The Court of the Lion: A Novel of the T'ang Dynasty (T'ang Trilogy Book 3) by Altieri Daniel & Cooney Eleanor

Author:Altieri, Daniel & Cooney, Eleanor
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Daniel Altieri and Eleanor Cooney
Published: 2014-05-26T04:00:00+00:00

17

A Lucky Baby Is Born

On his birthday ... [An Lu-shan] received rich gifts and also favours of a more personal kind, for he was adopted as a son by Yang Kuei-fei. On the third day afterwards she and her ladies, to their own and the emperor’s great amusement but to the scandal of future historians, wrapped his huge hulk in baby clothes and went through a burlesque of the ceremony of washing the new-born infant. This incident and vaguer allegations concerning the freedom with which he entered the women’s quarters of the palace have led the romantically minded to assume that a love affair grew up between Yang Kuei-fei and her “son.” To disprove this idea is of course impossible, but it is too grotesque.

—Edwin Pulleyblank

An Lu-shan once entered the palace to see the emperor and his consort, but bowed first to the mistress. The annoyed monarch asked the reason... . [An Lu-shan responded,] “Your subject is a barbarian. A barbarian puts his mother first and his father afterwards. ... A barbarian only knows that he has a mother, but does not know that he has a father.” ... He further asked to be adopted by [Precious Consort Yang Kuei-fei] as a foster son... . This request was granted... .

Precious Consort Yang had a huge diaper made out of elegant brocaded material ... and his “mother” had him washed, dressed in the diaper and promenaded about the Forbidden Palace grounds in a gaily-colored sedan carriage.

—Howard S. Levy

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.