In the city of Chang-an music filled the palaces, and the festivities of
the Emperor were measured by its beat. Night, and the full moon swimming
like a gold-fish in the garden lakes, gave the signal for the Feather
Jacket and Rainbow Skirt dances. Morning, with the rising sun, summoned
the court again to the feast and wine-cup in the floating gardens.
The Emperor Chung Tsu favored this city before all others. The Yen Tower
soaring heavenward, the Drum Towers, the Pearl Pagoda, were the only
fit surroundings of his magnificence; and in the Pavilion of Tranquil
Learning were held those discussions which enlightened the world and
spread the fame of the Jade Emperor far and wide. In all respects he
adorned the Dragon Throne--in all but one; for Nature, bestowing so
much, withheld one gift, and the Imperial heart, as precious as jade,
was also as hard, and he eschewed utterly the company of the Hidden
Palace Flowers.
Yet the Inner Chambers were filled with ladies chosen from all parts of
the Celestial Empire--ladies of the most exquisite and torturing beauty,
moons of loveliness, moving coquettishly on little feet, with all the
grace of willow branches in a light breeze. They were sprinkled with
perfumes, adorned with jewels, robed in silks woven with gold and
embroidered with designs of flowers and birds. Their faces were painted
and their eyebrows formed into slender and perfect arches whence the
soul of man might well slip to perdition, and a breath of sweet odor
followed each wherever she moved. Every one might have been the Empress
of some lesser kingdom; but though rumours reached the Son of Heaven
from time to time of their charms,--especially when some new blossom was
added to the Imperial bouquet,--he had dismissed them from his august
thoughts, and they languished in a neglect so complete that the Great
Cold Palaces of the Moon were not more empty than their hearts. They
remained under the supervision of the Princess of Han, August Aunt
of the Emperor, knowing that their Lord considered the company of
sleeve-dogs and macaws more pleasant than their own. Nor had he as yet
chosen an Empress, and it was evident that without some miracle, such
as the intervention of the Municipal God, no heir to the throne could be
hoped for.
Yet the Emperor one day remembered his imprisoned beauties, and it
crossed the Imperial thoughts that even these inferior creatures might
afford such interest as may be found in the gambols of trained fleas or
other insects of no natural attainments.
Accordingly, he commanded that the subject last discussed in his
presence should be transferred to the Inner Chambers, and it was his
Order that the ladies should also discuss it, and their opinions be
engraved on ivory, bound together with red silk and tassels and thus
presented at the Dragon feet. The subject chosen was the following:--