and hush nothing up!”

When Consort Huang heard this, her soul all but left her body. She mounted her carriage and went back to her palace to see Queen Jiang — poor woman, she lay fallen in the dust, her robe stained with blood, a sight too pitiful to look upon. Consort Huang burst out sobbing: “My good and virtuous queen! What evil did you do in a life before, what offence did you give Heaven and Earth, to suffer so monstrous a punishment?” She raised Queen Jiang in her arms and tried to comfort her. “Good queen, confess and be done with it! The benighted king is dull of wit and cruel of heart. He believes every word that vile woman says and is set on putting you to death. If you still will not confess, they will sear your hands with a bronze pan. How can I bear to watch such cruelty?” Queen Jiang, her face stained with tears of blood, wept aloud. “Great must be my sins and heavy my guilt from a life before: why should I shrink from death? Only be my witness, and I shall close my eyes in death content!” Before she had finished, the chamberlain came with the bronze pan heated red-hot and proclaimed the command: “If Queen Jiang will not confess, sear both her hands at once!” Queen Jiang’s heart was like iron and stone, her will like tempered steel: how would she confess to so false and unjust a charge? Without letting her say a word, the chamberlain pressed the bronze pan into Queen Jiang’s two hands. It seared them until the sinews snapped and the skin was charred, the bones withered and there was a reek of smoke. The ten fingers are joined to the heart: poor woman, she fell senseless to the ground as if dead. Later generations, reading of this, were overcome with grief and lamented it in a poem: