Chapter 5
Chapter 5
[Prince Consort, the Princess Has Been Beaten to Death – 4]
The palace attendant’s heart ached at her words. Tears filled her eyes as she urged, “Your Majesty, you must at least consider the imperial princes and princesses.”
Empress Miao faced the inner side of the bed. She neither spoke nor moved, but wept in silence.
The two palace attendants waiting in the inner chamber exchanged worried looks. They softened their movements and withdrew, then respectfully reported, “Your Majesty, Her Majesty fell asleep after taking her medicine. She has not yet awakened…”
Lady Miao, née Wan, had only just emerged from the inner room and knew the state of Empress Miao’s health well. The Empress had found restful sleep nearly impossible of late; she could never have fallen asleep in so brief a time. Hearing the attendants’ report, Lady Miao, née Wan, understood most of what had happened. Unable to hide her unease, she glanced at the emperor from the corner of her eye.
She was a woman. She understood Empress Miao’s grievance and sympathized with her pain. But certain matters could not be handled through stubbornness. Empress Miao had a powerful natal family, as well as two sons and a daughter to consider.
The daughter was less of a concern. As a legitimate princess, she would always enjoy rank and wealth. But what of the sons?
They were legitimate sons born to the principal wife. If they failed to reach the throne one day, their very existence would invite suspicion. Empress Miao’s daughter was only twelve that year, and her youngest son only nine. Without their mother’s protection, would Noble Consort Qin and the other palace consorts not swallow them alive?
The emperor had finally lowered his head. If the Empress refused to accept the opening, and the emperor lost his temper and returned to the palace, persuading him to come for her again would be far more difficult.
Emperor Gaozu did not know that Empress Miao had never fallen asleep in the inner chamber. But his senses were keen. He noticed the oddity in Lady Miao, née Wan’s expression, then studied the faces of the attendants who had come out to report. From these clues, he guessed the truth.
“In that case, We shall wait for her inside.”
The attendants dared not stop him. Miao Xiangping, Liao Yuanyan, and the other male relatives could not properly enter. Emperor Gaozu gently pushed open the door, crossed the outer room, and entered the inner chamber. The bed curtains had been lowered halfway, and Empress Miao lay on her side with her face turned inward.
The chamber was dim, with a faint scent of medicine in the air. Desolate weariness hung over everything.
Pity stirred in Emperor Gaozu’s heart. He sighed inwardly, sat beside the bed, and called Empress Miao by name. “Lanqiu, I have come.”
Empress Miao’s back stiffened slightly. She said nothing.
Emperor Gaozu reached out and gently stroked her back. “I was wrong. I failed you. A few cups of wine muddled My head, and I said things I should never have said, causing you pain. Then I ordered you driven from the palace. That was a thousand times worse. In My folly, I cast aside all thought of the bond we built as husband and wife over so many years…”
Empress Miao tried to hold herself back, but in the end, she could not. Her eyes burned, and quiet sobs began to escape her.
Emperor Gaozu continued, “Every fault was Mine. The moment I rose in the world, I forgot the grace of all those old days when we weathered every storm together. I behaved like an utter bastard. Curse Me or strike Me if you wish, but please rise and talk to Me. Will you?”
Her sobs grew louder, but Empress Miao still did not answer.
Emperor Gaozu tried several more times. When she remained silent and refused to turn around, he understood. He sat beside the bed, sighed, and spoke no more.
…
Miao Xiangping and Liao Yuanyan were both men and could not enter the inner chamber, but they could not suppress their anxiety.
Lady Miao, née Wan, ordered tea prepared and personally presented it to Liao Yuanyan. She and her husband then bowed in gratitude. “Mr. Liao spoke out of justice and loyalty. My husband and I truly do not know how to thank you.”
“Duke of Zheng, please do not do this,” Liao Yuanyan said hurriedly. “You and I have been friends for more than ten years, and I have received Her Majesty’s kindness many times. How could I sit by and do nothing? Fortunately, His Majesty was wise enough to change his mind, allowing the matter to reach a happy resolution.” He then told the couple everything that had happened that day.
“So Brother-in-Law left the palace especially to stop you?” Relief appeared on Miao Xiangping’s face. He exchanged a delighted look with his wife. “In that case, there should be nothing more to fear.”
As they exchanged pleasantries, hurried footsteps sounded outside. The curtain was flung aside, and a palace attendant rushed in to report. “His Majesty has already left.”
She mentioned only the emperor and said nothing of the Empress.
Miao Xiangping’s and Liao Yuanyan’s hearts both sank. They asked in unison, “What of the Empress? Did she go with him?”
The attendant shook her head, sobbing. “His Majesty tried to persuade her for a long time, but the Empress was too deeply hurt. She never spoke a word.”
