Chapter 108
Chapter 108
[Li Erfeng Becomes Wanyan Gou – 28 (Future-Era Extra)]
The television drama *Ode to the Great Song* had been on the air for barely two weeks when the director, screenwriters, and the rest of the creative team were cursed to hell and back. During that time, viewers blasted the production team over and over, sending the show onto the trending searches more times than anyone could count. Even its rating on Douban had plunged from an initial 9.3 to 5.7, and as the story continued to unfold, the score kept sinking.
Why?
Because the show was nothing like what they had advertised!
One look at the official Weibo account for *Ode to the Great Song* showed nothing but furious comments. And the viewers were not simply hurling obscenities, either. Every rant was backed by facts and delivered with heartfelt passion.
A Little Orange Lamp: “What the fuck, Director? Is there something wrong with your brain? You and the screenwriter should shake your heads and listen for the sound of water sloshing around in there! I started watching *Ode to the Great Song* because I wanted to see Emperor Shizong Wen pacify Western Xia, destroy Jin, open the way to the Western Regions, and usher in a golden age. I did not fucking come here to watch Emperors Qinzong and Huizong squabble with their harems, okay?!”
Rumbling Stomach: “How many times do we have to say it before the production team understands? Those two spineless losers were just background characters. One line in the opening narration would have been enough. There was no need to dwell on them. If you absolutely had to give them a close-up, then show them committing suicide in Jin at the end. There was seriously no need for any of this early on. And as for the harem, at most you could have brought Empress Dowager Meng and Empress Dowager Zheng out for an appearance, then focused on how helpless great ministers like Li Gang and Zong Ze were while serving under those two emperors. Instead, you found a pack of women with identical influencer faces to fawn over Qinzong and Huizong and claw at each other like jealous sisters. I’m going to puke right here! Could you people possibly make this any more disgusting?!”
One week later.
Rumbling Stomach: “Fuck, I admit defeat! I thought using Emperor Shizong Wen’s name in the publicity, only to spend the first five episodes on Qinzong and Huizong’s harem romances, was already disgusting enough. I never imagined you had something even more revolting waiting for us! The historical record clearly states that Emperor Shizong loved and honored his Empress. He left the Six Palaces empty and never took any consorts. Yet you somehow invented a County Princess of Jin as his unforgettable first love and made us watch them flirt for three whole episodes. And now Empress Wei is a vicious supporting character who copies his first love’s clothes and makeup and schemes her way into marrying Emperor Shizong Wen??? Is this something a human being would do?!! Screenwriter! Director! Come out here and take your beating! I’ve got one thing to say to you: fuck your mother!!!”
Another week passed.
Little Tiger Got Eaten: “Fuck you and your goddamn production team. I don’t even have the strength to keep cursing anymore! The Humiliation of Jingkang-do you understand what the Humiliation of Jingkang was?! Do you know what appalling sexual violence and torture women endured at the time?! The histories state it perfectly clearly. During the Jingkang Incident, Princess Huifu was taken north as a captive along with the other imperial princesses, women of the imperial clan, and titled ladies. During the Jianyan era, her Prince Consort, Wang Bian, was convicted of disrespect, torn apart by five horses, and his clan was exiled. Afterward, the Princess became a Taoist nun. She never remarried. She spent the rest of her life doing good deeds and taking in destitute women who had nowhere else to go. When she died, she donated everything she owned and was buried in a simple grave behind her temple. The shrine later generations built for her is still standing…”
“And what the hell did you people do? You invented a romance and claimed she became a nun and never married again because she was mourning her love for a man from Jin’s imperial clan?! That isn’t even how Stockholm syndrome works! If you wanted to stage this kind of story, you could have invented a character. Instead, you wanted to cash in on Princess Huifu’s fame while dumping a bucket of filth over her head. Are you even human?! She spent the latter half of her life accumulating virtue and doing good, all so trash like you could slander her a thousand years later? Let’s crowdfund a hitman to smash the screenwriter’s head in!!!”
