Chapter 126
The twelfth day of the third month was Empress Dowager Chen’s birthday, and the entire court came to offer their congratulations.
Once the third month began, birthday gifts from officials across the realm arrived in Yingcheng one after another.
Over the past half year, the officials had learned well enough that the Emperor was practical and disliked extravagance above all. He particularly detested anything that burdened the people or squandered public funds. Thus, the gifts they sent to Grand Empress Dowager Chen were mostly local specialties and fresh regional produce—a sharp contrast to the extravagance of Emperor Xuanning’s reign, when every tribute presented had competed to be more costly and exotic than the last.
Last year, Emperor Xuanning had also celebrated Grand Empress Dowager Chen’s birthday with great ceremony. There were established precedents for imperial birthdays, and each celebration was much the same as the last. This year’s exception was the Empress’s involvement, though the court officials assumed it would be no different in substance.
Yet when they returned home, they discovered that their wives and children were counting the days, eagerly awaiting the twelfth.
Quite a few officials remembered what had happened after the Empress’s last birthday. For several days afterward, whenever they brought out a little wine to drink, their wives would insist on joining them for a few cups. That alone would have been tolerable. The worst part came afterward, when their wives would seize them and ask what songs and dances accompanied the drinking outside, and what sort of charms the women there possessed.
At such moments, they suddenly realized just how wise the Emperor’s ban on visiting courtesans and keeping prostitutes overnight had been. A single sentence—“One can’t drink flower wine these days”—had saved them from the questioning.
It took half a month before peace was restored at home.
Now, alarmed, they hurriedly asked their families, “In past years, you always wished to feign illness and avoid going. Why are you looking forward to it so eagerly this year?”
They received nearly identical answers.
“Her Majesty said that for the Grand Empress Dowager’s birthday, she would again invite us to drink wine and enjoy songs and dancing.”
The young masters and ladies had their own reasons as well.
“The gatherings arranged by Her Majesty are unlike the usual sort. There, everyone is treated equally regardless of family background. It is not like elsewhere, where people are divided into ranks and some are not even allowed a seat.
“Not only can we meet potential matches there, but we can also make friends. It is more enjoyable than anywhere else.”
So the household was about to be thrown into turmoil all over again? The officials inwardly groaned. But matchmaking was a serious matter for their children, and none of them could bring themselves to tell their wives to claim illness and stay home.
This time, they could not make their leisurely way into the palace. Still, they did not have to enter as early as the fourth watch, as they had in the past. A compromise had been made: they only needed to arrive by the fifth watch.
It was neither too early nor too late. The elderly would not suffer so much, and the arrangements were exceptionally considerate.
In previous years, crowds would swarm around the Dismounting Bridge. Ministry of Rites officials would shout themselves hoarse, and it would take more than an hour to get everyone lined up in the proper order. By the time the ranks were formed, even the young were exhausted, let alone the elderly.
Today, however, was different. The moment they reached the Dismounting Bridge, they sensed the change.
After crossing the bridge, palace household officials came forward to ask which family and residence they belonged to, then issued them numbered tokens. The Ministry of Rites officials beside them had already registered their names, and they could proceed without delay.
Farther ahead, officials from the Ministry of Rites directed the court officials and their sons eastward, while the titled ladies led their daughters to stand on the west side.
The eastern and western groups were each divided into two lines, this time according to civil and military rank. As in court, civil officials and military officers stood in separate rows; the titled ladies’ side was arranged in the same fashion.
At the front of each line, Ministry of Rites officials checked the numbered tokens against the people present. Whenever someone was unsure where to stand, palace household attendants promptly stepped forward to guide them.
Almost without any delay, the men and women were sorted into their proper lines and ranks.
Even someone as exalted and elderly as Prince Jing's Grand Dowager Consort could not help asking, “Why was it never like this in previous years? If every visit to the palace were handled as smoothly as this one, who would still dread coming here?”
The work had been completed with ease, and even the officials of the Ministry of Rites felt that the arrangements could not have been better.
Naturally, they did not dare claim the credit. With great deference, they replied, “Her Majesty, together with Lord Song and Lord Jiang of the Commerce and Taxation Directorate, drew up a detailed set of regulations. We merely followed them step by step, and everything fell into place.”
Grand Princess Yiqing praised her sincerely. “Her Majesty truly is capable—a woman no less able than any man.”
Once she had opened the way, the noble ladies all joined in, lavishing praise upon the Empress.