Liao Yuanyan sighed. Miao Xiangping sent his wife to look after the Empress, then accompanied Liao Yuanyan to see the emperor respectfully out of the residence.
Lady Miao, née Wan, went to the main room where Empress Miao was staying. Before she even entered, she heard muted weeping from within, heavy with grief. Her impatience vanished in an instant, replaced entirely by bitterness and compassion.
“Elder Sister,” she said as she entered, “the Imperial Physician said your illness cannot bear violent swings of emotion. Please stop crying. If the young Highnesses come later and see you like this, they will start crying too.”
Leaning against a palace attendant’s shoulder, Empress Miao could barely speak through her sobs. “‘I meant to grow old with you, but growing old has only made me grieve.’ I know I should have yielded just now. If not for myself, then for the children. But My heart hurt so badly, and My throat felt blocked. I could not say anything. I did not even know what to say…”
Her sorrow and pain moved Lady Miao, née Wan, to tears. “I understand. Words of consolation come easily, but truly sharing another person’s pain is difficult. In your place, I fear I would not have done any better.”
While the two women wept together, Miao Xiangping and Liao Yuanyan felt uneasy as they escorted the emperor from the residence.
Seeing this, Emperor Gaozu reassured them. “The Empress’s refusal to forgive Us does not mean she is narrow-minded or ignorant of the greater good. It means Our offense was too grave and Our apology insufficiently sincere, so We failed to move her. Xiangping, do not be troubled or afraid on that account.”
Miao Xiangping’s heart settled completely. Deeply moved, he bowed and said again and again, “Your Majesty is wise.”
Emperor Gaozu smiled and clapped him on the shoulder. “How many times have I told you? Call Me Brother-in-Law. This time, I fine you one month’s salary, so that you remember.”
Miao Xiangping and Liao Yuanyan both laughed.
Only after respectfully seeing the emperor out of the residence did Miao Xiangping fully release the breath he had been holding. He returned to the main room where Empress Miao was staying and instructed someone to repeat the emperor’s words to her.
At the end, he added, “The old Brother-in-Law is back. He is no longer the man he was before.”
Empress Miao had nearly exhausted herself from weeping and leaned weakly against Lady Miao, née Wan. When the palace attendant told her that the emperor had not been angered by her silence, but had blamed only the insincerity of his own apology and no one else, tears streamed down her face anew. “Did he truly say that?”
The attendant answered through her own tears, “Every word is true.”
Empress Miao covered her face with her sleeve and remained silent for a long time.
After a long while, just as Lady Miao, née Wan, assumed she would say no more, Empress Miao braced one hand against the bed and slowly sat up. “Have them pack My things. I shall return to the palace tomorrow.”
Lady Miao, née Wan, was startled. Her surprise mingled with confusion. “Your Majesty?”
“He is a man who values his pride above almost everything, yet he humbled himself enough to say all that to Me. He must truly repent. I ignored him, and he did not grow angry. Instead, he blamed himself. What more can I say?”
Empress Miao continued, “That day, he severed the grace between husband and wife. Today, he did everything in his power to bind it anew. Twenty years as husband and wife, and the duty of raising our children together, are matters to be treated with solemn care.”
Lady Miao, née Wan, was deeply moved. Smiling through her tears, she bowed. “Yes.”
The palace attendants hurried off to make preparations. Lady Miao, née Wan, helped, then sent someone to tell Miao Xiangping that the Empress would return to the palace the following day.
Miao Xiangping was greatly relieved by the news. The Empress’s expulsion from the palace had gravely wounded her dignity. Yet today the emperor had personally left the palace to invite her back and repeatedly lowered his head to apologize. He had given her ample means to step down gracefully. If they could turn the page now, it would be an excellent outcome.
Miao Xiangping ordered wine laid out so he and his wife could drink together at noon. The servant left beaming, only to hurry back in panic soon afterward.
“Master, something has happened!”
Miao Xiangping asked, “What is it?”
“His Majesty and Mr. Liao have returned!”
Miao Xiangping froze. He wondered why the pair had left only to come back. Before he could reach an answer, the servant stammered, “His Majesty is stripped to the waist and carrying thorned rods on his back. He says he has come to plead guilty before the Empress…”
Miao Xiangping was truly shocked. “What?”
He swiftly recovered and said repeatedly, “Go report to the Empress! This is a matter only she can handle!”
…
After Emperor Gaozu and Liao Yuanyan left the Duke of Zheng’s Residence, the latter tried to reassure him. “The Empress has a compassionate heart. She is simply overwhelmed by grief at present. If Your Majesty returns in a few days, you will certainly persuade her to come home.”