There was another comment below it: “I can’t take this anymore. Seriously! I’m begging the screenwriter to change careers. Go sell savory crepes on the street or get a factory job. Just stop ruining Emperor Shizong Wen! And Director, if you honestly don’t know how to film this, open Baidu and pull up Emperor Shizong Wen’s biography. Start from his birth and follow it line by line. Even a dry chronological account would be fine!”
Goldfish’s Little Wife: “Holy shit, the sister above is brilliant. I can already picture it!”
Helpful Netizen Round Ball: “I got excited the moment the production team announced that the show would portray the magnificent life of Emperor Shizong Wen. I waited more than a year, and in the end I got excited over absolutely nothing. Fuck!”
Dream Thief: “Painfully accurate. Hahahahaha!”
Little Bear [redacted]: “*Ode to the Great Song* (X), *Ode to the Great Cowardly Song* (check mark)!”
Where was the damned broadcast regulator?!
They were always fading scenes to black and censoring everything below the neck. When were they going to do Daddy a favor and clean up garbage dramas that made up whatever they pleased and turned the truth on its head?!
Chi Jian was a die-hard fan of Emperor Shizong Wen. Ever since childhood, he had listened to his grandfather tell romanticized tales of the Emperor’s campaigns north to recover lost territory and his wars in every direction. Thanks to that early foundation, he had developed a special interest in history. After the gaokao, he had enrolled in Peking University’s history department without a second thought. His family was wealthy enough that he did not have to worry about money. He had chosen it purely out of passion.
When word first spread online that a television drama about Emperor Shizong Wen’s glorious life was in the works, Chi Jian had found it hard to believe. Later, when the production team made an official announcement and landed on the trending searches, he clicked in for a look. Holy crap-every role had gone to a veteran performer or famous actor. This thing had blockbuster written all over it!
Chi Jian followed the production’s official Weibo account without hesitation. A year later, the producers finally announced the premiere date and the streaming platform that would carry *Ode to the Great Song*. For the first time in his life, Chi Jian paid for a video membership. Yet after watching only a few episodes, he began to feel that something was not quite right.
Episode one was about the scheming in Huizong’s harem. Episode two was about the infighting in Qinzong’s Eastern Palace. Episode three finally mentioned the threat Jin posed to the Song court, and Chi Jian’s tightly furrowed brow relaxed a fraction. At last, he thought, the real story was about to begin.
Then Huizong abdicated to become Retired Emperor, Qinzong ascended the throne, and their consorts spent the next three episodes fighting one enormous combined harem war.
Chi Jian: “…”
He had one thing to say: fuck their mothers!
The plot only grew more outrageous from there. Emperor Shizong Wen met the County Princess of Jin, his supposed one true love, in Dongjing (Kaifeng), and the two fell in love at first sight. At the same time, Qinzong coveted the woman’s beauty and wanted to take her as a consort.
Emperor Shizong Wen openly defied Qinzong for the woman he loved and was demoted to guard the imperial mausoleums. To save him, his beloved allowed Qinzong to violate her, then left Dongjing with a broken heart. Empress Wei seized the opening, got Emperor Shizong Wen drunk, and consummated a marriage with him…
Chi Jian: “…”
My eyes!
Someone crowdfund me a pair of clean eyes that had never seen this garbage!!!
Then came the Jingkang catastrophe, interspersed with scenes of a man from Jin’s imperial clan forcibly claiming Princess Huifu and tormenting her through a melodramatic love-hate affair. Emperors Qinzong and Huizong, their consorts, and the imperial clan were taken north as prisoners. Emperor Shizong Wen succeeded to the throne, devoted himself to restoring the realm, and went to war against Jin.
To promote some pretty-boy newcomer, the goddamn producers had not only cast a pale, skinny weakling without two ounces of muscle on his bones as the legendary general Yue Fei-they had even tried to sell a romantic pairing between him and Emperor Shizong Wen?!!!
And historically, Yue Fei had been recommended by Zong Ze. Could they please stop fucking making Marshal Yue and Marshal Zong rivals?
Had that great general accidentally dug up the screenwriter’s ancestral grave while fighting Jin or something?!
