When Palace Supervisor Fan received the urgent message from her subordinates, she had already removed her makeup, bathed, changed into her sleeping clothes, and was lying in bed with a well-worn copy of “The Poetry Collection of Fan Deji,” planning to read a few pages of poetry before sleep as she usually did.
Fan Zhi, courtesy name Deji, was from Qingjiang in Jiangxi Province. He was one of the four great poets of the Yuan Dynasty – a renowned literary figure, poet, filial son, and statesman. Not only did he write excellent poetry, but he also had outstanding political achievements and was known for his integrity.
He was simply a perfect man.
And Palace Supervisor Fan was Fan Zhi’s granddaughter, his own flesh and blood.
Therefore, Palace Supervisor Fan came from truly noble birth – a genuine lady of distinguished family. Compared to her, these newly risen nobles of the Ming Dynasty, even the imperial family, were merely nouveau riche.
Her birth combined with her talent enabled Palace Supervisor Fan to secure her position in the Palace Supervisory Department.
As the Palace Supervisor managing criminal punishment in the Forbidden City’s harem, the greater her power, the greater her responsibility. Palace Supervisor Fan was busy almost every day. Her grandfather’s poetry could calm her mind and help her sleep.
Tonight she was reading a poem from her grandfather’s collection titled “Song of Grave Digging”:
“Yesterday’s old grave was dug up, today a new grave is made. Two stone guardians before the grave, bidding farewell to the old while welcoming the new. The old soul hasn’t left when the new soul enters, the old soul weeps facing the new soul. The old soul earnestly tells the new soul: good land doesn’t need many descendants. If descendants continue endlessly, great-grandsons won’t dig but great-great-grandsons will. I am dug up today – how lamentable, I wonder when you will be dug up too?”
The meaning was that people all valued auspicious burial sites, digging up old graves to build new ones. Old ghosts wept facing newly buried souls. Everyone said auspicious sites were good, blessing endless generations of descendants, but with so many descendants all wanting to be buried in this prime location, blood ties and family affection gradually faded. Even if great-grandsons didn’t come to dig, great-great-grandsons would eventually excavate their ancestors’ graves to build fine tombs for themselves.
So what use was continuing the bloodline? In the future, “great-grandsons won’t dig but great-great-grandsons will” – your descendants would become your grave diggers!
I am so pitifully dug up today, but have you considered who will dig up your grave tomorrow?
Almost every time she read this poem, Palace Supervisor Fan gained new insights. This poem subverted traditional views of filial sons and virtuous grandsons, blood inheritance, and the proper relationships between ruler-minister and father-son. On a deeper level, it could also be understood as representing power shifts or dynastic changes – old dynasties fall, new dynasties rise, but power itself doesn’t change, only those who wield it keep changing…
While she was pondering this, her bedroom door sounded, and a young palace maid said through the door, “Palace Supervisor Fan, there’s fighting… fighting at the Library Pavilion!”
Palace Supervisor Fan frowned but calmly set the worn poetry collection on the bedside table. “Understood. Come in and help me dress.”
The young palace maids filed in orderly – those carrying hot water, rouge, combs, and official robes, without the slightest confusion.
Palace Supervisor Fan stood motionless before a full-length mirror, eyes slightly closed, arms outstretched, allowing the young maids to serve her. They dressed her in official robes, arranged her hair, placed the flower-adorned black gauze hat on her head, and even applied very light makeup – drawing her eyebrows and applying lip rouge.
Meanwhile, a mature female official recounted the evening’s events: Imperial Noble Consort Hu going to the Library Pavilion to take Jiang Quan to Yanxi Palace, visiting the Library Pavilion, borrowing books, the head eunuch refusing to sign the book list, and Hu Shanwei stepping forward to stop them.
Palace Supervisor Fan was like a blooming flower, with the young maids like a swarm of industrious bees dancing around her. Her expression was serene, displaying the bearing of someone who had been pampered from childhood, accustomed to fine clothes, good food, and constant service.
“Finished, Palace Supervisor Fan,” the young maid said.
