Who is the most frightening character in the Chinese palace drama Empresses in the Palace (original title: 甄嬛传, The Legend of Zhen Huan)? Many viewers would name Consort Hua, who flies into rages and punishes people openly. But the truly frightening one may be the Empress, who always wears a gentle smile.
In this article, I read the Empress’s moves at the time Zhen Huan and the other new candidates enter the palace, through my own interpretation, “Satoe’s Take.”
*The same events, seen from the side of Zhen Huan, who suffers the cruelty, are covered in my article “Suiyu Xuan in Empresses in the Palace: Where Was Zhen Huan’s First Home, and What Does Its Name Mean?” (link)
Caught in the Hidden Battles of the Inner Palace Before She Even Enters
At the selection of palace candidates, the Yongzheng Emperor showed a strong interest in Zhen Huan, so much so that he personally granted her an honorific title.
The Empress begins to tell the Emperor that Zhen Huan resembles someone, then stops herself. Zhen Huan closely resembled the late Empress Chunyuan, whom the Emperor still could not forget. And Empress Chunyuan was the Empress’s own elder sister.
A newcomer who looked just like the sister still living in the Emperor’s heart had appeared. Nothing could have unsettled the Empress more. Yet she does not let it show on her face. Outwardly, she plays the good wife who understands her husband’s feelings, while quietly making her moves.
The Empress was not watching Zhen Huan alone. She was sizing up each of the new candidates, measuring who was promising and who could be used. In her eyes, I believe the two most promising were Zhen Huan and Shen Meizhuang.
The Battle Over Zhen Huan’s Lodging
The Empress proposed that Zhen Huan live in Chengqian Palace, close to Yangxin Hall, where the Emperor conducted state affairs. But Consort Hua objected, and Zhen Huan’s lodging was changed to Suiyu Xuan.
Suiyu Xuan was a lowly “pavilion” (xuan), not even a “palace” (gong), and was never meant to be lived in. It does not exist in the real Forbidden City; the name was created for the drama. I write about its location and the meaning of its name in detail in a separate article. (link)
The Empress’s Four Schemes
The brilliance of the Empress’s schemes lies in achieving her goals by moving other people, so that she herself is never the villain.
Scheme 1: Playing the Good Wife While Sending Zhen Huan to a Miserable Place
It is a fact in the drama that the Empress intended Zhen Huan to live in Chengqian Palace. It is also a fact that Consort Hua objected, that Zhen Huan was sent to Suiyu Xuan instead, and that the Empress gave way to Consort Hua.
✦ Satoe’s Take
Placing the Emperor’s new favorite right beside him: this is the gesture of a good wife who understands her husband’s heart. But I believe it was only a pretense.
Consort Hua, who wanted the Emperor’s favor all to herself, would never quietly allow a newcomer to be placed near him. Didn’t the Empress calculate from the start that someone would interfere? Sure enough, Consort Hua objected, and Zhen Huan was sent to Suiyu Xuan.
The Empress had simply shown goodwill as a good wife. The villain who drove Zhen Huan to a miserable place became Consort Hua. Afterwards, the Empress innocently sends osmanthus flowers, saying Suiyu Xuan is such a lonely place, and displays her kindness. To me, this looks like the finishing touch.
Scheme 2: Using Shen Meizhuang as a Piece to Hold Back Consort Hua
The calm and intelligent Shen Meizhuang moved into Xianfu Palace, whose mistress was Consort Jing. The Empress tells the Emperor that Noble Lady Shen has the same dignity Consort Jing once had.
✦ Satoe’s Take
The intelligent and graceful Shen Meizhuang has a charm that Consort Hua lacks. Where Consort Hua attracts the Emperor with glamour and passion, Shen Meizhuang has quiet dignity and learning.
In my eyes, Shen Meizhuang was the one truly fit to be the next Empress. I believe the Empress Dowager favored her and hoped for that too. Consort Jing, who shared her palace, surely saw her the same way.
The Empress must have sensed this as well. Shen Meizhuang was not only likely to win the Emperor’s favor one day; she was someone who might even threaten the Empress’s own seat.
So the Empress placed Shen Meizhuang in Xianfu Palace alongside Consort Jing. Once Shen Meizhuang won favor, she was bound to clash with Consort Hua. Wasn’t the Empress trying to give Shen Meizhuang the role of holding Consort Hua in check, without having to act herself?