When Chi Jian had first started the show, he had been thinking, *Wow, time to relive just how insanely overpowered Emperor Shizong Wen’s life was.* By now, his face was numb and his head was filled with obscenities. All he wanted to know was how much more idiotic this piece-of-shit drama-the one that had tricked him into paying for a membership-could possibly become.
Oh, so Zonghan was the beloved County Princess’s father.
Sure enough, his lost love appeared. She crossed the space between the Song and Jin armies facing each other on the battlefield, knelt before Emperor Shizong Wen’s horse with tears streaming down her lovely face, and begged him to spare her father.
Emperor Shizong Wen hated her for leaving without a word all those years ago and refused.
His lost love-his lost love killed herself. Then her maid revealed the truth: Qinzong had violated her when she sacrificed herself to save the man she loved, forcing her to flee far from home. Emperor Shizong Wen was overcome with remorse and drew his sword to kill himself?!!
Excuse me???
Maid, was your mouth sewn shut? Why didn’t you say something sooner???
Did your mistress owe you back pay or what?
What? She had left a letter when she departed Dongjing, but the vicious Empress Wei secretly burned it?!
Wonderful. That fit the show’s characterization perfectly!
Chi Jian did not bother watching the rest closely. He dragged the progress bar forward at random and landed on a scene where Emperor Shizong Wen had his hand wrapped around Empress Wei’s throat. Red-faced, he roared, “You vicious woman! We will depose you!” The Crown Prince ran forward in tears to plead for his mother, only to be kicked aside.
Then Li Gang finally made his entrance. Looking anxious, he urged His Majesty to calm down. The Wei clan was powerful, he said, and they would still need the Empress’s father in the war against Jin. His Majesty must put the greater good first, and so on and so forth.
Chi Jian: “…”
Silently, he clicked the X. He could not keep tormenting his heart like this.
Then he opened Weibo, found the production’s official account, and tore the director and screenwriter to shreds.
The screenwriter received so much abuse that they disabled comments. The next day, they posted: “When an avalanche strikes, not a single snowflake is innocent.”
The attached photograph showed the screenwriter hooked up to an IV and looking haggard. Apparently, the flood of criticism had damaged their health.
Chi Jian stared at the post in astonishment. He reflected alone for a long time, then opened Weibo and typed a single line.
When an avalanche strikes, every snowflake bravely ventures to the ends of the earth!
Then he tagged the screenwriter.
Before buying a membership to watch this drama, Chi Jian had been a perfectly healthy, high-spirited young man. After finishing it, he felt as if someone had struck his heart with a hammer. His chest was so tight he could barely breathe. Looking back, the last time he had felt this way was in his first year of middle school, when he read *The Return of the Condor Heroes* and reached the part where Yin Zhiping violated Xiaolongnu.
He leaned against the wall for half the night, utterly unable to sleep. The next morning, he got out of bed, splashed his face with cold water, opened his computer, and began writing a long article to set the record straight-not only for Emperor Shizong Wen, but for every illustrious historical figure the show had maligned.
“The fictional Emperor Shizong Wen: falls in love at first sight with a County Princess of Jin, fights Qinzong over a woman, relies on his father-in-law’s power to resist Jin and save Song, shares an ambiguous attraction with Yue Fei, and ultimately stands alone at the pinnacle of power, mourning the love he lost.”
“The real Emperor Shizong Wen was a heaven-born genius, heroic and brilliant, solemn in bearing yet open and unrestrained. At twenty, fate thrust him onto the throne, and he changed the era name to Jianyan. In the first year of Jianyan, Emperor Shizong recovered lost territory and dealt Jin a devastating blow. In the second year of Jianyan, he regained the Sixteen Prefectures of Yan and Yun and shook the world with his fame. In the third year of Jianyan, he destroyed Western Xia and Jin and brought peace to the realm. He was twenty-three years old that year!”