The court officials, on the other hand, felt rather conflicted. They did not wish to admit it, but the Empress’s birthday celebration only a month ago was still fresh in their minds. At that time, the Ministry of Rites officials had been worked to the point of looking utterly exhausted; the contrast between the two occasions was simply too stark.
The palace household staff were also markedly different. In past years, at times such as these, quite a few eunuchs would take advantage of the confusion to line their own pockets. This time, however, everything was orderly and well regulated, and they cooperated with the Ministry of Rites with exceptional diligence.
Thus, it truly was the Empress who had overseen the Ministry of Rites and the palace household in organizing the celebration—and she had done a better job than anyone before her. Had she been a man, she would surely have been praised as a capable minister and efficient administrator. Yet when it came to the Empress, they could only vaguely call her “virtuous and worthy.”
Once everyone had assembled, the Ministry of Rites officials led the four columns forward, stopping before the Hall of Supreme Harmony.
At the sight of the Hall of Supreme Harmony, hung with red decorations and festooned in celebration overnight, they were utterly shocked. Grand Empress Dowager Chen was to receive the birthday felicitations in the Hall of Supreme Harmony!
There had been no precedent for this in either the previous dynasty or the present one. The last time, when the Emperor had wished to celebrate the Empress’s birthday in the Hall of Supreme Harmony, Minister Gu had used the pressing demands of the metropolitan examinations as an excuse to ask the Empress to intervene, and the matter had come to nothing. Yet now, the Empress had arranged Grand Empress Dowager Chen’s birthday celebration in the Hall of Supreme Harmony.
This was the foremost of the three great halls of the outer court, a place that could not be used except for matters concerning the state and the realm. Never before had any woman of the inner palace set foot there. For Grand Empress Dowager Chen to receive homage here even once placed her above the primary empresses of both the Founding Emperor and Emperor Taizong.
The Hall of Supreme Harmony was vast enough that there was no need to conduct the ceremony outside this time.
The drums sounded—boom, boom—and the ritual officials led the ministers and noble ladies into the great hall.
The noble ladies were especially thrilled. Every movement they made was cautious and solemn. To enter the Hall of Supreme Harmony even once in their lifetimes was something they could boast of for the rest of their days.
Grand Empress Dowager Chen had been waiting in the Hall of Central Harmony. When the auspicious hour arrived, the Emperor and Empress, together with Empress Dowager Xu and Emperor Xuanning’s consorts, escorted her to the Hall of Supreme Harmony. Grand Empress Dowager Chen wore a magnificent red robe of state befitting an empress dowager, with a gold-and-kingfisher-feather phoenix crown upon her head. Radiant with health and spirits, she was supported on either side by the Emperor and Empress as she ascended the dais.
The court officials’ pupils contracted sharply as they watched Grand Empress Dowager Chen take her seat upon the throne that represented supreme authority. The Emperor and Empress then descended the imperial steps.
The congratulatory memorials from the Emperor, the Empress, the princes and dukes, the civil and military officials, and the noble ladies were presented in turn. With the Emperor and Empress supporting Empress Dowager Xu at the center, they led all present in performing the ceremony of three kneelings and nine prostrations to offer birthday felicitations to Grand Empress Dowager Chen, accompanied by ritual music.
The cries of congratulation resounded throughout the hall, echoing again and again like roaring waves and mountain-shaking thunder, majestic enough to stir the soul.
At that moment, everyone shared the same thought: Grand Empress Dowager Chen’s life had truly been worthwhile.
Just as last time, Grand Empress Dowager Li had again withdrawn from the occasion.
In the space of a single year, the positions of the two Grand Empress Dowagers had completely reversed. After decades of twists and turns, Grand Empress Dowager Li had ultimately been busy for nothing.
What good was it to have a son? What good was it for that son to become emperor? In the end, she was still suppressed by Grand Empress Dowager Chen, reduced to hiding away in the Palace of Blessed Peace.
Compared with today, the grand birthday celebration Emperor Xuanning had held for Grand Empress Dowager Chen last year now seemed merely superficial. One could tell from Grand Empress Dowager Chen’s silence at the time that Emperor Xuanning had only been putting on a show.
Now, however, everything was entirely different. The Emperor and Empress were Grand Empress Dowager Chen’s own grandson and granddaughter-in-law. Not only did the Empress visit the Palace of Tranquil Peace every day to keep her company, she often brought the Emperor along as well. Every few days, they would dine there together.
Whenever members of the Empress’s natal family entered the palace—and when the Marquess of Zhenbei’s family had returned last time—the Emperor and Empress had hosted their meals in the Palace of Tranquil Peace. It was even said that the Empress had allowed Grand Empress Dowager Chen to arrange a room there for the little princess.