But to the Empress, Shen Meizhuang was not an ally. I think she meant to use her while she was useful against Consort Hua, and eventually bring her down too.
When that happened, Consort Jing, the mistress of Xianfu Palace, would also be affected.
Consort Jing was clever and composed, and did not easily fall into traps. And what she was watching was not the scramble for favor in front of her. Her sights were set on the emperor after Yongzheng.
The childless Empress had become the guardian of the Third Prince, born to Consort Qi, in order to keep her power into the next reign. I believe Consort Jing was quietly waiting for a woman who would bear a rival prince. Welcoming Shen Meizhuang into her palace may also have meant, for Consort Jing, keeping close a woman who might become that mother.
To the Empress, Consort Jing was a dangerous opponent. She was clever and never fell into traps, so even the Empress could not touch her directly.
That is exactly why, I think, the Empress put Shen Meizhuang into Xianfu Palace. Even if Consort Jing herself was out of reach, if a woman living in her palace were found guilty of something, Consort Jing could be blamed for failing to supervise her as the head of that palace. Even a minor charge might deal her a small blow.
Hold back Consort Hua, eventually bring down Shen Meizhuang, and along the way wound Consort Jing, whom she could not touch directly. I believe the Empress had read that many moves ahead from a single placement.
Scheme 3: Arranging the Three Women of Yanxi Palace
An Lingrong, who held the lowest rank, moved into Yanxi Palace together with the strong-willed Xia Dongchun. Xia Dongchun had already picked on An Lingrong during the selection. Yanxi Palace was also home to Noble Lady Fuca, a Manchu.
Here is how the relationships stood:
- Noble Lady Fuca: A Manchu, favored by the Empress, but unaware of it.
- Xia Dongchun: Lower in rank than Noble Lady Fuca, flashy and shallow. She bullies An Lingrong.
- An Lingrong: The lowest in status, with no choice but to seek a protector in order to survive.
✦ Satoe’s Take
The Empress herself was a Manchu. It would be natural for her to want Manchu consorts to gain power in the inner palace. In that sense, Noble Lady Fuca was someone the Empress looked after.
But Noble Lady Fuca was somehow lacking. She had the family background, but it was hard to say she had the charm or talent to capture the Emperor’s heart.
So the Empress placed the flashy Xia Dongchun in the same palace. With an attention-seeker like Xia Dongchun around, the Emperor’s eye might turn to Yanxi Palace more often. And then Noble Lady Fuca might get a chance to meet him. I think the Empress had a small hope of that as well.
Meanwhile, An Lingrong, the lowest in rank, was caught between the two and gradually cornered.
An Lingrong was the daughter of a minor provincial official, and her family was not wealthy. In family background and in appearance, she felt inferior to the other candidates. She could not support herself with glamour or learning as Zhen Huan and Shen Meizhuang could. Her strong inferiority complex was something she could not hide, however hard she tried.
I believe the Empress sensed this complex in An Lingrong. People with a strong sense of inferiority also have a strong desire to be recognized and not to be looked down on. Reach out a hand to such a person, and she will feel indebted and unable to leave. And her envy of those more fortunate than herself can one day be turned into a blade.
To the Empress, An Lingrong was not just a weak newcomer. She was someone who could become an assassin, dirtying her hands in the Empress’s place. In fact, An Lingrong was later drawn deep into the Empress’s camp and came to act as her instrument. The assassin the Empress raised would one day remove the very person the Empress feared most.
With a single arrangement, the Empress could support the Manchu Noble Lady Fuca and turn An Lingrong into her pawn. Even if it failed, the Empress lost nothing.
Scheme 4: Puffing Up Xia Dongchun, Then Dropping Her into Hell
Soon after entering the palace, Xia Dongchun was caught by Consort Hua as she was about to strike An Lingrong. She was given the harsh punishment called “yi zhang hong” (a severe beating) and was left crippled. Consort Hua had already regarded Xia Dongchun as one of the Empress’s people.
✦ Satoe’s Take
Xia Dongchun was not a Manchu. The Empress had no real reason to favor her.
Even so, the Empress pretended to be fond of her. My reading is that she made Xia Dongchun believe she was the Empress’s favorite, perhaps through gifts.
Xia Dongchun’s flashy behavior had already made her unpopular. On top of that, she was light-headed and acted without thinking about her position. As the Japanese saying goes, flattery can make even a pig climb a tree, and Xia Dongchun was exactly that. A little fondness from the Empress was all it took for her to grow conceited and begin openly behaving as a member of “the Empress’s faction.”
