Emperor Xuanzong Pt 2: Yang Guifei and the Song of Everlasting Sorrow

off of me a little bit. Well, I mean I'll be doing it in lieu of hearing it from you, right, That's what I mean. The pressure is off. I have no birthday responsible. I'm kind of doing it passive aggressively, like having a birthday to me to forget. So if you're gonna do it for yourself anyway, then what you need to do is wake up forty five minutes early and be sitting at the side of the bed right with a gift and I cup a cough oh and uh, I don't know, and say happy birthdays. That's easy. Plus,

the gifts got to be expensive. You want me to go to a t M. You know, it shows that you cared to public. But I just want to put you through something from my birthday. You know, some people do that one day to birthdays, like how do you feel about birthday? So they like matter, do you don't care? Is this something you avoid? I mean I think it matters a bit. It's like the one day you can be like everyone tell me that I'm great, but I

don't know. I mean, you know, for my birthday this year, we were in Oklahoma and staying at the Hojo, And for my birthday last year, we were, you know, like my birthday is just never really the day of really never matters. We always make it up later. My birthdays have just had a bad luck streak the past couple of years. March, so um, you know, we can celebrate as we locked down on thet so there was no chance.

So I was kind of like, whatever, maybe I'll be like a leap year person and be like every few years, I'll just make it a big deal. But like when I turned forty, it'll be like a big problem for everybody. Yeah, definitely, when you turn forty twelve years from now, that's right, exactly appreciate that. Yeah, because I'm younger than you and I'm nineteen. I'll be yes, thank you, tomorrow will be nineteen. Clarify, But no, I'm being between Thanksgiving and Christmas. You know, everybody, Look,

my sister is about to have a baby. It's like, just avoid this time of year. I love my birthday. It's a great time. Maybe that's why us sagittarius Is are so aware of our elevated presence in the world. Um, because we're surrounded by all this celebration, you know, for our birthdays. Anyway, you're all invited to my birthday party. So come on out, and this is a first. But first you have to leave a five star review on Apple Podcasts, right, print it out and bring it your

tickets into the party. Why should we just just play the podcast at the party. We should just have that on instead of music. People would be like, it's like they're here, but we've actually left. Yeah, we're not at the party. Have a drink at the bar, but you can't have a drink. I have to buy your drink at the bar, right because I'm only eight, you're only nineteen. Well, yeah, I'll be nice, you know, thanks for reminding me, Jeeves.

I know you feel so old. All right, old, we got an old story today Part two if you remember part one. If you haven't heard part one, embers one song, So go check it out because this is truly an epic historical tale of heartbreak and chaos and schemon and all the good stuff we get from royal imperial families. So when we last left off with emperors, when Shong he was secure in his power and Lisa shung his son with the consort Yangui Pen was now the crown

Prince and heir to the imperial throne. Consort Woo, who tried to manipulate the line of succession by tricking the emperor into executing his own three sons, was dead and gone. And all this drama and chaos and death had left emperors. When Song depressed and his empire weakened, when he fell in love with a young woman named Young Guifey, his whole empire started to crumble. So let us dive in and hear about the love story that toppled the Tongue dynasty.

Let's do this, hey, their French, come listen. Well, Elia and Diana got some stories to tell. There's no matchmaking a romantic tips. It's just about pardiculous relationships. A love. It might be any type of person at all, and abstract concept on a concrete wall. But if there's a story where the second glance, we'll show ridiculous role, that's

a production of I Heart Radio. So we'll go back to the year seven nineteen, and this is about two decades before Consort Wu's death, and this is the city of Young Love where a girl was born named Young Yu Huan, and she would eventually be known as Young Guifa, So we'll get to that name later. But in seven thirty three, when she was just fourteen years old, she was married off for political purposes to a very special fella.

His name was Lee Mao, And if you remember from part one, Lee Mao was the son of Emperors Ween Song and Consort Wu. His mom was trying to scheme him into the line of succession by convincing the emperor that his own air Lie Ying, was betraying him, but ultimately Juan Song did not make Limo his air, instead choosing another son, Lisa Shun right, the stew baby, the stew baby, right, our friend, the stew baby. So Consort was dead, Lie Mao is off and he married this girl,

Yan Yu Huan. Now Li Mao was not the crown Prince, but he was titled the Prince of Show, and so Young yu Wan became the Princess of Show. And as she grew up she developed into a very curvacious woman, which, according to Britannica dot Com, had been unpopular but was becoming a more desirable look around this time. I wonder if she said the found the lightning in the bottle, I want to guess, or if he set that trend.

People are like, oh damn, what if people were curvy? Actually, I like a little but down down and a trunk trunk, And y'all made it work because everybody thought that she was a total smoke shows Save lives. She's considered to be one of the four Great Beauties of Ancient China. These were four women in China who were so beautiful

that they changed the nation forever. Of course, their beauty and their stories have been largely exaggerated through centuries of legend, but Young's, which was the most recent, is also the most well documented and historically accurate. So what we know about her, uh, probably more truthful than the other three, who were from hundreds of years earlier. Each of these four women have garnered a poetic idiom associated with them. They say, our girl Young yu Huan under her more

famous name Young Guifa shames flowers. And it said that the second century singer Dion eclipses the moon, and if BC, the musician Wong Jo Twin enticed birds into falling. And in the seventh century BC, it's said the first of the Great Four Beauties, z Sha sinks fish. Oh, quite have the same poetic and the story is that she would stand over a river and the fish would see her and become so bedazzled by her beauty that they would just sink to the bottom. They'd forget how to

swim and sink. Wow. Yeah, I guess I would. I would rather shame a flower, I suppose, than kill kill birds and fish opposite snow white stuff. Interestingly, I found the phrase beauty is in the eye of the beholder actually comes from a Chinese expression where they say in the eyes of a lover, z Sha appears. So they're like, if you love someone, you will see her as z show the most beautiful woman history. So your next Valentine Day, girl, you're so beautiful, you could sink of fish and see

what happens. When I see you, I just of dead fish at the bottom of the river. You make birds fall out of the sky. There you go. I know we say no romantic tips in our theme song. You can have that right here. Well after U Song's favorite girlfriend got him to murder his own sons and then died, he was pretty depressed, understandably. A concert woos a little puppet, leland Fu. We remember him, our villain of the week.

