124 CHINESE POETRY AND ITS CONNOTATIONS 



Heaven virtually ruled the Empire. For these exquisite 

 creatures no extravagances were too great and various 

 dynasties have fallen through the popular revolt against the 

 excesses of an Imperial concubine. Many names occur in 

 history and in poetry. The most famous, and those to whom 

 allusion is most often made in suggesting attributes both 

 good and evil, are Imperial Favorites, to be noticed later on. 



The inmates of the Palace amounted to thousands, and 

 besides the women, — the possible concubines — who lived in 

 retirement "deep in the Palace" there were a host of singing 

 and dancing girls, these being known as Kuan Chi If £$ 

 they were the most beautiful and talented inmates of brothels 

 whom Officials presented to the Emperor and who enter- 

 tained and charmed the Son of Heaven and his favorites, 

 (women and also the men who were commanded to attend) 

 with their exquisite songs and wonderful posturing. 



The Emperor's life was not entirely given over to dis- 

 sipation and pleasures, it was not all passed in the beautiful 

 surroundings of the Imperial gardens, though the principal 

 allusions in poetry are to these moments; the cares of state 

 were many and at sunrise the Officials attended the Audience 

 Hall to make their reports and discuss Imperial matters, 

 while the Court ceremonials which were of the greatest im- 

 portance were extremely solemn affairs attended only by 

 men and carried out with the utmost dignity. 



Imperial Favorites. 



Nu Ying ^ $£ the Concubine of the Emperor ShunPp, the younger 

 daughter of Yao^;ber elder sister was Shun's Empress. Shun was 

 killed in battle and buried in Hunan, the two sisters came to his grave 

 and wept so bitterly that the bamboos all became spotted and remain 

 so to this day. They eventually threw themselves into the river 

 Hsiang and drowned themselves. 



Mo Hsi$jsf£ the Concubine of Chieh t$£ of Hsia J| , she loved 

 to hear the tearing of silk, which was of course very difficult to procure 

 in those early days, however, to please her Chieh %fe arranged that 

 people should hastily prepare it and others stood by to tear it in strips 

 to give her pleasure. For her gratification a great lake of wine was 

 made on which she and the Emperor floated in a boat, this was sur- 

 rounded with "hills of meat," and for her amusement three thousand 

 men were obliged to lie upon their faces at the edge of the lake and 

 lap up the wine as though they had been beasts. 



T'a Chi JH 2 Concubine of Chou Hsin ffi ^S of Shang pgj, her 

 tastes were much the same as those of Mo Hsi but more depraved, 

 she may be said to be the most wicked woman in Chinese history ! 

 For her pleasure Chou Hsin spent millions of the people's money in 

 building the Green-Jasper Terrace, he also prepared a lake of wine and 

 a forest in which the trees were of metal with leaves of meat. As there 

 was dissatisfaction and revolt abroad she expressed the opinion that 

 the punishments of the day were not sufficiently severe, and invented 

 the terrible torture of the metal pole; the culprit was obliged to clasp 



