I have already alluded to the story of the Emperor Ming Huang and the lady
Yang Kwei-fei, or T`ai Chen, as she is called, in my introduction.
In order that the events which led up to her tragic death may be understood,
I have given in front of the poem a short extract from the old Chinese annals
translated into French by the Jesuit Father Joseph de Mailla in 1778.
The Emperor is fleeing with a small, ill-disciplined force
before the rebellious general An Lu-shan into the province of Ssuch`uan.
So the bald narrative resumes:
As the Emperor was followed by a numerous suite, and because
time was lacking, the arrangements for so long a journey
were found to be insufficient. On their arrival at Ma-wei
both officers and men murmured loudly against Yang Kuo-chung*,
accusing him of having brought all the present evils upon them.
The ambassador of the King of Tibet, followed by twenty retainers,
seeing the Prime Minister pass, stopped him, and asked for provisions.
Then the soldiers cried out that Yang was conspiring with the strangers,
and throwing themselves upon him, they cut off his head,
which they exposed on a stake to the public gaze. The Emperor,
becoming aware of this violence, did not, however, dare to exact punishment.
He sent an officer to the chief of those who had slain the Prime Minister,
to find out the reason for their deed; he replied that they had done so
because Yang was on the point of rebellion. The leader of the revolt
even demanded the instant execution of the lady T`ai Chen,
as she was the sister of the supposed rebel, Yang. The Emperor,
who loved her, desired to prove her innocence by showing that it was
impossible for her, living always as she did within the Palace precincts,
to be confederate to her brother's plot. His envoy, however,
urged him that it was politic, after the events he had witnessed,
to sacrifice her, innocent as she was, if he wished to escape
from the dangers of (another) revolution. The Emperor,
yielding to political necessity, gave her into the hands of the envoy
with the order that she should be strangled.
--
* Minister of State, brother to T`ai Chen.
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