He had been advising the emperor and he was almost in real trouble because concert Wo was his backup in in the palace. But he found a report that said only fifty eight death sentences had been handed down that year. It was such a low number that he showed it to Jue Song and said, oh my god, dude, you're so great. You've made the empire so peaceful we hardly even need death sentences anymore. Wow, you're doing such a

great job. What a great guy. You know. One Song loves flattery, probably his big weakness, and he was like, oh, well me, well shucks, guys, I couldn't have done it without my chancellors, just like you, lin Fu. So he made lin Fu into a duke, a deputy military Governor and gave him an additional title as Minister of Civil Service Affairs. This is over the course of about two years.

He just keeps earning titles. Leland Fu and other officials made a massive overhaul to imperial law, and soon he was so powerful that no official could even get a promotion without his recommendation. His spies within the eunuchs and the ladies in waiting kept Emperor's one Song distracted, and they kept lin Fu informed There's one Song. Had already gotten pretty tired of his imperial duties when concert Wou was in his ear, but now after her death, he

was having a really hard time staying focused. Historians say in the eleventh century work The New History of the Tongue that j Win Song brought tens of thousands of women to his court to entertain him. That's a lot. Oh that's your birthday party, all right, song kind of party. But he was miserable. He let leland Food gradually become the most powerful person in the kingdom. His heart was growing cold, and though he sank into poetry and music

and food and women, he could not find happiness. But then his son Li Mao arrived and presented to the Imperial Palace. His wife Young Hush one Song is like, yeah, yeah, sure you've got a wife good for you. I'm sure she's very beautiful. And he looks up and he saw Young and his heart exploded saw this thick queen. He was like, yes, that's what I've been waiting for. This is the most beautiful woman he'd ever seen. So he just had this big old smile in his face that

he couldn't control. And Young it's like, oh gee, like so nice to meet you, and persh one Song, Oh, it's such an honor. And he's like, please call me Bill and she's like Bill and he's like, I don't

care what you call me. What I'm sure His son Limo is thinking like okay, okay, okay, like awesome, I'm getting some good vibes between my dad and my wife here, very cool, very cool, very dream m h Well, Lima and Young Yajuan took off, but people took notice of these super hard vibes happening, and Juan Song still had one good buddy looking out for him at court. His name was gal Lisha, and he was this older eunuch who had been friends with Juan Song ever since he

was a boy like this guy worked for his dad. Yeah, so gals like bro I have not seen you smile like that since college. And if there's one thing that a wingman is good for, it's getting a man together with his daughter in law. So he booked Young a special session at this when fountains in the palace. She's like this gorgeous bathhouse and shewin song just happened to be there. As Young was getting out of the water.

Legend says, his eyes sprang out of his head, his jaw dropped to the floor, his tone rolled out like a red carpet, and then he shook his head. How historically accurate that is a historical record. This is maybe more beautifully described and by Juey's legendary poem about these two lovers. So let's go down to poetry corner, and here is selection from by Juy's song of Everlasting Sorrow. If she but turned her head, there were cast a

hundred spells, beauties of six palaces vanished into nothing. It was early spring. They bathed her in the flower pool, which warmed and smoothed the creamy tinted crystal of her skin. And because of her languor. A maid was lifting her out of the spa. This was when they first made it the beginning of a saga. Her cloud like hair was held by a gold hairpin, her face flowery. They spent the night under the warmth of a hibiscus canopy, but the nights of spring were short and the sun

arose too soon. Lovely, you know those where it's just like, I can't believe it's morning already. This sucks. You gotta go back this night go on, and you gotta husband, you gotta get back to my son's my son. After a night in the hibiscus canopy, of course, Young is like, well, you know, I'm married to your son, and he's like, oh jeez, lee Maw always cropping up problems, like yeah, I used to be in love with your mother in law too, but let's not make it weird. Don't make

it weird. We would talk about that, but he's like, all right, lie, don't worry, I'll handle this. I got this now work Awhile later, Young and Limo got an order and it said, hey, congrats on your marriage and everything, but you're going to have to divorce because actually Yan has to go be a Taoist nun. Oopsie, sorry, I don't make the rules. Actually I do, thank you so much. By and she was given the name tai Jin, which means utmost truth or according to Google Translate, too true.

Name is that's so weird, like just I'm going to break you up, so I'm ordering you to go be a nun, and now you have to get divorced, you know, that's how it works, Mary to a nun. Any sense that he can do that, that he can just tell someone you're a nun now, I know. Well that's ultimate power,

I guess most power, but most power to power. As one song, was worried that people would think it was weird if he forced his son to divorce his wife and then immediately made her a consort in the palace, you know, so he buffered it with this none thing, you know, trying to be like, well, you're gonna go be a nun now, and then wait for people to kind of forget he did down, Yeah, and he waited five years she spent in that Taoist temple, and he felt like things had cooled off enough, and just to

cover his bases, he sent lie Maw another wife, just sent a woman to him and was like, here's someone for you to marry. And then he's He's like, totally unrelated to that Taijen. You actually aren't a nun anymore. Now you're gonna be a consort. In fact, you're my favorite consort. You're now known as young Guifey Guife was the highest title for a consort under Empress. It was the same title that Wu held Consort wou So Young

Guife enters the palace as his consort. No longer a nun, no longer married to Lee Mao, how longer his daughter in law? Yeah, just this little switcheroo. He's like, I gave you another lady, what do you want? And the guys like, is she one of the four great beauties of ancient Really now feel a little slighted, I'm sure, But of course has been so distracted with this nunnery business. How could he possibly have been an effective emperor during

all this? Well, actually, spoiler alert, he wasn't. He was not very in control. Right now, who was running the show? Well, come on, everybody, you know who it was Lee lind fun And one of the first things that Leland Foo did was cracked down on criticism Previously officials were free to make proposals and comments, but now they weren't allowed to speak up or lind Fu would say they were undermining the will of the emperor. Classic royal advisor move right.