“Afterward, he devoted himself to government, promoted farming and sericulture, and ushered in the Jianyan golden age. He campaigned north against the Mongols and east against the islands beyond the sea, expanding his territory across the Eurasian continent. Europeans called him the Scourge of God, the peoples beyond the borders honored him as the Heavenly Khagan, and his own subjects hailed him as a sage sovereign. Had the era’s seafaring technology been sufficient to carry armies across the Pacific and Indian Oceans, Song’s military strength and national power would have allowed Emperor Shizong to unite the entire globe!”
“Furthermore, throughout Emperor Shizong’s entire life, first, he never killed a meritorious minister; second, he never discarded his generals once their work was done; third, he never indulged in women; and fourth, he never chased grandiose achievements for vanity’s sake! Older men such as Zong Ze, Li Gang, and Zhu Shengfei naturally lived out their lives in peace, but Wu Jie, Yue Fei, and the others were still young. Yet Emperor Shizong never showed the slightest suspicion toward them. He cared for them and entrusted them with great responsibility all his life, treating them as his own arms. That was what made him truly extraordinary!”
“Within the inner palace, Emperor Shizong never filled the Six Palaces merely for show and never took a single consort. He had only Empress Wei, unlike Emperors Qinzong and Huizong, who maintained crowded harems and even selected virgin girls to enter the palace and practice Daoism.”
“More admirable still, although Emperor Shizong was a man, his thinking was far from conservative. When Empress Dowager Zheng, the imperial princesses, women of the imperial clan, and titled ladies were ransomed and brought back to the capital, they were not nailed to a pillar of shame. Instead, Emperor Shizong treated them with compassion. He provided for the older women, allowed the younger ones to remarry, and placed no restrictions on those who wished to enter religious life. When Prince Consort Wang Bian abused a Princess, Emperor Shizong did not blindly urge them to reconcile. He applied the law with uncompromising severity and had the Prince Consort executed as a warning to others.”
“Later generations criticized Emperor Shizong as brutal for this. Yet one fact cannot be denied: it was precisely because his harsh punishments halted the disgust and condemnation directed by noble houses and common families alike at women whose chastity had supposedly been lost in the north that Northern Song society began to change. Its former conservatism and insularity gave way, women’s status gradually rose, and the obsession with female chastity slowly faded. Otherwise, the consequences would have been unthinkable!”
“The most precious aspect of Emperor Shizong’s character was that power never corrupted him. Nor did he begin behaving irrationally near the end of his life, as emperors before him had done. There had been wise sovereigns before Emperor Shizong, and each had achieved dazzling feats. Yet as they aged and their health declined, their dispositions changed with them. Monsters at the pinnacle of power began to warp, and the damage they inflicted upon the realm needs no explanation. Emperor Shizong did not. He was as virtuous at the end as he had been at the beginning. One who orders Heaven and Earth is called Wen; one who shows compassion and cherishes the people is called Wen. Emperor Shizong deserved the title beyond question!”
“Behind a successful man, there is often a woman quietly supporting him. Emperor Shizong had such a woman at his side-not some County Princess of Jin cast as his lost first love, but Empress Wei, his first and only wife.”
“The histories record that Empress Wei came from a military family and that her father was a military official of the third rank. That might sound impressive. Yet anyone who understands how severely Song elevated civil officials while suppressing military men before Emperor Shizong’s reign would never consider her background especially distinguished, much less believe Emperor Shizong married her to secure the Wei clan’s support and borrow their troops for his campaigns against Jin.”
“Emperor Shizong was not a son of Huizong’s principal wife. His mother was merely a palace maid. Huizong had many children, and for a long time, neither mother nor son attracted much notice. The histories preserve almost nothing about Emperor Shizong from those years. Aside from his birth, the bestowal of his name, and occasional rewards he received alongside Qinzong and the other imperial princes, there was practically no record of him at all. It was not until Emperor Shizong was fifteen that the court historians devoted an entry to him alone.”
“‘In the spring of the fourth year of Xuanhe, the Emperor traveled to Luoyang. Prince Kang Gou petitioned to take Lady Wei, daughter of the General Who Cherishes Transformation, as his wife. His Majesty granted the request.'”
