“Yan’er, once I’ve pacified the realm and restored order throughout the land, I’ll offer you the whole world as my betrothal gift and make you my wife. What do you say?” Ten li west of Chang’an, at the altar, Emperor Wen of Western Wei once promised her the realm as the bride-price for becoming his empress. But less than two years later, he turned around and married a princess from another state. With just eight characters, “jealous, arrogant, and ominously inauspicious,” he stripped her of her position as empress. After that, he never set foot in Yaohua again. The most splendid place in the Eastern Palace became a cold palace overnight. The phoenix seal, once the dowry she had been proudest of, ultimately became a joke.
A fire set in motion by someone else made everyone a suspect: the emperor, the foreign princess, and the chancellors of both states, Yuwen Tai of Western Wei and Gao Huan of Eastern Wei. Who wanted to take her life? Years later, “The phoenix will not roost on anything but the parasol tree” finally came true.
Theme: Improving people’s livelihoods
