History of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Chapter 307: Still Singing Back Garden Flower

[Still singing Hou Ting Hua]

On the third day of the third month of the third year of Longde (923), during the Shangsi Festival, Wang Zongyan held a party at Yishen Pavilion. In high spirits, Wang Zongyan personally beat the board and sang a song called "Rainbow Skirt and Feathered Coat". Eunuch Yan Ningyue and others sang "Backyard Flower" and "Thinking of Yue People".

There is not much explanation for "Houtinghua"; "Siyueren" is the name of a tune. When "Jianjielu" recorded this event, it noted: "Siyueren is the song of the fall of Wu."

Hearing these two songs about the fall of a country, Wang Zongyan was overjoyed. He sat with the palace maids and sang obscene songs to each other. Wang Zongyan enjoyed it and could not help himself.

When Wang Zongyan got tired of playing in the palace, he decided to go on a private visit in disguise, go deep into the grassroots, and visit major red-light districts and brothels to experience the people's sentiments.

The custom in Shu was to wear a small hat without brim, but Wang Zongyan liked to wear a large hat with wide brim, which was very recognizable. Therefore, Wang Zongyan was easily recognized by the people.

In order to avoid the embarrassment of being recognized when entering and leaving those occasions, Wang Zongyan issued an imperial decree, ordering that from now on, people across the country must wear large hats with wide brims.

But even so, people can still easily recognize him. This is embarrassing, you can't order the whole country to poke out their eyes.

Wang Zongyan still had a solution. He ordered a village to be built in the palace. He ordered the palace to build a village and a market. Then he asked the palace maids to wear ragged, simple, and barely-there clothes and play role-playing games. What was even more outrageous was that Wang Zongyan made these men and women do indescribable things while he watched with great interest. "The emperor and his concubines laughed and laughed." Is this what the emperor did?

Wang Zongyan's taste is indeed very heavy and perverted. Not only does he like group sex, he also likes to steal other people's wives and dominate other people's women.

When Wang Zongyan was on a tour to Langzhou, the daughter of He Kang, a local resident, was getting married. The bride was dressed up beautifully, but Wang Zongyan intercepted her and robbed her. Then he took out 100 pieces of cloth to comfort the groom-to-be, who died of grief and anger.

The daughter of the imperial guard general Zhou Yanzhang was also beautiful and was chosen by Wang Zongyan. Zhou Yanzhang was by no means a weak loser, he was a military commander who had fought for his fame on the battlefield. When the team that wanted to rob the bride came to his house, Zhou Yanzhang held a sword in his hand, looked at them with a frown, and said to them: "My original surname was Wang, but the late emperor loved me so much that he let Empress Zhou adopt me as her adopted son, so I took the surname Zhou. Don't you know that people with the same surname cannot marry?"

For the sake of the sword, no one dared to act recklessly.

Zhou Yanzhang then picked a single soldier from the imperial army and married his daughter to him. "She's already married, don't worry about her!"

In fact, Wang Zongyan had already set a precedent for close relative marriage, Wei Yuanfei. However, Zhou Yanzhang was fiery and held military power, so Wang Zongyan could not force it, and finally hit a snag.

However, Zhou Yanzhang always felt resentful about it. Later, when Wang Zongbi launched a mutiny and held Wang Zongyan hostage, Zhou Yanzhang helped a lot.

The daughter of military envoy Wang Chenggang was also taken to the palace by Wang Zongyan when she was getting married. Wang Chenggang was not as domineering as Zhou Yanzhang. He chose a more gentle approach and wrote a petition to the emperor asking for mercy and release his daughter.

Wang Zongyan was a bully who only cared about the weak and feared the strong. He issued an imperial edict to exile Wang Chenggang to Maozhou (now Maoxian County, Sichuan Province). Wang Chenggang's daughter was a heroic woman. When she heard that her father was exiled, she immediately cut off her hair and begged Wang Zongyan to pardon her father by destroying her appearance. After being rejected, she committed suicide in anger.

The eunuchs also actively catered to Wang Zongyan's taste. The head of the Royal Art Troupe, the eunuch Yan Xu, openly abducted women from the people and sent them to the palace for Wang Zongyan to enjoy. As a reward, Yan Xu was appointed as the governor of Pengzhou by Wang Zongyan.

It was not uncommon for eunuchs to serve as provincial governors, and there was even one eunuch who directly became a military governor.

The Tang Dynasty, which was deeply affected by eunuchs, did not set a precedent for eunuchs to serve as Jiedushi. Eunuchs were only allowed to control the imperial guards and serve as military supervisors. However, the Former Shu Dynasty set a precedent for eunuchs to directly serve as Jiedushi.

This eunuch was called Wang Chengxiu, and he was quite scheming. Although he was a eunuch, he was very good at guessing Wang Zongyan's thoughts. As the saying goes, a wife is not as good as a concubine, and a concubine is not as good as a secret lover. Wang Zongyan was an emperor, and he lived in the land of Shu, which was rich in beauties. What kind of beauties had he not seen? So he had to come up with some new tricks, such as catering to his hobby of snatching other people's wives.

Wang Chengxiu found a beautiful woman and married her, then took the initiative to cuckold Wang Zongyan, making him his next-door neighbor. Wang Zongyan was so happy that he often had an affair with Wang Chengxiu's wife, and Wang Chengxiu gradually became favored.

Wang Chengxiu reported that Qinzhou was rich in beautiful women, and that he was willing to go to Qinzhou to help Your Majesty select.

Wang Zongyan was overjoyed, "You are truly an important minister of the country!" So he appointed Wang Chengxiu as the governor of Qinzhou Tianxiong Army, granted him the title of Duke of Lu, and instigated the Longwu Army (a part of the imperial guards) to serve as Wang Chengxiu's personal bodyguard group.