“The ‘Emperor’ in this passage was Huizong, Emperor Shizong’s father. Prince Kang was the title Emperor Shizong held at the time, and Lady Wei, daughter of the General Who Cherishes Transformation, later became Empress Wei. I believe that anyone who has read and understood this single line could never accept that Emperor Shizong did not love Empress Wei and instead cherished some other woman as his one true love.”
“According to contemporary accounts, every peony in Luoyang’s Baihui Garden bloomed overnight. When officials reported the marvel, Huizong took it as a most auspicious omen. As a Daoist devotee, he believed it was a gift from Heaven. He therefore traveled to Luoyang with his trusted courtiers, imperial sons, and members of the imperial clan. He composed poems, held banquets, and bestowed rewards upon the officials. One can imagine how delighted he was. Emperor Shizong, the son Huizong had never valued, chose precisely that moment to tell his father he wished to marry. Huizong may not even have thought twice before nodding his approval. One must admit, Emperor Shizong had gone to painstaking lengths to make it happen.”
“The claim in *Ode to the Great Song* that Emperor Shizong married Empress Wei for her family’s military power is even more absurd. First, Northern Song’s suppression of military officers had been exceptionally severe before Emperor Shizong’s reign. Soldiers did not know their generals, and generals did not know their soldiers. Empress Wei’s father could not possibly have commanded an independent army or ruled a region as his private domain. Second, most records concerning her father date from the reigns of Emperors Shenzong and Zhezong, while he appears very rarely in accounts from the reigns of Qinzong and Huizong. Even the biography of Empress Wei in the *History of Song* mentions several times that Emperor Shizong and his wife visited the Wei residence to see a sick relative. From this, it is reasonable to infer that General Wei was in poor health and bedridden. After campaigning in his younger years, he had likely retired from service by Huizong’s reign. What military power could he possibly have controlled?”
“According to the surviving records in the *History of Song*, the wives of Emperor Shizong’s elder brothers all came from civil-official families. His wife alone came from a military house. One must remember that in those days, a prince who married a woman from a military family might well become an object of ridicule. Yet Emperor Shizong chose her without wavering. If that was not love, what was? Moreover, throughout Emperor Shizong’s reign, the Wei clan never produced a military official with real command authority. If Empress Wei’s father had truly been a powerful commander, this would plainly make no sense. Taken together, every piece of evidence demolishes the claim that Emperor Shizong married Empress Wei for military power.”
“For many years after their wedding, records of Emperor Shizong and Empress Wei almost always appeared together. They left the capital side by side to guard the imperial mausoleums, where they spent a peaceful and happy period and had a son and a daughter. Husband and wife treated each other with respect and lived in exceptional harmony. A collection of contemporary anecdotes written during the Xuanhe era described Prince Kang’s family going out to enjoy a spring excursion. The Princess held their little daughter in her arms, while Prince Kang carried their son and heir on his shoulders…”
“Empress Wei’s insight and courage were no less than any man’s, and she had distinguished herself even as a child. During the Jingkang Incident, when Emperor Shizong traveled to Nanjing, Yingtian Prefecture, to ascend the throne, she urged her husband to go ahead while she took their children with her to the new capital. When bandits attacked them along the road, she remained calm in the face of danger, directed her escorts in driving them off, and proceeded to Nanjing without further incident.”
“After Emperor Shizong ascended the throne, Empress Wei became an even more capable partner. Whenever a court official made a mistake, or Emperor Shizong flew into a rage, a few words from her could calm him. Above, she served and cared for Empress Dowager Meng and Empress Dowager Zheng. Below, she comforted and supported the imperial princesses and women of the imperial clan. The court respected her, and Emperor Shizong himself remarked several times, ‘With such a worthy wife, I ask nothing more of this life.’ The histories themselves certified her as one of the great virtuous empresses. What is wrong with the screenwriter of *Ode to the Great Song*? Why blacken Empress Wei into a woman without a single redeeming quality?”
“And then there is Li Gang. I could close my eyes and think of countless ways to introduce this famous minister, so why did the screenwriter insist on choosing the most degrading one possible?!”
