Gazing Toward the Bright Palace Tower

The Book of Xia says: “Dimming, inking, thieving, and killing: these are the punishments of Gao Yao.”

The Qin, Han, and Shang were all prosperous dynasties, yet each fell to corruption. Look across the halls and towers of the Ming court, and corruption is everywhere. Emperor Shenzong loves money, the women of his harem love money, and even the servants love money. Everyone has become a merchant. In the Jiajing era, appointments to office became a business, with official posts openly priced and sold. At court, only the emperor was not a merchant. Now the emperor himself is a merchant, and corruption is breeding among the officials. The state is on the brink of collapse.

Although Noble Consort Zheng ordered the gates of Jingyang Palace opened, just as Meng Xia had expected, Meng Xia should have been pleased, but she could not feel happy at all. She glared at Eunuch Liu with phoenix eyes and cursed inwardly: “With merchants in power and wealth flowing to the top, the land is headed for ruin.”

Meng Xia was no minister, so talk of strategy, power, or loyalty had nothing to do with her. She had neither a noble heart nor lofty ambitions. She was just an ordinary, insignificant commoner in the Great Ming. Realizing that the dynasty was in grave danger, lifeless and doomed, she could not help feeling sorrow. But sorrow aside, for ordinary people, staying alive was what mattered most. Dynasties rose and fell, and fate could not be defied. The dynasty changed, but the common people never did.

Meng Xia secretly mocked herself: “I grieve for the places traversed by Qin and Han, where countless palace halls have turned to dust. When dynasties prosper, the people suffer; when they fall, the people suffer. Emperors change, dynasties change, but through mountains and rivers, along the ancient Tong Pass road, the common folk remain the same. What do the rise and fall of dynasties, the passing of old for new, have to do with me?”