The day Shen Zhao entered the palace, she had only three things with her: a brush, half a page of torn paper, and her life.
Her father had been a disgraced official in the seventeenth year of Yongchang. He died in the Imperial Prison, and the case file said he had "secretly colluded with foreign powers." She didn't believe it. So she entered the palace, not to compete for the emperor's favor, but to investigate the records.
The lowest-ranking official in the palace was a ninth-rank female scribe, charged with the most inconspicuous duties: copying documents and managing archives. Yet for two hundred years, every injustice, every deposition, every life-and-death decision in the palace had ended up on paper. Whoever controlled the paper controlled everyone's lifeline.
When the Noble Consort used her origins against her, she laid them bare and accepted punishment first. When someone had her father's case file removed, she established a law ensuring that from then on, no one could alter a page once it entered the palace archives. When the Wang Chancellor's residence forged a case file to have her killed, she registered the fake file and placed it in the archives. Once a forgery was registered, it fell under the authority of the real records.
From ninth-rank female scribe to Director of Archives, then Palace Attendant, and finally the woman who stepped out from behind the palace curtain.
The entire court argued for three months: this dynasty had never had a female chancellor.
She handed over the edict she had transcribed and said just one thing: "Precedents exist to be broken."
There she stood, upon the steps of the palace hall.
Theme: A woman need not be confined by her status. With a brush and a sharp mind, she carves out a place never before seen in a court ruled by men.