“Why not have his first scene show him responding to the chaos in Dongjing, so viewers unfamiliar with this period could understand who Li Gang was, what he did, and how helpless he was while serving under Emperors Qinzong and Huizong?! Why not show him entering the palace in the middle of the night, stopping the Imperial Guards from abandoning the city, and desperately urging Qinzong to remain in Dongjing?!”
“Even if you wanted a quiet domestic scene, you could have shown him eating at home, glancing north in Jin’s direction, and heaving a sigh. That alone would have given the show some depth. Why turn him into a hidebound petty villain who separates Emperor Shizong from the County Princess of Jin and supports Empress Wei in meddling with the government?!”
“If you wanted treacherous, repulsive villains, film Wang Boyan. Film Huang Qianshan or Fan Zongyin. Then kill them on some trumped-up charge and give the audience a burst of instant gratification. What did Li Gang ever do to deserve this?”
“And Zong Ze…”
“Yue Fei…”
Chi Jian had a bellyful of things he wanted to say. His ten fingers flew across the keyboard, and before long, he had poured out nearly ten thousand words. He cited historical sources while dismantling the plot and cursing the director and screenwriter until not a shred of dignity remained between them. At last, he clicked Post and let out a long breath.
When he finished, he called his grandfather. “Have you watched *Ode to the Great Song*?”
Old Master Chi adjusted his reading glasses. “Little Jian, I’m old. When my time comes, I’ll die on my own. You don’t need to push me into it.”
Chi Jian: “…”
He could not help laughing. When he stopped, he asked, “So you think it’s terrible too?”
Old Master Chi said, “This isn’t a matter of whether it’s good or bad. It’s a pile of shit. A pile of shit without a single redeeming feature.”
An idea had been turning over in Chi Jian’s mind. After the old man finished, he sounded him out. “I have a few friends. Some graduated from directing programs, and some work professionally in film. What do you think about me producing a series with Emperor Shizong Wen as the protagonist?”
“Oh,” Old Master Chi said. “That would be wonderful.”
Chi Jian waited for a long time, but his grandfather said nothing else. He checked his phone to make sure the call had not disconnected, then tried again. “Grandpa?”
“I’m listening. Is there something else?”
“Yes!” Chi Jian answered at once. After a pause, he added cautiously, “Can I have some money?”
Old Master Chi: “…”
What could he do? The boy was his own precious grandchild.
Naturally, he had to indulge him.
Chi Jian secured an investment from his grandfather and began enthusiastically planning which friends to contact and what preparations to make. What he did not know was that the long article he had posted not long ago had gone viral. It already had more than a million likes and hundreds of thousands of comments.
There was no helping it. Emperor Shizong Wen’s reputation was simply too great, and his political achievements were far too dazzling. Perhaps no one could say with certainty that no ruler after him had ever matched his feats, but none before him had.
Fine. The whole universe belonged to you people already. What did a little matter like bloodline count for?
*Ode to the Great Song* had exploited Emperor Shizong Wen’s fame from the moment production began, attracting universal attention as soon as the project was announced. No one had imagined it could become such a terrible show. After the premiere, its reputation had plummeted by the day, yet the production team remained self-righteous. They flooded Douban with fake high ratings while paying to suppress scandalous trending topics. The audience’s anger had been building for a long time. So when they discovered a viewer posting a lengthy review that cited historical sources while tearing into the director and screenwriter, they immediately surged forward to applaud, cheer, and protect their comrade-in-arms.
“Oh my God, this is exactly what I’ve been thinking! What the hell did they film in *Ode to the Great Cowardly Song*? They smeared the entire cast of historical figures. Not one person acts remotely normal. I’m fucking speechless!”
“Exactly! Emperor Shizong Wen was brilliant and heroic, a living Gary Stu template-a heaven-favored genius so outrageous that even novelists wouldn’t dare write him that way. You could pull out an entire row of famous anecdotes about him without even trying. What the hell did the show give us instead?!”
“A twenty-year-old Son of Heaven, handsome and peerless. At rest, he possessed the serene elegance of the setting moon; in motion, the agile power of a soaring dragon. What kind of divine character design is this? I’m dead!”