Oh god, you can't talk to him. He told me what to say, and he said, you need to keep your mouth shut. I hate that so much. It's like any criticism can't be treason. That does not make sense. Now, if you remember in part one when Dwin Song was killing it, he had really cracked down on aristocrats buying political power and it really helped, like esher in a Golden Age and everything. But now with Lynn Fu's influence, the aristocratic party had firmly retaken control. But there was

another guy slowly creeping through the ranks. His name was on Luc Shan, and this guy, somehow was even trickier than leland Fu. We will learn more about him right after these words. Welcome back to poetry corner as we hear more of the Song of Everlasting Sorrow. The Emperor neglected the world from that moment, lavished his time on her and endless enjoyment. She was his springtime mistress and

his midnight tyrant. Though there were three thousand ladies, all of great beauty, all his gifts were devoted to one person. Her sisters and her brothers all were given titles. And because she's so illumined and glorified her clan, she brought to every father, every mother through the empire happiness when a girl was born rather than a boy. Oh wow, that's really something right there. Yeah, they saw young guife

and they were like, maybe women are useful. Listen, if she fox the right person, we could all be up now. Before the break we mentioned on Lucien and he was descended from Turkish and Iranian ancestry, and his people had been going through some real strife right around the same time that Emperor Ween Song came to power. In Uen Song's early awesome days when he was doing a great job, he provided a lot of opportunities for non Han Chinese people to come in and make a living in the

Chinese army. The Hans were like the Eastern Chinese natives right on. Lucian among others, had come to find a better life in China and working for the military. And this guy did okay for himself. He was aggressive and sometimes disobedient and At one point when he disobeyed orders and got all the whole squadron of his own men killed.

He was actually set to be executed, but he was also pretty effective, so his general didn't really want to execute him, so he sent him to the palace to Emperor One Song to see what he would do instead. Kind of like, you go to the principal's office. I don't want to punish you myself, but we'll see what happens. Go ask your mother. Yeah, pretty much. One Song was already a little checked out at this point with Consort Wou and his ear, so he's like, uh, whatever, I mean, Yeah,

the guy seems cool. Don't kill him, just strip his titles and put him back to work. So that's what happened. Lucian went back to service. He was a lot smarter this time around, and he rose the ranks quickly. He was also a very big dude, like huge. Historian Charles Holcomb wrote that horses died from his sheer weight and only the strongest could carry him, but he used it though. His superiors thought that he was obese, so he wouldn't eat in front of them, and that made them think

that he was extremely disciplined. Others found him intimidating lee enormous, So I imagine you just like bulked around, like keep that up. And in other times he used his fatness to deliberately play the buffoon, and that made people really love him. They think he was a jolly old bear. He would let their guard down, so he was using it really effectively depending on what you thought of him.

He was physical appearance. Yeah, he was so good at like manipulating what people thought of him for different situations. I want these people to think I'm hilarious and silly and goofy, and I'll do pratfalls. Yeah, I'll be like, look at my big belly, I'm son. And other guys he would just like stand over and they'd be like, your fifty pounds of person, I can't do anything to you,

you know, And that's very scary. Now. Leland Fu, her squirrely little bastard, was basically running the empire now, and he liked what he was seeing in this young Lushan guy. Lin Fu didn't want to appoint Native Han Chinese generals because he was afraid they would rise the ranks and rival his own power. He knew that if he promoted foreigners. There was always something he could use against them, so

they could never really overpower him. Xenophobia weapon weaponized xenophobia exactly, so he saw on Lushan and he was like, I'm gonna help this guy rise the ranks. Various military conflicts were erupting all over. The Emperor was very distracted. Corruption was rampant at this point, and more military conflicts were breaking out all the time at every border of China.

But Lucian was proving himself time and time again. Leland Fu would invite him to the palace regularly, and little by little, Lucien started to ingratiate himself to Emperor Song as well as his new favorite consort, Young Guif, a young now in her mid twenties. She was a talented singer and dancer. Jun Song is now about sixty years old, and he was a skilled musician, and together they created the rainbow and feather Garments dance, which is still performed today.

You can find videos of it on YouTube. But a year or so after the emperors stopped her from becoming a nun and invited her in as a consort, it starts to become a little more clear why Young went through all that stuff in the first place, you know, she marries this prince, she has to divorce him and go live as a nun for five years. Like what's you know? Does she have an end game in mind? Maybe? And you see what happens. She was immediately elevated to

the top consort position. That put her in the same position that Consort Wu was, where everyone in the palace is like bowing to her, treating her like the empress even though she's not the empress. And all of Young's family members started getting elevated positions in the government, in the military. Her sisters were all made ladies, her brothers were given princesses to marry parents empire wide, We're like, wow, it turns out women can be valuable. What a surprise?

