Death of the Emperor

Author: Bei Yang
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-05-01
Features: Facing Chinese history, profound insights, sarcastic expressions. This book includes two works: The Terrifying Grave Robber and Forgotten Who He Was.
Yao, Shun, King Zhou of Shang, King Zhao of Zhou, King Huai of Chu
This book boldly interprets the fates of twenty-seven emperors in history whose deaths were tragic: Yao was an ordinary, honest old man with no interest in life; Shun was an ambitious conspirator who killed his relatives, yet was hailed as the greatest filial son in the world. According to Bei Yang's calculations, from the Yellow Emperor Xuanyuan to the last emperor Puyi of the Qing Dynasty, China produced 397 emperors and 162 kings. Among these 559 rulers who claimed the throne, about one-third died unnatural deaths. Whether they died fortunate deaths from "sleeping with the mountain-like sea of beautiful women in the palace day and night, constantly engaging in sexual relations," or hanged, starved, or imprisoned, the underlying cause was the self-inflicted disaster of the system structure. In a world where men compete for power, political factors are paramount.
As a renowned modern Chinese writer, Bei Yang's representative works fall into two categories: essays and historical works written in prison. The Deaths of Emperors and The Deaths of Empresses, Bei Yang claims, are "genuine and well-structured" historical notes, in reality blending the characteristics of both history and essays—they are works that reconstruct and disseminate historical knowledge, yet also possess the qualities of satirical, humorous, and sarcastic essays. In these two works by Bei Yang, you can see a completely different picture from the official history that has been followed for thousands of years.
Bei Yang believed that from the Yellow Emperor Xuanyuan to the last emperor Puyi of the Qing Dynasty, China produced 397 emperors and 162 kings, among these 559 rulers who claimed the throne, about one-third died unnatural deaths. Whether they died fortunate deaths from "sleeping with the mountain-like sea of beautiful women in the palace day and night, constantly engaging in sexual relations," or hanged, starved, or imprisoned, it was all due to the self-inflicted disaster of the system structure. In a world where men compete for power, political factors are paramount. And empresses were often even more directly linked to "wrongful convictions." "Wrongful convictions" seem to be part of traditional Chinese culture, and even noble empresses were not immune. Behind every empress who died a tragic death were "bed struggles," and the essence of these struggles was nothing but power. "It's not about whether they were beautiful or not, but about whether they were more beautiful than others. Every beautiful rival was another beautiful one." "These beautiful women were thrown into a court of snakes and scorpions, and in the end, they themselves became snakes and scorpions, only to be bitten to death by another one." Whether they were killed, hanged, suffocated, drowned, or threw themselves into rivers or wells, it was all a tragedy of the times, a of the times. Under the rule of politics, Chinese historical records became a breeding ground for textual deception. When the emperors and kings fell, groaning and unable to hold their faces, they were always "concealed" endlessly. Sometimes they were vague, or they became completely mute, making people so angry they could spit blood. Alas, if China is to modernize successfully, the first thing should be to break the shackles of political supremacy and first allow historical records to reveal their true faces. This is a beginning, using it to train our thinking, to examine why they had to come to that day, and to consider why they feared the truth would come to light. Bei Yang only hoped that through continuous reporting, the generation of paste could be wiped out early, and the next generation would be a generation of thinkers. Mr. Sun Guanhàn said: "Respect the facts." Chinese people must have the ability to speak the truth, to speak the plain truth, to clean off any filth or makeup that has been painted over the facts. Therefore, when the China Times in New York asked me to write an article, I was overjoyed to accept. At first, I wrote one thousand words a day, but later, it automatically expanded to one thousand five hundred words a day. As I wrote, over three months, I had written about one hundred thousand words, covering the time from the twenty-third century BCE to the seventh century BCE, from the Yellow Emperor's dynasty to the Warring States period, which could be published as a volume. My dear readers are truly fortunate to see the truth of history. If it had been in the past, I would have been imprisoned, or my entire family would have been executed, and I would have been unlucky, but you would not have had this fortune. Thinking of this, if you don't buy it now, is there still any sense of justice, humanity, or legal and human feelings? This is the preface.