Having just seen Empress Miao, Emperor Gaozu could not help remembering Empress Xu, who had accompanied him for so many years. Putting himself in Luan Zhenghuan’s place, he imagined causing trouble over a concubine, behaving so recklessly that he expelled Empress Xu from the palace. How heartbroken would she have been? How deeply would their children have suffered?
Luan Zhenghuan, oh Luan Zhenghuan. You committed the wrong, and now I must clean up after you.
Emperor Gaozu sighed inwardly, but he genuinely pitied Empress Miao. After a moment’s thought, he ordered the imperial guards to go to the Ministry of Rites, have the Empress’s ceremonial procession prepared, and send it to Liao Manor. He stripped off his upper robe, placed thorned rods across his back, and set out once more for the Duke of Zheng’s Residence to see Empress Miao.
Liao Yuanyan’s first thought was that this was improper. He instinctively started to dissuade the emperor, but swallowed the words before they left his mouth.
Perhaps this was for the best. First, it would comfort Empress Miao and the Duke of Zheng. Second, it would demonstrate the emperor’s benevolence and loyalty to old companions, reassuring the veteran ministers who had grown anxious after Empress Miao’s rebuke.
Did the emperor himself perhaps share that intention?
Liao Manor and the Duke of Zheng’s Residence were not tremendously far apart, but neither were they close.
When the Empress’s ceremonial procession entered the streets, everyone on the road had to withdraw. Ritual music sounded as it passed. The high officials and nobles living nearby came out to investigate. When they saw the emperor stripped to the waist with thorned rods on his back, and the Empress’s ceremonial procession behind him, they stared dumbfounded. Then they rushed to inform the heads of their households and ask what should be done.
The residents of this quarter were all senior ministers at court. Naturally, the news shocked them.
Court officials could not ride in the presence of the Empress’s ceremonial procession. The Minister of Rites was already well advanced in years, so he had a strong servant carry him on his back and race after it. The Minister dropped to his knees and refused to rise. “Your Majesty must not do this! For a sovereign to carry thorned rods and plead guilty before a woman of the inner palace is unheard of. No court official would do such a thing, much less the Son of Heaven!”
Emperor Gaozu ordered the attendants to help him up. “Correct a fault if you have committed it; guard against it even if you have not. We wronged the Empress grievously. This is no more than We should do.”
The Minister of Rites had no way to stop him. He could only follow behind on the way to the Duke of Zheng’s Residence.
Empress Miao had ordered her belongings packed for her return to the palace and had not yet gone back to bed. When Lady Miao, née Wan, hurriedly reported that the emperor stood outside with thorned rods across his back to plead guilty, warmth surged through her heart. Tears poured down her cheeks. “Why go so far…?”
She immediately instructed the attendants, “Dress Me. I will go outside to receive His Majesty.”
The attendants hurriedly changed her into the Empress’s pheasant-figured ceremonial robe and dressed her hair. There was no time to adorn it with pearls, jade, and hairpins before they supported her out of the residence.
Lady Miao, née Wan, ordered the household servants to withdraw and accompanied Empress Miao outside. When they reached the gates of the Duke of Zheng’s Residence, they heard ritual music approaching. Several more steps brought the emperor into view, stripped to the waist with thorned rods across his back.
Empress Miao was weak from illness and barely had the strength to stand, but she forced herself through a full obeisance. Kneeling with her forehead lowered to the ground, she choked out, “Your Majesty shows this subject-wife such profound grace and devotion that ten thousand deaths could not repay it…”
“Husband and wife are one. Why speak of repayment?”
Emperor Gaozu stepped forward and helped her up, overwhelmed by emotion. “Seeing the Empress like this only deepens Our shame.”
Most of the ministers along the street had followed behind and now stood in complete silence. The emperor took Empress Miao’s hand, turned to face them, and declared solemnly, “The Empress entered the Luan Family at fifteen. She has always conducted herself with virtue and benevolence and fulfilled every wifely duty. We owe her the grace of mutual support and the bond of weathering every storm together. Our virtue was thin and Our conduct poor. We surrendered to wine and women, doted upon a concubine, and forgot the first wife to whom We owed everything. It was utterly wrong. Only Yuanyan’s counsel brought Us to Our senses. Today, We carry thorned rods and plead guilty, praying that the Empress will return to the palace and set at ease the hearts of the court and all beneath Heaven.”
Empress Miao choked on her tears. “Your Majesty…”
Miao Xiangping’s eyes grew wet as he listened to Emperor Gaozu. Liao Yuanyan watched the scene with an aching throat, overcome with feeling.
The ministers knelt and bowed their heads, praising in unison, “Your Majesty is wise!”