Who knew? So her bringing her young family all up into power that definitely rubbed some feathers. Like there was a lot of history with the Young family throughout various previous empires, all the way back to Woosa, Tiana before just you know, there's already drama with the youngs is all I'm saying. And one of her cousins was named Young Gudjong. This guy was a gambler and a lush and kind of a loser ultimately, but he was a decent financial administrator. Young Guifey got her cousin Gujong a

position as a chancellor, very high ranking position. Yeah, and emperors one Song really came to trust him. But this guy was just as sneaky as Leland Fu and all the rest. Every year, on the seventh night of the seventh Loon or moon, for the Festival of the cow Herd and Weaver Made join, Song would pledge his eternal love to Young Wei Fee Festival of the cow Herd and Weaver Made. That's awesome. We have like fourth of July.

Know that this festival is actually really interesting. It's there's these two stars in the sky that are normally separated by the Milky Way Strip going right in between them. And then I guess seventh night of the seventh Blue over a month or whenever this happens, these two stars come together on one side of it, so they're not being separated anymore. So it's this whole lover's holiday. Yeah.

I guess the Cowherd and the Weaver Made were also lovers, yes, And I believe they were, you know, separated by something you know how does So that became their night to declare their eternal love for one another, and they vowed they would be together in all future lives, whether they were birds or plants, they would be side by side. But what night, Not during the festival, but when they had made some plans to enjoy the full moon, perhaps under a hibiscus candy bottle of wine, you know sexy

times ut Song didn't show. He was as some big party with a bunch of other ladies. So young we Fae just started drinking by herself. We know how that goes. Hours went by, he kept party and she kept drinking. So when he finally shows up, she led him heaven like, excuse me, I am a thick queen and I will not be ignored for a bunch of skinny bitches in the Imperial Area. I'm gonna go to this bath house.

You can watch, but you can't touch. How about? Oh damn well, Song don't like being spoken to like that, And he was probably also real drunk party and with his ladies all night, so he got real mad back at her and told her, well, fine, if you don't like it, you're gonna have to get the hell out and go live with one of your cousins instead. And she says, fine, I will and he said yeah because I said so, not because you want to. And she's like, no, because I want to. So she packed up all her ships,

she moved out. Well the next day shewin song you know, light a day, super bad hangover. Probably he was inconsolable. He apparently just done a really shitty mood. He wouldn't eat, he was yelling at everybody, and he was feeling like a big piece of ship because he was a big piece of ship. Gal Lee Shi his unique friend who's

you know, trying to hold things together. He went to him and he said, hey, uh, maybe you want to send her something nice and she one Song was like, yeah, I probably should do that, and he like packed up a bunch of fancy food and sent it to her and like a bunch of the treasures and stuff that she'd had in her room. Here just starts shipping out

gifts to make her feel better. And when Galicia was like, do you do you want to maybe do you want to maybe ask her if she wants to come back, Twin Song was just like yes, please please come back, and like brought her back to the palace. Good Galishi, what a good wing man like? Do you want to maybe like say you're sorry, Okay, you want to come back? Okay, let me go get her. Well from that point on, she's even more favored than before, if that's possible. Jwin

Song claimed to love her more deeply than ever. She had hundreds of laborers sewing fabrics for her. Jwin Song had horses race through the night to bring her fresh light gee before they spoiled. Anyone who came to the palace had better not show up without a tribute for Young Guifee and that included a lot of treats and treasures from Mr on lu Shan, that big corpulent guy

from the military. He is always coming around the palace just sweet talking the Emperor, passing along fancy gifts to him and Young guife He knows how to grease the wheels. And she loved this guy. He would come in do his dopey fat guy routine. She thought he was just a big, funny teddy bear right because like we said, he knew who he needed to like him, and he knew how to play different people's expectations. And remember he was also a foreigner, and he also played that up,

especially to the emperor. He often told the Emperor things just like, oh, I'm just I'm just a big dumb barbarian. I don't understand you're clever, fancy ways. And when Song is just like you are the cutest, I love you, You're the best, come on back here. He called himself a barbarian all the time. One time I liked this story he refused to bow to the crown Prince Lisa Shun, and everyone was like, what you doing, buddy, And he was like, oh, I'm sorry, I'm just a barbarian. I

don't understand what you guys do around here. And the emperor said, well, that's my son. He's the crown prince. When I'm gone, he'll be emperor. And Lucian said, I didn't think anyone but you could be emperor. Oh. And of course when Song was just like, oh you you're the best, My god, why do you think I'm a live Oh? Yes, he played it up. So One time when Lucian was meeting with young Guifee, he asked if she would be his adoptive mother, and she was like,

oh my god, that is adorable. I love it. Yes, let's do that. I've got a plan. We just got to convince the emperor that this is cool. But don't worry. She got all her ladies together and she brought him into the women's quarters. And the Emperor was walking by and he heard all these giggles coming from the women's quarters, so he pokes his head and he's like, hey, what's

going on here? What's that pretty laughing at? And Young Cuife's attendants turned to him and they say, oh, Emperor Consort Yang has given birth and she's just washing her baby. And Emperors One sounds like, well, the are you talking about? And he goes in and they all step us, they all part, and sitting there on the floor is on Lucian, dressed in nothing but this giant diaper that they wrapped around him, and Young Cuife is standing behind him like

scrubbing his shoulders. And ems Song sees this and just bust out laughing the funniest thing ever saw, Oh my god, And Young Qui face like, isn't he cute? I'm going to adopt him okay, andwin Song is just laughing it up.