While Grand Empress Dowager Chen enjoyed the warmth of family life, the gates of the Palace of Blessed Peace, where Empress Dowager Li lived, stood desolate and quiet. Even visits from the Li family had become scarce.
Back then, Empress Dowager Li and the Li family had been insatiable. Though they were all her own grandsons, once the Princess Consort of Prince Duan, born of the Li family, was in place, the others had seemed worthless by comparison. They had even cast aside Prince Wei, despite the eminence of his maternal clan.
What they had not known was that, out of guilt, Emperor Gaozong had left Grand Empress Dowager Chen a way out. She had taken Prince Wei in, and grandmother and grandson had supported and fulfilled one another. Grand Empress Dowager Chen had returned to the highest position in the inner palace, while Prince Wei had ascended the imperial throne.
Even if Empress Dowager Li wished to put on airs as the Emperor’s grandmother now, the Emperor could not even be bothered to maintain a polite façade.
Thus, one must always leave others some room. Never drive people to utter ruin, for Grand Empress Dowager Li’s present may well become your future.
Yet Grand Empress Dowager Chen’s single act of kindness had brought her the blessings she enjoyed today. Not only could she spend her later years in peace and comfort, but she also received supreme honor and reverence.
One could only wonder what Emperor Gaozong, if he knew in the underworld, would think upon seeing Grand Empress Dowager Chen living far more freely than she ever had in his lifetime—so freely that she had even summoned reformed prostitutes, men and women alike, from across the Wu Yang River to the Yao residence and forced the women of the Yao family to watch them sing and dance.
On such a momentous day, memories of the past naturally stirred the heart.
Even Grand Empress Dowager Chen herself was unlike her former self; her delight and excitement were plain for all to see.
After receiving the ceremonial greetings, Grand Empress Dowager Chen said with a smile, “This place is, after all, rather solemn—not suitable for merrymaking. Let us all go to the Hall of Cultivating the Body.”
The Emperor and Empress, along with Empress Dowager Xu, Consort Dowager Shu, and the others, stepped forward to attend Grand Empress Dowager Chen as she made her way to the Hall of Cultivating the Body.
The officials of the Ministry of Rites and the Imperial Household Office followed the previous arrangements, leading the guests there afterward.
Once the birthday gifts had been viewed, each family took its seat according to the name placards set upon the tables.
Several noble ladies cast meaningful looks toward Grand Princess Yiqing. Yet Grand Princess Yiqing did not dare act presumptuously before Grand Empress Dowager Chen, so she leaned close to Prince Jing’s Grand Dowager Consort at the neighboring table and whispered a few words to her.
With a smile, Prince Jing’s Grand Dowager Consort addressed those seated above. “Grand Empress Dowager, these young people have all been looking forward to the wine tasting and the songs and dances you promised them.”
Grand Empress Dowager Chen laughed heartily and pointed toward the Emperor and Empress’s table to the east. “No one is more thorough than the Empress. She arranged everything long ago. After the banquet, we shall all go to my residence and make merry there.”
Only then did Grand Princess Yiqing dare to speak up. “Would it not be more convenient, as last time, to hold separate banquets for the men and women?”
All the noblewomen nodded in agreement. Clearly, they all thought their own husbands were a nuisance.
Grand Empress Dowager Chen’s gaze swept toward the Emperor, and she said with suppressed amusement, “The Emperor enjoys his meals more when he has the Empress beside him. On this happy occasion of mine, how can I fuss over my granddaughter-in-law and neglect my grandson? You may all wait your turn.”
Thinking back to when the Empress had still lived at Danyue Residence, the Emperor had gone there every day at noon to dine with her. After she moved into Yan Hua Hall, he had even returned to the rear palace for breakfast. So it had not merely been that he wished to keep her company out of consideration for her pregnancy—he simply liked eating with her.
And judging by the Grand Empress Dowager’s smile, though her words sounded as if she were showing concern for the Emperor, she was actually teasing him for being unable to part with his wife.
Looking toward the Emperor, they saw that, despite having his secret exposed by the Grand Empress Dowager, he was not the least bit embarrassed. Whenever he spotted a dish he liked, he would first place some in the Empress’s bowl, leaving Buyan and Buyu, who stood behind them to serve the food, with nothing to do.
They had noticed last time that the pregnant Empress seemed rather particular about food. Even when the Emperor served her a dish himself, she would only take a few bites before refusing to eat any more.
Before long, the plate before her was half full. The Empress did not ask Buyu to replace it; instead, she casually pushed it toward the Emperor. The Emperor naturally picked up his chopsticks and, in just a few bites, finished every morsel left on the Empress’s plate.