Palace Supervisor Fan opened her eyes. Through the female official’s description, she roughly understood what had happened. Imperial Noble Consort Hu came from distinguished background – daughter of a marquis household. Her father, Marquis Linchuan Hu Mei, was a founding general. She had borne an imperial son and was beautiful, hence her appointment as Imperial Noble Consort. In the harem, after Empress Ma, she was the highest ranking.
Imperial Noble Consort Hu always demanded the best in everything, looked down on everyone except Empress Ma, and was accustomed to throwing her weight around. She grew increasingly domineering. Now that Empress Ma could no longer tolerate it and wanted to use the book compilation to suppress Imperial Noble Consort Hu, how could she swallow this humiliation?
She would inevitably find some pretext to make trouble and display her authority.
While Palace Supervisor Fan considered countermeasures, she looked at herself in the mirror, confirming her dress and appearance were flawless before saying, “Let’s go.”
For travel in the harem, the Empress used a comfortable carriage, Imperial Noble Consorts had phoenix palanquins, other consorts had shoulder litters, while everyone else had to rely on their own two legs.
The Library Pavilion was at the center of the garden lakes area. The garden was deep and winding, with many curved stone paths. Palace maids carried lanterns and mosquito-repelling incense boxes, clustering around Palace Supervisor Fan in the center.
Suddenly, at a bamboo grove, the palace maid carrying a lantern in front let out a sharp scream, retreating repeatedly and nearly knocking down the maid carrying the incense box.
Several sturdy palace servants quickly protected Palace Supervisor Fan in the center. “What’s wrong?”
“Toads! So many toads!” The palace maid was frightened, her voice trembling.
Palace Supervisor Fan stood on tiptoe to look, and the scene before her nearly made her vomit up her dinner!
She saw that a giant bamboo had fallen across the small path ahead. White, fat bamboo worms were crawling out of the bamboo tube, looking very much like maggots writhing in latrines. These bamboo worms had attracted large numbers of toads and frogs from the garden, all jumping here to feast on this rare delicacy!
Bamboo worms were parasites in bamboo tubes that could be eaten. After washing, without even coating in flour or egg batter, they could be fried in oil until crispy, then sprinkled with salt and pepper – the taste was like countless fairies dancing on one’s tongue!
But seeing slimy toads at night extending their long tongues like soft rulers to roll up writhing bamboo worms and swallow them alive was an entirely different matter.
Moreover, there were easily over a hundred toads ahead, not counting those in areas the lanterns couldn’t illuminate, where there might be even more!
Everyone felt their scalps tingle. More toads kept arriving, drawn by the scent, hopping and jumping to join the revelry.
A toad jumped onto a palace maid’s foot, causing her to scream in terror. The group fell into chaos.
With toads blocking the path ahead, passage was impossible.
Palace Supervisor Fan decisively said, “Retreat. Take another route.”
To save time, Palace Supervisor Fan had specifically chosen this shortcut through the bamboo grove. Now she could only take the main road, which was clean on both sides with corner lamps for illumination, but much farther.
Meanwhile, at the Library Pavilion, the standoff had reached a fever pitch. Hu Shanwei hugged the threshold, declaring that anyone wanting to take the books would have to step over her corpse. The Yanxi Palace servants, following the head eunuch’s orders, swarmed forward for another round of pulling and dragging.
Hu Shanwei’s black gauze official hat was knocked off and trampled flat. Even her white jade hairpin fell out, leaving her hair disheveled.
Just as her fingers were about to be forcibly pried open again, Hu Shanwei glimpsed a long rod standing behind the door – the door bar used for latching the door.
She released her grip, used all her strength to squeeze through the crowd, rushed behind the door, grabbed the door bar, and began wielding it in her hands!
Hu Shanwei stood steady and balanced, gripping the long rod with both hands front and back, swinging the staff with great vigor.
Everyone was stunned. How could this seemingly frail female official have practiced staff techniques?
Hu Shanwei had indeed practiced.
When she was twelve, she became engaged to her fiancé through completely arranged parental matchmaking. Common people didn’t have so many rules. After the engagement, the two met and were mutually satisfied, experiencing their first stirrings of love.
Hu Shanwei had long worked copying books in the library, making her physically weak and susceptible to cold. Her fiancé, who served as a company commander in the Golden Guard Rear Guard, often sent supplements and taught her horseback riding, along with some ornamental boxing, staff techniques, and Five Animal Frolics, wanting her to practice daily to strengthen her body instead of always hunching over books.
