He witnessed the day the Crown Prince was killed.
Iron rings pierced the Crown Prince's cheeks, and heavy shackles bound his arms and legs. As he was dragged from his cell to the execution ground, he left a trail of bloody footprints.
The execution ground was a buried pile of firewood. A wooden pole stood atop it, fitted with a crossbar and a winch.
Two eunuchs grabbed the Crown Prince by the tongue and hair and hauled him up a ladder, suspending him above the pyre.
First they gouged out his eyes and ripped out his hair. Then they clamped an iron hook around his tongue and tore it out by the root. Next they chopped off his hands and feet, and sliced open his belly with a knife until his intestines spilled across the ground.
In the end, the flames were the Crown Prince's only release.
The Emperor sat beside the execution ground, drinking and feasting with his beauties as he watched the blazing pyre and listened to the screams, as if watching a play.
When the fire had burned out, the Crown Prince's concubines and children were brought over and executed one by one.
The youngest child was one the Emperor had always liked, so he ordered the eunuchs to bring the child over before carrying out the sentence.
The child clung to the Emperor's clothes and cried until drawing their last breath, but was never granted a pardon.
After the eunuchs carried off the dead child and tossed the body beside the child's mother, the Emperor looked around and asked, "Who was close to the Crown Prince?"
That day, 127 court officials and members of the imperial family were sentenced to death, including his parents and older siblings.
It's really just a little story about everyone rebelling together.
Theme: Everyone is born equal.