He then pushed the plate back toward her, but the Empress would not take it. She gestured for Buyu to bring her a fresh plate instead.
The Emperor muttered something to her. Judging from the shape of his lips, it seemed to be: “Cui Ermeng, are you disgusted by me?”
The Empress smiled with gentle dignity, yet her reply was: “I am. Fourth Young Master Zhao, what are you going to do about it?”
Did those two think no one beneath them could hear? Cui Ermeng and Fourth Young Master Zhao—those were how the Emperor and Empress addressed each other in private? How unbearably sweet!
When they looked at the Emperor again, his face held an ease and contentment never seen in the West Pavilion. The court officials all understood: for the next two years, at least, the Emperor was unlikely to give any other woman a chance.
Once the banquet was over, Grand Empress Dowager Chen rose and called to the noblewomen, “We’ll leave this place for His Majesty and the gentlemen to have tea. Let us all go to my quarters.”
A young man from some household anxiously called out, “Grand Empress Dowager, don’t leave us behind!”
Grand Empress Dowager Chen turned back and waved a hand. “Aren’t you here to look over prospective matches? You’re coming along as well.”
In an instant, the young men of the various households left their seats and followed her out. Amid laughter and cheerful conversation, the crowd surrounded Grand Empress Dowager Chen and made their way to Funning Palace.
The court officials left at the banquet stared after them. Since when had women been the ones enjoying themselves while the men were expected to sit here properly and wait?
Last time, they had sat stiffly with the Emperor until well into the afternoon, drinking so much tea that their stomachs sloshed audibly as they walked away. They had no desire whatsoever to suffer through that a second time.
But the Emperor was sitting cross-legged at the head of the room. He remembered every tiny detail, down to the size of a needlepoint; no one dared let the slightest complaint show.
Only the newly arrived Xu Xian did not understand the situation. He could not fathom why every man’s smile carried such a hint of bitterness.
Cui Sheng, however, sat at ease. Meeting Xu Xian’s puzzled gaze, he explained, “They’re all afraid their wives will have wine later, and they’re worried they won’t be able to handle them afterward.”
Xu Xian found this rather novel. “So we just sit here and wait?”
“Either drink tea, or meditate like His Majesty.”
Xu Xian actually copied the Emperor and sat cross-legged. Having been back for so long, he felt increasingly settled and secure inside—a feeling he had never known in Xuanning.
When the noble ladies arrived at the Palace of Fortunate Peace, they discovered that the Empress had had her former residence, Dan Yue Lodge, arranged for the occasion. The lattice doors on all four sides of its main hall had been removed, turning it into one large open room. Small tables had been placed about at varying intervals, each laden with eight assorted dishes: dried fruits, novel pastries, jerky, dried fish, and other excellent snacks to accompany wine.
Grand Empress Dowager Chen drew Empress Dowager Xu and the Empress to sit with her at the place of honor, then waved a hand and said, “Sit wherever you please. Find yourselves drinking companions.”
The noble ladies cheered like young girls, calling out to friends and choosing comfortable spots with kindred company.
Even Prince Jing's Grand Dowager Consort had arranged to sit close to Grand Empress Dowager Chen with the Dowager Consort of Prince Cheng. “This is a fine spot,” she said. “We can watch the singing and dancing without missing out on our conversation.”
Shielding her mouth with one hand, Grand Empress Dowager Chen quietly told the two of them, “The Empress specially dug out some aged pomegranate wine from the wine cellar, saving it just for me. I’ll let you have a taste later.”
Prince Jing's Grand Dowager Consort had known Grand Empress Dowager Chen for many years. They were not quite confidantes, but so many of their contemporaries had already passed on that it was no ordinary thing for two women who had witnessed so much of each other’s lives to remain. Before Grand Empress Dowager Chen, she could speak plainly where others dared not.
And so she said, “Who would have thought that you would be the one with the greatest blessings in your later years? Even those with sons cannot compare to you.”
Grand Empress Dowager Chen wrapped one arm around Cui Lanyin and clasped Empress Dowager Xu’s hand with the other, laughing until she could barely close her mouth. “Exactly. I have a grandson and granddaughter-in-law who are devoted to me, and a daughter-in-law to keep me company and ease my boredom. What do I need sons for?”
Today’s a modestly longer chapter. I’ll keep working hard tomorrow!
After the main story is finished, I’ll write a bonus chapter about Emperor Gaozong and Empress Dowager Chen being reborn. [mischievous grin]