He's like, love it, go for it, get a little life into this palace, and Lucian gets up and he bows first to young Guifee and then to the emperor, and he says, quote barbarians bow to mother's first before father's andwin song like wipes a little tear from his eye and he's like father, my son, and he just like that's the greatest day of his life. That is so cute. You are hilarious. I've only got thirty eight

other sons. Heard this story first from Noble Blood that's such a great podcast, and she recounted this story and she's like a lot of history and write about it very seriously, like she had him in a diaper and that meant that she was trying to say she was trying to do or the emperor was Danish sports was like you know that that they're human, right, and they

just make jokes. First joke, they're just goofing her has nothing like there's nothing serious going on here, very un serious moment, the ceremonial tribute, this weird cultish metaphor, like it wasn't any of that that, No, it's just it's just a big joke. And they thought it was funny. And I really liked that about her. I think it's smart to think. You know, remember that in history you're

talking about people, and there we've been making fart. A fart joke is like the earliest recorded joke, So don't worry people, we'd be goofing. But even though I felt like the best day of the Emperor's life, things would only get worse from here. And we'll hear it all in the thrilling conclusion coming up right after this Welcome back to poetry Corner, where will conclude a song of

everlasting sorrow. A breeze in her gauze, flowing with her movement as if she danced in rainbow and feather garments so delicate, her jade face drowned with tears of sadness, like a spray of pear flowers veiled with springtime rain. She asked to thank her love, her eyes gleaming, he whose form and voice had been strange to her ever since their parting. Her joy had ended in courts of

the bright sun. Moons and dawns were long in fairy palace, But when she turned her face towards the earth and tried to see the capital, there was only fog and dust. Oh foreboding m so it's seven two. The self proclaimed barbarian on Lucian is the adoptive son of Yan Guife. Emperor's win Song has built him his own mansion and spared no expense his son after all, gold staircases, jade panels on every wall, just like beautiful place carved panels. Yeah, Ivory.

He also made Lucian prince of dong Ping, which was the first time he made someone a prince who was not his son. By burn, Lucian had some re way over these guys. Yeah, even like Young Guifas brothers who married princesses were not made princes, you know, they were just princess's Husband's not a bad thing to be. I know that I consider myself a princess's husband. You don't really get anything good out of it, I guess, no, nothing at all. Maybe one day I just have to,

you know, be reminded that my wife's a princess. That's right. It's a lot of work, that's right. You do a great job. It's the work you were born for him. Oh jeez, il was new. My life meant something. The Young Guifas cousin Young gu Jong remember that gambler that she got a chancellorship. He kind of sucks, but he's sort of effective. He's locked in a power struggle with leland Fu and gal Leashi. The Eunuch is trying to hold everything together and keep dwin Song both informed and happy.

It's not an easy job. Oh yeah, And at this point dwen Song is just like, I honestly don't want to hear about it. He told gal Alicia that, like, I'm old, I'm leaving all these military matters to my generals and the state matters to my chancellor's. You know, just let me know if I need to know anything, but I don't, But I don't. Lynn Fou at this point had gotten so powerful that he now also had

a lot of enemies, and he knew it too. He was starting to get kind of paranoid because he had basically been playing whack a mole trying to keep people that he was afraid of from rising to power. So he'd be like, I don't like the looks of that guy, don't give him a promotion. I don't like the looks of that guy. Keep him down. And he'd done that so much that, of course some of them had slipped through. So now he's got people rising to power that he

had already actively worked against. Now leland Fou was living in extreme luxury. He had one mansion in the capital city and he had one out in the country. He had twenty five sons and twenty five daughters, while he had a huge group of concubines. I just know, I just meant the exact that's pretty incredible. Maybe they started to get off balance, and he was like, get rid of that. Oh geez, I was thinking maybe. No. He was more like, I better have another kid so I

can see what happens. And then he also, of course his sons in law all had positions in the government. His bodies were all in government. Like he had his allies rise into power with him, right, but Young Ku Chong Young guifas cousin, was also working to undermine leland Fou, and of course he had the Emperor's favor because the girlfriend was his cousin. And leland Fou's allies started randomly getting demoted, and this of course made Leland Foo lose power.

Then some of Leland Food's buddies tried to start a rebellion. Leland Food wasn't involved, but he was associated with them and of course, who crushed this rebellion but yangu Jong. So the Emperor goes to leland Foo and he's like, hey, leland Food, these buddies of yours that just tried to rebel against me and lin Fo he tries to deny. He's like, no, no, I don't know them. Who are they. I've never seen them before in my life. And he's like, well, you know, I was only friends with his brother, and

he was only kind of involved. He's not so bad anyway. He's just floundering, he's stammering, he can't really defend himself. So he says, hey, you know what, Actually I'm getting older. I think it's a point in my life where I'm gonna stay chancellor, but I will resign my military title and I'm going to go ahead and hand that title over to um. I don't know how about on lu Shan, your adoptive son that you love so much. He's pretty great, love hi. And the Emperor is like, oh, that's a

good move. I like you, Leland Foo. You're safe for now. Then leland Fou became very sick over the coming months, and a sorcerer told him that if the Emperor looked upon him, he would be cured. Wow, modern medicine pretty sweet. I mean if you if you told anyone else in China that might be like, well great, I how the how the hell am I supposed to get there? But Leland Foods like, oh, I know that guy, lucky I got I got his number saved on my phone. I

happen to know that guy. But while he was sick, another rebellion broke out from a guy that he had helped come to power. So when Juin Sung considered going to see Leland Food to try to heal him, the entire staff of the palace was like, probably a bad idea. He's kind of guilty, but association, you should not be

any buddy with this worst friends exactly. You can't trust him well, and they think you know that the accusations he was involved, it's one of his friends, so right, So instead they had Leland Foo brought to a courtyard Where's wind Sung could just look down on him from a tower. A spoiler alert, did not heal him or make him any better, how many effect whatsoever? You're telling me that just having some guys stare at you is

not an effective treatment for a serious ailment. I wonder if Leland Foo was like if he just come down the stairs, I know right and what it worked. You can never convince me it wouldn't have. So he's still real sick. He's like, oh, the end is near, you know. So Young Gujong went to see Lynn Fo on his deathbed, basically like take one last look right at his at

