The Princess Wei Yang

69.1.Demonstrate one's talent in court

3雪上加霜:add frost to snow, to the misfortunes of a man who is already unfortunate
4琴: a plucked seven-string Chinese musical instrument of the zither family

5箜篌: ancient plucked string instrument

__________________________________________________________

The spring festival hadn’t passed for long; it was the third month of the year already.

When the spring flowers blossomed, it was the time when there were countless banquets and when many families sent out invitations. Lao furen had deliberated for a while before she finally decided to bring Li Wei Yang with her to visit others.

Lao furen usually didn’t leave the residence, so an invitation that was able to move her was certainly from the imperial family. This time the invitation came from the Emperor’s Princess Yongning. Speaking of this Princess Yongning, she was born from low-ranked Consort Hui. Because Consort Hui passed away from miscarriage, Princess Yongning was given to be raised by the Empress. The Empress only had the Crown Prince so she sincerely raised Princess Yongning by her side, in fact, this princess was four years older than the prince. Once she reached fifteen years of age, the Emperor ordered the ministry of rites to select a husband. But ever since the incident of the prince consort’s rebellion had happened in the previous dynasty, all princesses of this dynasty who marry had to follow a law and that was any imperial prince consorts could not become officials in the court and the so-called prince consort held a position in name only. In addition to the princess being of noble birth, no one dared to offend her, thus, the true aristocratic family who had sons who were skilled in both literary studies and military arts, none wanted to become in-laws with the imperial family.But whoever the Emperor decided to choose, that person must become the future prince consort, with no other choice.

When it was Princess Yongning’s turn, the palace spread the news. Every noble family immediately found ways to ensure that their sons who are of marriageable age had wed a wife, especially Duke Ying of the Zhou family. All of his four sons at once became engaged, which made the Emperor furious since he initially wanted to select a son from the Zhou family. The Empress personally summoned Duke Ying’s wife into the palace and forced her to select a son skilled in literary studies and military arts for the marriage. Duke Ying’s family didn’t dare defy yet they truly didn’t want to send one of their four talented sons. So they complied but covertly oppose by recommending Zhou Ming Chang, who was the eldest son of the second household in Duke Ying’s family. The Emperor summoned Zhou Ming Chang and seeing that he was a strikingly talented man, he expressed satisfaction and sent his most trusted head of eunuch to investigate Zhou Gongzi. This head of eunuch was a greedy person; after being bribed off, he naturally sang praises to the Emperor about Zhou.

Princess Yongning was glamorously sent off to marry, it was originally a joyful matter but Zhou Ming Chang wasn’t as great as he seemed to be. He was narrow-minded since he was young and he also suffered from tuberculosis. Because he became the prince consort and he had no hope on a career, he was depressed from the start; he was also mocked by his cousins, who added frost to snow3. At the wedding, the agitated and overly tired Zhou Ming Chang vomited blood in front of the crowd. Not long after the wedding, Princess Yongning discovered the truth and became extremely angry. Zhou Ming Chang felt guilty and had been bed-ridden ever since. Not even six months, he passed away. Having reached this point, the truth could no longer be concealed. The Emperor banished the entire Duke Ying’s family, executed the corrupted head of eunuch, and also renovated the princess’ residence in the palace so that Princess Yongning could reside in it.

The noble princess, who was of royal blood, though didn’t have to keep vigil but she still had married so she could only spend her life in the princess residence of Fu Li Tang. After a while, she would definitely feel bored and frequently held banquets and invited nobilities in the capital to lessen the loneliness.