Zhao Hanzhang vented her anger thoroughly, letting Xuan Yuxiu and the other Han officials know that Zhao Hanzhang wasn’t so gentle after all. Indeed—how could someone commanding three armies have a soft temperament?
After this outburst, though Xuan Yuxiu and Liu Qin felt the emperor’s funeral was too simple, they dared not say anything more.
After all, Liu Yuan wasn’t Zhao Hanzhang’s sovereign but an enemy nation’s ruler. Even if she exposed Liu Yuan’s corpse in the wilderness, she would at worst earn a reputation for ruthlessness. A generous burial would gain her a good reputation, and burial according to imperial standards went beyond generous burial—it indirectly acknowledged Liu Yuan’s status and his life’s achievements. This alone was enough to satisfy the Han officials.
Even Liu Yi couldn’t speak words of resentment toward her.
The two nations were adversaries, and Liu Yuan had once been a Jin official, a vassal prince. His identity naturally gave Zhao Hanzhang’s attack a sense of justice. Moreover, this war had been started by Han.
Pingyang City’s fall was due to their inferior skills, so they felt humiliated but could hardly resent Zhao Hanzhang.
If she had done something inhumane—like killing their emperor, massacring their people, their soldiers…
But their emperor died of illness, and Zhao Hanzhang had even summoned imperial physicians to try to save him. She didn’t indiscriminately kill civilians, whether Han or barbarian. As long as they didn’t attack her soldiers or violate her regulations, she accepted them all equally and treated them the same. As for captured soldiers, she treated them even better.
Since Pingyang City fell, the Zhao Family Army had committed no offenses wherever they went, only following orders to inventory officials’ family properties and court assets.
She performed too well. Those wanting to find fault with her couldn’t find any. In the end, seeing her take so many burial goods and tear up the burial sacrifice list, then issue the order prohibiting burial sacrifices, they could only mutter quietly that she was petty and somewhat vindictive.
Zhao Hanzhang was completely unaware. Her anger didn’t subside much until Fu Tinghan came for dinner. “I never imagined that even on the verge of national collapse, they could still think about burial sacrifices. We nearly wasted over two hundred lives.”
Fu Tinghan said, “When I came, I heard people talking about how angry you were today. Still upset?”
Zhao Hanzhang huffed and frowned in thought. “Right now, it’s under my nose, so I can prohibit it. But what about places I can’t see?”
Fu Tinghan considered. “Don’t you often say that those above set the example for those below? If you abolish the burial sacrifice system and forbid officials under you from using living people and livestock for burial, implementing thin burials, the common people will naturally follow.”
Zhao Hanzhang lowered her head in thought. “But that’s too slow. Who knows how many people will die from burial sacrifices in the time it takes for the customs above to influence those below?”
“I asked Master Ming today and learned that although Emperor Qin Shi Huang prohibited human burial sacrifices and the Han emperors didn’t promote it either, some people still practiced living burial.”
“When husbands die, wives are buried alive; when masters die, servants are buried alive. These are tacitly accepted rules, especially among some vassal princes. Without court restraint, they act lawlessly, secretly killing people for burial sacrifices. Now in these chaotic times, human lives are like grass. For the sake of so-called generous burial, killing thousands or tens of thousands for burial sacrifice is common,” Zhao Hanzhang said. “That’s why Xuan Yuxiu thought Liu Yuan was already virtuous, only selecting his favorite young consorts for burial, and the accompanying maids and eunuchs weren’t many either. He couldn’t understand why I was so angry.”
“So what do you want to do?”
“I plan to have Uncle Cheng lead the academies in various regions to take action. I won’t just strictly require this from above and eliminate such practices—I also want to spread the word from below and change their thinking.”
What those in power preferred was one thing, but changing people’s thinking was even more important. Otherwise, if she died in the future and a new ruler took power, wouldn’t this burial sacrifice system spring back up like the spring wind?
Actually, the burial sacrifice system was very prevalent during the Qin dynasty, but Emperor Qin Shi Huang disliked human sacrifice and chose to use clay and wooden figurines as substitutes. From then on, emperors didn’t promote human sacrifice, though some local vassal lords and nobles would secretly practice human burial sacrifices.
Zhao Hanzhang only knew that historically, it wasn’t until the Liao dynasty that human sacrifice became prevalent again. This prevalence meant emperors extensively used human burial sacrifices. When the emperor set this example, the nobles followed, and the practice became widespread among the people. Some wealthy commoners would promote lavish burials, learning to use human burial sacrifices.
After Liao, the Jin and Yuan dynasties also widely practiced burial sacrifice. In the Ming dynasty, this system remained prevalent until Emperor Yingzong abolished it. Only then did the system of human burial sacrifice end in the Ming dynasty. But in the Qing dynasty, this system became prevalent again.
Although Kangxi later issued an order to abolish this system, among the common people, the system of wives being buried alive with their husbands actually always existed. The court would encourage human sacrifice by awarding plaques of “virtuous woman” or “chaste woman” to wives who were buried alive, right up until the Republic of China era. This system never truly disappeared.
So abolishing the system and setting examples from above wasn’t enough—they needed to change this system at the ideological level.
Zhao Hanzhang snorted. “When I find the time, I’ll write several stories specifically about how wives, concubines, and servants who were buried alive take revenge from beneath the ground.”
“Ahem, ahem, ahem…” Fu Tinghan choked and coughed several times before recovering. “You want to write ghost stories?”
“Yes,” Zhao Hanzhang said. “I won’t just write them—I’ll publish them too.”
The more she spoke, the better she liked her idea. She said happily, “I’ll take a pen name for myself and have a publishing house print them to sell as story books. Don’t worry, I won’t let anyone know I wrote them.”
“However, there aren’t many literate people in this world. Whether spreading through academies or story books, we’re only reaching the scholar class and above. But most people buried alive in this world are actually commoners and slaves,” Zhao Hanzhang said. “So what good does it do if only they know? They’re very likely to be the beneficiaries. We also need to let the lower classes know, let them know to resist—that would be better.”
Fu Tinghan helped her think. “Storytelling? Theater? But telling ghost stories in teahouses—what storyteller would agree?”
Zhao Hanzhang rubbed her chin. “Then make them into plays.”
Zhao Hanzhang looked around, then said quietly, “We can’t let Masters Ji and Ming know about this. They always find work for me. Don’t you have people? When the time comes, have them help find some storytellers and opera performers to stage these plays.”
The more Zhao Hanzhang spoke, the better the idea seemed. “Theater houses are very profitable. This era has few entertainment options, so they’re bound to be popular. Aren’t they worried about ways to make money?”
Fu Tinghan said, “…You’re quite imaginative. The few people in my intelligence network keep wanting me to seize your power, and here you want them to stage your plays and make money for you to spend.”
Zhao Hanzhang smiled at him. “Don’t worry about these details so much. Originally, they also make money to give to you, and you spend money on both of us anyway. Now it’s just using my story books and my ideas to make money. What does this show? It shows we should be one family all along. Before, I just wasn’t involved in the money-making step. Now I’m just getting more deeply involved.”
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