Let her climb high, then drop her into hell. Having made herself conspicuous for all the wrong reasons, Xia Dongchun became Consort Hua’s example to the others.
The Empress must have watched it all. She had done nothing herself. She had only flattered her a little. And yet a conceited girl tumbled down on her own.
The greater the drop from the heights of elation, the more entertaining it is for those watching. I wonder whether the Empress found anything more entertaining to watch.
And seeing this, the new consorts grew afraid of Consort Hua and kept their distance. Consort Hua was feared; the Empress was relied upon. Without ever dirtying her own hands, the Empress secured her position in the inner palace.
Those She Left Alone: Consort Duan, Consort Li, and Noble Lady Cao
The Empress did not make a move on every consort. There were some she deliberately left alone.
Consort Duan
Consort Duan, who lived in Yanqing Hall, was a high-ranking and intelligent woman. Consort Hua believed that her own miscarriage had been caused by medicine Consort Duan had brought her, and so she hated Consort Duan bitterly and kept tormenting her.
But in truth, it was the Emperor who had arranged for Consort Hua to lose her child. Consort Duan knew this, said nothing, and quietly kept her head down.
✦ Satoe’s Take
To the Empress, Consort Duan was someone she had no need to touch. Consort Hua, still mistaken, kept hating her, and Consort Duan was often ill and rarely appeared in public, posing no threat to the Empress’s position.
But perhaps the truly clever one was Consort Duan. She understood that the inner palace was the Emperor’s theater. Above the Empress, who believed she was steering the plot, the Emperor was pulling the strings. Speaking the truth would only get her removed from the stage.
So Consort Duan silently endured Consort Hua’s hatred, hid behind her illness, and chose simply to survive, without standing out and without fighting. If the Empress was enjoying the play from the audience, Consort Duan was watching the whole theater from the wings, quietly waiting for her cue.
Consort Li
Consort Li was one of Consort Hua’s followers, a beautiful woman who had once enjoyed the Emperor’s favor. But she was not quick-witted, and in Empresses in the Palace she eventually loses her mind and exits the story.
Consort Li also appears in Ruyi’s Royal Love in the Palace, often described as a sequel. There, she has aged and lost her looks, and is far from the Emperor’s favor. Yet she still wears makeup as if she were young, and with a voice that has grown low and hoarse with age, she tries to speak in the high-pitched voice of a young girl. Viewers laughed at her mercilessly.
✦ Satoe’s Take
“When beauty fades, love wanes.” These words are recorded in the Book of Han as those of Lady Li, beloved consort of Emperor Wu of Han. One who is loved for her looks loses that love when her looks fade. Consort Li was exactly such a person.
To the Empress, Consort Li was harmless even if left alone. If anything, the inner palace needed someone to laugh at. Precisely because it was an elegant, tense world, having someone everyone could laugh at behind her back was a small source of amusement.
But when I noticed viewers laughing at Consort Li in Ruyi’s Royal Love in the Palace, a chill ran through me. It is not only the consorts of the inner palace who mock the faded Consort Li and enjoy it. We, in front of the screen, are doing the same thing.
We believe we are watching the cruelty of the inner palace from the outside. But the heart that laughs at the weakened and enjoys watching others fall exists both inside and outside the inner palace. Perhaps the inner palace is not a special world found only within the Forbidden City.
Noble Lady Cao
Noble Lady Cao was also on Consort Hua’s side. Unlike Consort Li, she was clever, and served as a kind of strategist for Consort Hua.
✦ Satoe’s Take
I think the Empress actually wanted Noble Lady Cao to stay just as she was. Consort Hua was fierce and strong, but not clever. Without a strategist like Noble Lady Cao, Consort Hua’s schemes would rarely succeed.
And indeed, Noble Lady Cao’s wits served Consort Hua well. It was her scheme that brought down Shen Meizhuang. Shen Meizhuang, whom the Empress had planned to bring down “eventually,” was brought down by Consort Hua and Noble Lady Cao, without the Empress lifting a finger.
In the end, Noble Lady Cao betrayed Consort Hua and joined those who toppled her. The strategist who grew up at Consort Hua’s side brought Consort Hua down. Up to this point, everything went exactly as the Empress wished.
