The Cruelty of the Nine-Tailed Fox Daji - 妲己

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In an earlier post (千字文 – Line 13), it was mentioned that it was the beautiful concubine Daji 妲己 who caused the downfall of the Shang dynasty. King Zhou conquered the state of Yousu 有蘇 yǒusū and took Daji as his prize (be careful of what you win). He became extremely besotted with her beauty and lost all interest in state affairs but instead caters to her every whims and extreme cruelty to amuse her.

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She is said to derive great joy at hearing people cry in physical torment. She ordered a farmer’s feet to be cut off so she can study why he can withstand crossing icy water. And a pregnant women’s belly to be cut open to see if her guess of the sex of the baby is correct. To verify an ancient saying that "a good man's heart has seven apertures", she even had the heart of the minister Bi Gan (King Zhou's uncle) dug out.

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She is claimed to have invented many instruments of torture, the most famous of which is the bronze toaster or Paoluo 炮烙 páoluò. The poor victim is tied to this twenty feed tall charcoal heated cylinder and fried alive. Another of her invention is the snake pit where victims are thrown into a pit of venomous snakes and spiders. His own people disgusted with these acts of cruelty, revolted against King Zhou’s tyranny and supported King Wu of Zhou when he attacked. Daji was executed on the order of King Wu on the advice of Jiang Ziya (see last post).

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In the novel Fengshen Yanyi 封神演义 fēngshényǎnyì translated as “The Investiture of the Gods” or “The Creation of the Gods”, Daji was a nine-tailed fox spirit Huli jing 狐狸精 . In it, King Zhou visited an ancient temple of the Goddess Nuwa 女娲; nǚwā, he insulted the Goddess when he expressed his lust for her. Nuwa sent Daji, the ten thousand year vixen, a nine-headed pheasant spirit and jade pipa spirit to bewitch the king and hasten his downfall. There were many other interesting tales in this novel. In the end, Daji was condemned by Nuwa herself because of her extreme cruelty. This is the most famous Chinese classic tale of how a beauty caused the downfall of an empire and you can have either the historical or fairy tale version.

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Console The People By Punishing The Wicked. Thousand Character Classic 千字文 – Line 13.

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吊民伐罪, 周发殷汤。
Diàomín fázuì, zhōufā yīntāng。

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吊 (console) 民 (people) 伐 (attack) 罪 (crime)

Oops, I did it again. This is the correct line 13 while the last post was actually line 14. Sorry ya. This phrase means consoling the people by punishing the wicked. Evelyn Lip said this is recorded in the Book of Mencius (BC 372-289) 孟子 Mèngzǐ . Mencius was a philosopher and Confucian scholar. Mencius felt that the Emperor should relieved the people’s hardship by eliminating corrupt and oppressive officials.

周 (circumference) 发 (emit) 殷 (rich) 汤 (soup)

Although I have put the individual meanings for the 4 characters above, they actually referred to names of supposedly good rulers who overthrew tyrants. King Wu of Zhou (1046-1043 BC) 周武王 zhōu wŭ wáng also known as 周发 Zhōufā defeated the last Shang king Di Xin 帝辛 in the “Battle of Wild Herds” 牧野之戰 mùyězhīzhàn where the tyrant’s own soldiers and slaves changed sides to fought against him. King Wu was assisted by his able prime minister and strategist Jiang Ziya 姜子牙 Jiāng Zǐyá.

It was said that King Di Xin was a good king until he became besotted with his cruel and evil concubine Daji 妲己 Dájǐ. This became the most famous Chinese tale of how a beauty caused the downfall of an empire. I will write more about this bewitching beauty in the near future.

Yin Tang (1675 BC-1646 BC) 殷汤 yīntāng refers to King Cheng Tang of Shang dynasty who became the first emperor of the Shang dynasty when he defeated King Jie 桀 Jié, the last ruler of the Xia dynasty 夏朝 Xià Cháo. According to one story, King Jie was corrupted by his infatuation with his concubine Mo Xi (妺喜; mòxǐ), another cruel beauty. She got the king to make a lake of wine and commanded 3,000 men to drink it dry and laughed when they all drowned. Both kingdoms brought down by a beautiful woman and it is ironic that the Shang dynasty rose and fell because of a beautiful woman.

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