his bitter rival throughout life. And Lynn Foo's like, oh, my old friends, We've had our differences whatever about but I can count on you, can I to just make sure my name and my family are you can care of after I'm gone. I love this idea like we were but we were friends. I mean, I know we were trying to kill each other all the time, but it was we were just kidding around, right, I think

how the game is played respect and a joker. Yeah, we need each other without one the other, couldn't you know? You get it? So I can count on you right to just like take care of ship after I'm gone, you know. And Yengo Jong is like, oh, yeah, buddy, don't you worry. I will make sure your name and your family are super taken care of. And Lynn Fu was probably like that kind of a weird way to put that, and then died in late I love that His final words were wait a minute, that with a

different tone. It's not comforting. Well. Emperor one Song, of course, bestowed all kinds of honors on his guy, leland Fuf to his death. He gave him posthumous titles and awards and all this stuff. He ordered a grand funeral with imperial guards and all the fancy bells and whistles, big parade, Macy's Day, floats of leland Fou's family members floating down the streets, you know, marching bands, Mariah Carey, was there, just a whole big event. Anderson Cooper Cooper say, Andy Dick,

I'm like, no, it's not. Definitely, no one would watch that. Nobody wants to see that show. But Goojong went to the Emperor and said, hey, you know that leland Fou was part of both those rebellions, right as one song is like, okay, I've heard it all before, but I can't really believe you. I don't know this is true.

And Goojong says, oh, well, actually I brought a second opinion with me, and he's got none other than on Lucien that he convinced to corroborate the stories on Lucien goes and he's like, yeah, leland Fu was trying to rebel against you say, and that's his adoptive son, that's his big teddy bear boy. So he's like, oh, if you say so, it's like, but are you really sure. I mean, you guys both would have reason to speak

against him. And Kong says, oh, well, I got a third opinion here, and he brings in one of leland Foo's sons in law, who pops up and he's like, yeah, that's true. Yeah, right. So before the funeral could happen, Joen Song ordered that leland Foo's casket be split open, all his honor jewels were stripped from his body, and he was transferred to a regular commoner's casket, just a pine box, and he was given a regular boring funeral. Damn. Now,

everybody hated leland Fu. I mean everybody knew this guy was the absolute worst. But a lot of people knew that this was an outright lie, that Lindfu was not involved in any rebellion, and they kind of thought this was a pretty pretty dirty to do this to a dead man after he's gone yeah, kind of feels like he got what he deserved a little bit. I mean, yeah, you know, you never get in trouble for the crime you commit. It's always they get you something else, gets

you for something else. But hey, they out camponed him. Oh yeah, they shure did they shure did? So? Young Gujong took over Leland Foo's position. Of course, of course, kind of the point, but by this time Lu Shan had accumulated three frontier provinces under his command. He was the single most powerful general in the Chinese military, and even though he had teamed up with Yong Gujong against Leland Fu, they were actually bitter rivals. That was sort of like the enemy of my enemy as my friend

kind of situation was very temporary. Alliance. Gujong knew his best place to attack Lu Shan was at court, so he talked a lot of shit, and in retaliation, Lu Shan kept building up his forces, building building. Gujan could see this started to get a little worried. He's like, oh, this guy's got a lot of folks. So in spring of seven fifty four, he pulled his favorite move. He went to Emperor's One Song and said, listen, I hate to say it about your teddy bear boy. But he's

definitely trying to start a rebellion. And he told the emperor that if he summoned lu Shan to court, Lucian would not come. And I don't know if he thought this was true, because this is a big gamble, right. But when Song sent Lu Shannon invite to the capital city of Chang'an and Lucian called Gung's bluff and did show up, he walks in, He's like, what's up, what's up? Why did you call me? What's going on here? I gotta I gotta letters said, I'm supposed to come here quickly.

What y'all need? Uh a rebellion? Excuse me me? Oh my god, I have never in my life. I am heartbroken that anyone would suggest that that is. Don't you remember all the good times we had? Look at me. I'm just a dopey barbarian. I don't know nothing about no rebellion, and Song is like, that's it. I am sick of hearing all these rebellion rumors. I will never believe another accusation against my boy Lushan. He's the man, and I don't want to hear it. Don't even tell

me this ship. Even when Sean's own son, the Crown Prince Lisa San, was a little worried about Lucian and all the power he was massing. I mean, after he was adopted, he amassed a force of two hundred thousand people, like he had. The army was basically his at this point. There was some imperial guards out there, but he ran the show. Yeah, so he's like, if he decided to, he could do it real quick. Yeah, for real, And why is he building that force in the first place.

Song even considered making Lucian a chancellor during this visit, just to show him like, I'm sorry, I even accused you, but Goojong talked him out of at least doing that. When Lucian left the city, Chuen Song's Unich buddy galle Sha told him, you know, your boy was kind of grumpy when he left. I kind of wonder if maybe he heard about the chancellor thing and that you decided not to do it, and he's kind of mad about that.