But the story does not end there. After Consort Hua fell, Noble Lady Cao was poisoned by the Empress Dowager and the Emperor. Someone who would betray her own mistress could not be kept close. A piece that has played its part is removed from the stage.
The Inner Palace Through the Empress’s Eyes
Put together, we can see how the Empress viewed each person.
Those the Empress made moves on
- Zhen Huan: Promising, and therefore sent to a miserable place under the guise of a good wife’s kindness
- Shen Meizhuang: Promising, and therefore a piece to hold back Consort Hua; eventually to be brought down, wounding Consort Jing of the same palace along the way
- Noble Lady Fuca: A fellow Manchu she wanted to support, but lacking, so paired with the flashy Xia Dongchun
- An Lingrong: Her strong inferiority complex seen through, and turned into an assassin who dirties her hands in the Empress’s place
- Xia Dongchun: Not even a Manchu, yet puffed up with pretended fondness, allowed to climb high, then dropped into hell
The one the Empress could not touch
- Consort Jing: Clever and never caught in a trap. So the Empress placed Shen Meizhuang in her palace, creating an indirect way to wound her
Those the Empress deliberately left alone
- Consort Duan: No need to touch her. Yet Consort Duan herself saw that the Emperor was the one pulling the strings in this theater, and kept her head down
- Consort Li: Harmless, and the inner palace needs someone to laugh at
- Noble Lady Cao: Left as she was, as the strategist who makes Consort Hua’s schemes succeed
Conclusion: The Loneliness of an Empress Who Never Dirties Her Hands
The essence of the Empress’s strategy is that she never acts directly. Outwardly she plays the merciful Empress, while in reality she skillfully moves others and leaves the dirty work to them. She even distinguishes between those she must act on and those she can leave alone. This sophisticated psychological warfare was the art of survival in the inner palace.
✦ Satoe’s Take
Elegant, refined, a place where no one ever raises her voice. You never dirty your own hands, and whoever arranges for her rival to stumble on her own is the winner. That is the inner palace: a world where such struggles go on until death. The Empress understood the rules of this world more deeply than anyone, and used them more skillfully than anyone.
Seen this way, perhaps the court is a theater of entertaining spectacles.
And this theater has roles set aside for those who are tormented for others’ amusement: Xia Dongchun and Consort Li.
Both were light-headed and unpopular. So no one defended them when they were tormented, and those who tormented them suffered no damage to their reputations. Xia Dongchun was flattered into climbing the tree, then dropped from the heights of elation into hell. Consort Li, faded, made herself up as if young and became a laughingstock. The two of them were people on whom the inner palace could safely turn its cruelty, and enjoy it.
The Empress, sitting in the audience, never once steps onto the stage herself. She nudges the plot a little here and there, and enjoys watching the play.
Come to think of it, Suiyu Xuan, where Zhen Huan was first lodged, was originally a place for watching performances. From the day she was housed in a place for watching plays, Zhen Huan had been made to stand on the stage of this theater.
And in the audience of this theater sit we, in front of our screens. When we laugh at Consort Li and watch Xia Dongchun’s fall thinking “serves her right,” perhaps we too are enjoying the play from the same seats as the Empress.
The Empress may have believed she was steering the plot from the audience. But Noble Lady Cao’s end shows that there was someone in this theater pulling the strings from even higher up.
Up to Consort Hua’s downfall, things went as the Empress wished. But in the end, the one who decided who would live and who would be removed from the stage was the Emperor. The Empress Dowager, too, had a hand in the script alongside him. The Empress’s schemes and Consort Hua’s cruelty alike were nothing more than parts of a larger play, its strings pulled by the Emperor.
That is exactly why the one Zhen Huan must finally confront at the end of this story is neither the Empress nor Consort Hua, but the one pulling the strings himself.
And yet, seen from another angle, perhaps no one was more trapped than the Empress. Though she believed she sat in the audience, seen up close, she too was someone who could not take a single step off this stage.
She was the Empress, the mistress of the central palace. She could not flaunt the Emperor’s favor as Consort Hua did, nor punish people as her emotions dictated. The moment she removed the mask of the “merciful Empress,” she would lose her position. So she had no choice but to manipulate others and keep on winning.
Is death the only way out of the inner palace? Applied to the Empress, this question becomes even heavier. She had no escape route; she did not even have a place to take off her mask and rest. I believe the Empress herself, who held the highest rank of all, was also a resident of hell, condemned to keep winning without ever dirtying her hands.