As a reminder, the reason why the Later Tang Dynasty was able to quickly destroy the Former Shu Dynasty was thanks to this eunuch Jiedushi. I will explain this in detail later.

Trafficking in women will lead to promotion.

Wang Zongyan's behavior of robbing other people's wives can be regarded as "very much like his father", because his father Wang Jian had done it before. Moreover, Wang Jian robbed not just ordinary people's wives and daughters, but his most important staff members - the concubines of Prime Minister Wei Zhuang and the concubines of Privy Councilor Pan Kang. This concubine of Wei Zhuang was both talented and beautiful (Zhuang had a beautiful concubine who was good at writing), and Wang Jian asked her to be the tutor of the concubines in the harem, teaching them to recite poems and compose essays, tricking her into the palace, and forcing her to stay.

After Meiji was taken away by someone else, Wei Zhuang wrote a poem called "Visiting Jinmen" to commemorate her. This is the famous poem "Visiting Jinmen·Empty Recalling" in the poetry world:
"I miss you in vain, but I have no way to pass on the message. Chang'e in the sky is unknown to me, where can I find the letter I sent to her?

I have just woken up from sleep and I am too weak to write to her. The whole yard is filled with fallen flowers, the spring is quiet, and the green grass is heartbreaking.

The song caused a sensation as soon as it was released and became the most popular song. The feelings of longing and sorrow expressed in the song touched countless people, and people rushed to sing it.

The beautiful girl in the poem went on a hunger strike to commit suicide after reading the poem.

Pan Kang also had a concubine who was both talented and beautiful (Fu Shu Se, Shan Wei Xin Sheng). Once, Wang Jian came to visit Pan Kang's house and fell in love with her at first sight, so he said in a roundabout way: "Oh, my harem is missing such a person!" Even if he said this, everyone was smart.

Unexpectedly, Pan Kang retorted to Wang Jian with just one sentence, "I, a lowly minister, dare not challenge the Supreme Lord." This is a self-mutilating response, which is only effective against the king.

Wang Jian gnashed his teeth in anger and replied angrily, "You are so cruel!"

Pan Kang's younger brother Pan Qiao (former Privy Councilor and Prime Minister) warned: "Brother, haven't you heard of the 'Green Pearl Disaster'?"

Lu Zhu refers to Shi Chong's favorite concubine in the Western Jin Dynasty. After Shi Chong lost power, the ruler Sun Xiu coveted Lu Zhu's beauty and sent an envoy to ask Shi Chong for her. Shi Chong dressed up dozens of his concubines and invited the envoy to choose one at will. The envoy said directly, "I have been ordered to take only Lu Zhu." Shi Chong said Lu Zhu was his favorite concubine, and he could take any of the others except her. The envoy said he didn't want any others except her.

Shi Chong refused to give it to him, and the messenger returned empty-handed. Before leaving, he warned Shi Chong fiercely, "You better think twice! Don't say I didn't give you a chance!"

The messenger reported to Sun Xiu, who was furious and designed to frame and kill Shi Chong.

Sitting at home with the door closed, disaster will come from the sky. Things are different now. Looking at the chaotic soldiers who broke into his house, Shi Chong was overwhelmed with emotions and said to Lu Zhu: "I have fallen to this point because of you."

After hearing what he said, Lu Zhu jumped out of the window without hesitation and fell to her death. She was so determined to commit suicide and her movements were so agile that Shi Chong was too late to hold her back.

Shi Chong was taken to the East Market and beheaded. Before his execution, Shi Chong seemed to have understood the mundane world and sighed, "You guys are killing me for my money!" The jailer who was escorting him sarcastically said, "Since you know that people die for money, why didn't you send them away earlier?"

Shi Chong was the richest man in the Western Jin Dynasty and one of the most famous local tycoons in Chinese history. The story we know best about him is "Wang Shi's Competition of Wealth", in which he competed with Wang Kai, the uncle of Emperor Wu of Jin, in wealth, and the competition ended with Wang Kai's defeat. The landmark event was smashing the coral tree with an iron ruyi.

Shi Chong died because of Lu Zhu, so Pan Qiao used the "Lu Zhu disaster" to warn Pan Kang not to lose his life and property because of a concubine.

Pan Kang was unmoved and said, "Love should be passionate and lasting until death. (Life is about being content. How can you love death and feel unsatisfied?)"

Pan Kang is a real man.

When the ruler is foolish, the ministers are ignorant; when the ruler is wise, the ministers are upright. Under the leadership of Wang Jian, some veterans also abandoned their disguises and exposed the ugliness of human nature.

For example, the once ruthless "discipline official" Zhang Xing. This man once appeared when Wang Jian entered Chengdu. Let me help you recall that he has a nickname, "Zhang Daxiong".

Zhang Ying completed the task assigned by the organization brilliantly, killing more than 100 soldiers who violated military discipline. From then on, military discipline was strict and no one dared to ignore military rules and orders. Later, he was promoted to the governor of Meizhou for his meritorious service. It was during his tenure as the governor of Meizhou that Zhang Ying left a stain on his life.

There was a nun in Meizhou who was very beautiful, well versed in Buddhism, and good at lecturing on the "Amitabha Sutra". Zhang Xing took a liking to her and "wanted to force and humiliate her", but the nun refused to obey and denounced Zhang Xing.

Zhang Ying was so angry that he broke her teeth and then drowned her and her father and brother in the Ma Yijin Lake in Meizhou.

Filial piety is the first of all virtues, while lust is the first of all evils. The word "lust" brought Former Shu into an abyss of no return, and it is enough to summarize Wang Zongyan's life.

(End of this chapter)