Piss Yeah, But at this point, Emperor's one Song seven hanging out with young Guife, and he left all control to his chancellors and his generals, right, So they're all stabbing each other in the back too much to do any good. Lucian even asked one song if he could replace all his Han Chinese generals with non Han guys. Now to everyone else, that was a clear sign of building a rebellion, right, probably that weaponized xenophobia coming back

exactly exactly. I mean, I'm I'm removing all the native Chinese generals here and I replaced them with people from outside China that I like, you have very no no reason to be loyal to you. Yeah. But when they tried to bring up their concerns to Jwin Song, he was just like, I don't want to hear it. La la la la la. Okay, buddy, my teddy bear boy,

you do whatever you want. And young Gujong, who had been failing spectacularly lately, he was losing all kinds of military conflicts at various borders, probably a little worried about his own position, but he seemed to think that he could take lu Shan as long as he didn't have the emperor's backing right, So Gujan is like, I've got to drive a wedge between these two. So he tried

to goad Lu Shan into starting his rebellion. Early while Lucian was at his home in another city, Gujong arrested and executed a bunch of his staff members at his mansion in the capitol. Were totally made up. Cristy, Yeah, fine, I'll go after your house. Okay, that's pretty dark, I mean, really piss you off, all worked up. Obviously, we have to skip over or so much of the power struggle between these two here because of a part of the

ridiculous romance, you know what I'm saying. But but it is just chaotic watching Good Jong is so wrapped up in his own power struggle a lot like Leland Fu was, But he wasn't as good as Leland Fu. Ad maintaining all his plates that he had spinning in the air, and he had like decimated the economy, the military like all through his own gain. He just let things crumble all around him. And of course the emperor was completely checked out. It was just everybody. It was just a

grab bag for power at this point. Everybody was just reaching in and taking whatever they could. There was no cohesion in the government or the military. Very few people were trying to hold it together, and most of them, you know, Good guys were all getting taken out um

bye by these bad guys. So I was getting pretty ugly and finally in from a combination of factors, from the fact that the empire was weak, uh, from the fact maybe that he had been dismissed as a chancellor and he did hear about that and got insulted by it. But definitely because Gujong arrested all his people and had him executed. On Lucian started his rebellion beon. Lucian rebellion

is considered one of the deadliest wars in history. Some estimates say that between thirteen and thirty six million people died.

What It's hard to pin that number down. One of the reasons that it's such a broad spectrum is that because they're going off of census numbers before and after the war, So they think that part of the issue is that after the war, they the country was so broken that they just didn't have the money or the manpower to conduct an accurate census, so they might not have gotten a good count, so it might have seemed like more people died than did But either way, millions

and millions of people. Yeah. Uh. Anyway, fast forwarding through a bunch of very fascinating military history for another podcast on Lucia, and eventually took the last defensive posts that sat before the capital city. It was called Tongue Pass, and he declared himself Emperor of the New Yen Dynasty. With the capital city of Chang'an soon to fall afterwards, the Emperor Young Guife, her cousin Yong gu Jong, the Unit Galicia, and the crown Prince Lisa Cheng all had

to flee the city. They took their imperial guard. You know I mean, is the emperor fleeing the cities. They took all his tents and his tea service, and they got the hell out of there as fast as they slowly and comfortably could. But On Lushan was actually really sick, and though he had sent his forces to capture chang On, he stayed behind in lou Young. He was nearly blind, he had terrible ulcers. Who's paranoid and angry, so he

flogged his sons and generals regularly. Eventually, one of his sons, who was fighting for succession, went into Lucian's room at night with a sword. Lucian heard him and started trying to reach for a sword that he kept under his bed, but he flailed around and he couldn't find it. His son sliced to Lucian's belly open, and Lucian shouted, quote a thief of my own household, and died on the road.

Fleeing the capital. The imperial guards were getting restless. They hadn't eaten in dates, They had left behind their homes and their families. Now, I don't know what Young Gu Jong said that was the last straw for these guys. I'm assuming that he's sitting there like eating a burrito, and really tough, aren't they. The soldiers are all starving, staring at him like this fucking guy, where did you

get the barrito? And they all turned on him. Now again, already a lot of history with the young family here, but they saw these guys unto power. Everyone knew what Young Gujong had been doing, which was failing, which was helping himself, and also goading on Lushan into this war. So they blamed him. They said, you know this is all your fault, dude. You pushed Lushan into this rebellion.

You ruined our military, you corrupted the government, and right there on the road they killed him, his son, and two of Young Guife's sisters. Then the soldiers surrounded the emperor's tent. Juan Song came out and he tried to chill everybody out, say you need to disperse. Everything's cool here. Oh no, you killed Young gu Jong, who cares as fine, Let's let's let bags and we'll just well, we'll talk about this tomorrow. But they wouldn't leave. They were demanding

to execute Young Guife as well. They said, she's the one who brought her family in here, She's the one who gave her cousin that position that ruined the empire. She's at fault for all of this. I guess they couldn't be like you cut this lady. I guess they can do that. After a lot of debate and anger and sadness, Song realized that he was not going to be able to save her. He requested that rather than executing her right there, she be allowed to go to

a Buddhist shrine and be ordered to commit suicide. They accepted, and the unit goal lee. She escorted her. He then reported back that she hanged herself from a tree outside a monastery with a silken rope given to her by the Emperor, our spirits belonged together, like these precious fragments. Sometime in earth or heaven, we shall meet again. And she sent these words by the Taoist to remind him

of their midnight vow secret between them. On that seventh night of the Herd, Boy and the ever in the Silent Palace, we declared our dream was to fly together in the sky, two birds on the same wing, to grow together on the earth, two branches of one tree. Earth fades, heaven fades at the end of days, but everlasting sorrow in tears always crown. Prince Lisa Shung went to the city of lyn Wu and he declared himself Emperor Suzong without his father's knowledge. But when Emperor heard

about this, he just abdicated the throne. He was like, yeah, that sounds like a good idea. Um. He did stay on as the retired Emperor, which was a very powerful position. Uh. You know. Plenty of politics ensued after that. The capital city was retaken and Lucian's sons, who had assumed his power, were defeated. But the time dynasty never rose to its glory again. Wow everlasting sorry, no, and he was he was sad for the rest of his life, very miserable.