What Hu Shanwei learned would be considered pure showmanship to experts, completely without lethal power. However, she persisted in practice, her health gradually improved, she was no longer as sensitive to cold as before, and she fell sick much less frequently.
Hu Shanwei’s staff work looked impressive but was actually pure showmanship – beautiful but nothing more.
But it was enough to intimidate these laypeople.
They surrounded Hu Shanwei from a distance, pushing each other but not daring to approach.
Seeing Hu Shanwei wielding the staff, Imperial Noble Consort Hu became even more excited. This was getting more and more interesting!
The head eunuch became anxious, “What use are you worthless bunch? Ten people can’t defeat one person?”
The palace servants said, “The staff is so frightening. Why don’t you try, Your Honor?”
The head eunuch shrank his neck like a shrimp, but not wanting to lose face before the Imperial Noble Consort, preferring words over action, he shouted, “Hu Shanwei! You dare use a weapon in front of Her Ladyship Imperial Noble Consort! Put it down immediately!”
Having many skills really doesn’t burden one! Hu Shanwei marveled that the ornamental techniques learned for fitness hadn’t been wasted – at least they were quite effective for intimidation. She performed a beautiful staff-finishing move, stepping forward into a horse stance then half-crouching with the staff behind her back, saying, “Who said this is a weapon? It’s clearly a door bar. Fellow female officials compiling books, did you see?”
The ten female officials compiling books were trapped in their chairs, unable to act but able to speak. They all said, “It’s a door bar, not a weapon. We can testify.”
“The dignified Library Pavilion – how could there be weapons?”
“Exactly. By Your Honor’s logic, wouldn’t the bamboo knives we use for cutting paper also be weapons?”
The head eunuch was struck speechless, pointing at Hu Shanwei, “Put it down quickly. Don’t harm Her Ladyship Imperial Noble Consort.”
Hu Shanwei said, “I’m far from the Imperial Noble Consort, and there are Your Honor and over ten palace servants between us.”
The head eunuch said, “Late at night, why aren’t you closing the door? What are you doing with the door bar?”
Hu Shanwei thought to herself, since I’m going all out today anyway, isn’t this just arguing unreasonably? Whoever goes furthest wins.
Hu Shanwei said, “I saw rats just now. I was hitting rats.”
The head eunuch asked, “You use a door bar to hit rats?”
Hu Shanwei countered, “What else? Use my hands?”
The female officials burst into laughter.
The head eunuch had never seen such an arrogant low-ranking female official. If he lost to her today, the Imperial Noble Consort’s displeasure would be secondary – how could he continue in the harem afterward?
The head eunuch steeled himself, set down his fly whisk, picked up a chair, and threatened, “Will you move aside or not?”
Hu Shanwei said, “If Your Honor signs and seals the book list, this humble official will immediately make way.”
The head eunuch’s gaze turned sinister, “In that case, don’t blame this servant for being ruthless.”
The head eunuch held the chair as a shield and charged toward Hu Shanwei.
Following military staff techniques, Hu Shanwei turned from her back-staff position, extended the staff, and using the rotational force, struck the chair with a crack. The force wasn’t heavy but definitely wasn’t light – sufficient for dealing with an unarmed eunuch.
The eunuch felt his hands go numb, released his grip, and the chair fell to the ground.
The female officials first gasped in alarm, then cheered.
His dignity in tatters, the eunuch made a desperate gamble, pouncing like a wild dog to grab the staff, attempting to seize it.
In terms of strength, Hu Shanwei was no match for the eunuch. Just as the staff was about to be taken, suddenly someone pressed close behind her – a person whose tall frame towered a full head above her.
That person pressed tightly against her back, large hands enveloping her grip on the staff. He whispered in her ear, “Let me handle this.”
The voice was very familiar – it was Mu Chun.
Using Hu Shanwei’s hands while gripping the staff himself, Mu Chun applied force, lifting the head eunuch who was clinging to the staff, then swept the staff backward. The eunuch was seen “riding the staff away,” flung right out of the Library Pavilion!