It's sad too that he starts out so strong. He could have left this legacy of like this golden era and all this wonderful power and prosperity, and instead his legacy is his everlasting regret. He was doing a good job at the beginning there. We talked in the previous episode, probably largely because of Emperors Wong, who was his wife, and they seem to be really solid together. I mean, they got married before he was in power. But I

think he just let it get to his head. He was one of these guys who was like, you can't be jealous of me. I'm allowed to I'm allowed to mess around with whoever I want and do what I want um and then yeah, I mean again. And also he just had all these people in his ear all the time, especially especially when someone's trying to not be a corrupt ruler. I feel like that's when the corrupt people come in and they're like, now's my time, I'm gonna I can I got a blank canvas here to

work with. Kind of it does seem that way a lot of the time, at least since you know, I guess in history too, but especially in fiction, and they're like, yes, righteous man can be led by the nose. As long as he feels like he's doing a moral or ethical thing, you can really get him to do some crazy shit. Interestingly, of course, we see that young Guife was led to

a temple and then hanged herself. Galleicia the Eunuch told us so, right, right, Well, there is a Japanese myth that she actually escaped to Japan and lived there the rest of her days, happy and singing a song curvy and hut Derby and hut. Yeah, so that'd be nice. I like that, that would be nice. It feels wrong too, for her to take all the blame. Oh no, yeah, I mean there's one thing that she you know, she

was definitely working an angle. She definitely was like, yeah, I'll marry this old man to become the most powerful woman in the kingdom. But of course she did. Of course, she was looking out for her fam so she doesn't seem as conniving as wou like, not as planning and plotting. I think she was more just like, let me let me get my families, some nice houses and some nice jobs, and less like let me convince you to kill your own kids that mine can be the like. You know,

she wasn't. Yeah, you're right, she wasn't as conniving, she wasn't as evil. She's probably more like one day I'm gonna be older and I'm not gonna be cute anymore, and he's gonna drop me like a hot brick. So I'm just gonna try to get what I can get while I can't. I could see that Solis hope she got out. Um. You know. There's various versions of the story.

Others are that Galicia brought her body back. Um. Others say that after two months, the emperor sent men back to collect her body and it wasn't there, so he just built a temple in her memory. Um. So you know, hard to say. She might have gotten a way. That's what I would do. I would be like, yes, Galicia, take me somewhere where I can hang myself far away from here right by. Galicia would be like, you know, we can just he was always liked her, you know,

send you over to Fiji. Yeah, here's fifty bucks. You know, good luck out there, more than Madonna had when she shut up in New York. Okay, and look what she did I don't know if i'd call Madonna thick queen. No, No, she's not. Who's so good. She's like the Lizzo of her time. Young we fake. Yeah, she's a little bit. That's pretty cool. Um, yeah, it is cool. It's a tragic love story. It is tragic love story. I mean, you know, it's a bunch of people being dumb. I'm

just mad at the Emperor's one song. I feel like he made bad decisions a lot of the time. Dick control him in a really stupid way. Is Dick and all the dicks around him and all the dicks around him? Yeah, but it's like so annoying and and of course destructive when you have a ruler who does not seem to care about the responsibility of you know, you're supposed to care about a whole country. It's not just about you.

I know, you get a lot of trappings and a lot of people kissing your ass, But you know, if you don't feel the weight of like, I could impoverish this whole nation. People will die if I make the wrong decision. If you don't have that in your brain at all, look what happens. You have an entire prosperous, stable country, broken into pieces by the end of his life. It's the trick where you know, sometimes you say I often think this myself, like the best rulers are people

who don't want to be rulers. Um. But that's not really true because a lot of the times people who don't want to be rulers don't do their job and they just chill and they just absorb all the pleasures and none of the responsibilities. So you really just need someone who like wants to be a ruler, but doesn't want the perks, Like I like living a boring life in a in a in a loft apartment somewhere. I

don't care about all the money and sex and drugs. Um. So if you're out there finding that guy, because I think the problem is you might feel that way and then you do get them and you start to be like, well, this is nice, so I'm used to this now I want more of that. You know, it's such an easy slope to fall down. I know I've quoted this on the show before. My grandfather had a saying and I agree with him, and it was what the world really needs is a benevolent dictator. But I just don't have

the time. That's how I feel. Oh man, I'm too busy. But I love this story. It's I love this drama. I love the royal family shenanigans. Every time we get into these, it's so chaotic, it's so I mean, you know, we reduced this down to like four or five characters if you go to these sources, these books, a lot of Wikipedia because a lot of these translations, you know, are hard to find. But there's just hundreds of people

all scheming against each other. I mean, Leland Fu had like nine or twelve guys all working for him doing things, and they're all getting exposed and killed and overpowering each other and stabbing each other in the back. It's chaos. I love it again. Need a big TV show out of this so we can really get the full scale. Or I guess you could read a book, but but I want to see it. It seems like maybe like a Korean soap opera because it will go on for

like three episodes. Yeah, this could use. You would need it, and you would need it for sure. And the poetry was pretty too. Oh I love this poem. Um, it's hard to find, like one big, long stretch of this poem translated, but you can find pieces of it all over um and it's very beautiful. Yeah, you know, we hope you enjoyed this story too. You'll have to let

us know. We just love hearing from you. So if you have any comments or question Jen's or anything you want to share with us about your favorite birthday, way to celebrate your birthday, or if you just want to wish Eli happy birthday, please reach out. Our email is ridic Romance at gmail dot com. That's right. You can find us on Twitter and Instagram. I'm at Oh great, it's Eli. I'm at Danamite Boom and the show is at ridic Romance and we love you for spending your

time with us. Yep. Absolutely don't forget to leave a review on Apple Podcasts and that will be your invitation of my birthday party. We'll see you then catch you up the next episode. So long, friends, it's time to go. Thanks so listening to our show tell your friends names Uncle Sandance. To listen to a show ridiculous role means