Legend 5 - Superwoman Zhong Wu-yan

During the period of Warring States, the King of
the State of Qi always indulged himself in
leisure, wine and women. One day he went
hunting, taking with him a bow and arrows. He
saw a wild goose flying past and immediately
shot it with his arrow. He was no doubt a good
expert shooter and shot down the goose. All his
courtiers and guards applauded and praised him
profusely. They then went to look for the goose
but when they saw the dead goose, they did not
see the King’s arrow, which bore the King’s
emblem. However, a woman walked slowly
towards the royal party and as she came near
to the King, he saw her holding the arrow. The
woman understood that standing in front of her
was the King; therefore, she knelt in front of the
King, just slightly lifting part of her face. The
King was utterly displeased and when he was
just about to question her as to why she had
removed the arrow from the goose, the beauty
of the woman stunned him, though he could only
see a small part of her face. He thought this
woman must be a fairy who had descended
from Heaven. The King was so enchanted by
this woman and immediately wanted her to be
one of his concubines.

When asked by the King that her name be, she
replied with her sweet voice, “I am called Zhong
Wu-yan.” “I would like to take you back to the
Palace so that you can be my concubine. You
will be able to enjoy unlimited wealth and lead a
most luxurious life.” said the King. Zhong Wu-
yan said she would not agree unless she was
made Queen. Charmed by her heavenly beauty,
the King acceded to her demand without
hesitation.

After thanking the King for his love and grace,
Zhong Wu-yan rose and looked up at the King.
The King was flabbergasted by what he saw, as
the person standing in front of him was the
ugliest woman he had ever seen. There was a
large dark birthmark on the other side of her
face, which the King had not seen when he
proposed to her. Therefore, he thought of a way
to get rid of Zhong Wu-yan and told her that his
guards would escort her back to her place. He
would then choose an auspicious date for the
royal wedding. Zhong Wu-yan then happily bade
farewell to the King.

Six months had gone past and Zhong Wu-yan
had heard nothing from the King. She decided to
make the journey to the Palace herself to see
the King. She took with her two baskets of her
belongings, which she carried with a long pole
across her shoulders. When she arrived at the
palace, she asked to see the King. The imperial
guards naturally would not allow a peasant
woman to have an audience with the King.
Regarding herself as the future queen of the
land, Zhong Wu-yan used the pole that she had
brought with her to beat the imperial guards.
Although she was outnumbered, she gave the
guards, who were supposed to be skilful and
fierce fighters, so many blows that some of
them were injured and some fled back to the
palace. They made a report to the King who
was enjoying himself in the imperial palace with
his most favourite concubine, Xia Ying-chun, and
some of his courtiers. Xia Ying-chun, knowing
fully the rule of the game within palace politics,
often used her beauty to charm the King so that
she could monopolize the King’s time.

It took the King some time before he could
remember the name of Zhong Wu-yan. By this
time, it was too late for the King to refuse to
see Zhong Wu-yan as she had already fought
her way into the palace.

When Zhong Wu-yan was the King, she knelt
down and reminded him that he had promised to
marry her and crown her as the Queen.The King
was minded to deny what he had promised but
was advised by his courtiers that he, as King,
had to keep his words.  Such advice of course
angered Xia Ying-chun who immediately thought
of a way to block the marriage. She noted that
Zhong Wu-yan was very skillful in martial art and
therefore believed that she might not have a
good education. She therefore suggested to the
King that Zhong Wu-yan should compete with
her in Chinese calligraphy; if she defeated
Zhong Wu-yan, she should leave the palace
immediately and would never return. The King
was delighted with the suggestion as he
welcomed whatever suggestion would nullify his
promise. The King accepted Xia Ying-chun’s
suggestion and asked Zhong Wu-yan whether
she would agree. When Zhong Wu-yan agreed
to the proposed competition, Xia Ying-chun’s joy
knew no bounds as she considered herself as
the most intellectual concubine. The rule for the
competition was that they had to complete the
script before an incense stick had burned out.

While Xia Ying-chun was concentrating hard on
her calligraphy, Zhong Wu-yan had fallen asleep
as she was tired after her long journey to the
palace and a fight with the imperial guards.
When the incense stick had burned half of its
way, Zhong Wu-yan woke up, picked up a
broomstick from her basket, and brushed it
swiftly on the sheet of paper used for the
competition. Before the incense stick had
burned out, Zhong Wu-yan had already finished
her piece of calligraphy and won the competition.

Xia Yin-chun was unwilling to concede defeat.
She again suggested to the King another way of
blocking the marriage. She asked her maid to
spread out a large piece of cotton wool, and
said that both Zhong Wu-yan and she would roll
over it; the one without catching any cotton wool
would be the winner. Zhong Wu-yan again
agreed and started first. Her body was so light
that when she rolled over the cotton, she was
just like a feather and of course, she did not
catch any cotton wool on her clothes.  It was
then Xia Yin-chun’s turn. Although she was
confident that she could do it just as well, her
clothes were all covered with cotton wool after
she had rolled herself over the cotton

As the competition was held in front of the
ministers, the King had no choice but to declare
that Zhong Wu-yan was the winner. She
ordered that Zhong Wu-yan be crowned Queen.

Although Zhong Wu-yan had been crowned
Queen, the King had not visited her in her
chamber as he as before spent virtually every
night with Xia Ying-chun. There was nothing that
Zhong Wu-yan could do to win the King’s heart.

One day, a messenger from Mongolia came
and challenged the King that if there was no one
who could play a qin, which was a musical
instrument, then the King should cede a piece of
land from the State of Qi to Mongolia. Playing
the qin was of course no problem, but the qin
that the Mongolian representative had brought
was made of lotus root and did not produce any
sound when played. The King and his ministers
knew that the Mongolians were finding an
excuse to invade Qi which was comparatively
weak and could not fend off any attack from
Mongolia. As Xia Ying-chun was the most
intellectual of all the concubines and could play
the qin beautifully; she was summoned to play
the qin given by the Mongolians. To everybody’s
disappointment, she could not play even one
tune from the qin. A minister then advised the
King to invite Zhong Wu-yan to try it out. Zhong
Wu-yan came out from her chamber and played
a lovely melody with the lotus root qin.  The
messenger from Mongolia knew that his mission
had failed and had to return to Mongolia empty
handed.

The King was very happy, but after adjourning
the court, he went toXia Ying-chun’s chamber,
ignoring Zhong Wu-yan. Zhong Wu-yan was
very sad and told the ministers that the King
would be good to her when there was a crisis,
but would spend all his time with Xia Ying-chun
when everything was peaceful. By now, Zhong
Wu-yan, with her exceptional ability, had already
gained the respect from all the ministers.

Although the Mongolians could not find a good
excuse to force the State of Qi to cede land,
they nevertheless sent troops across the
borders to kill Qi citizens and loot their
belongings. One day, the King received an
urgent report that the Mongolians had
successfully
broken through the defence line at the northern
border and were approaching the capital.
Everyone in the court assembly was frightened
and could not think of a way to stop the enemy.
The King was so frightened that his body
trembled.  Knowing that Zhong Wu-yan had
supernatural powers, the premier stepped up
and said to the King that he and the other
ministers were confident that the Queen would
be able to stop the advance of the Mongolians.
The King then summoned Zhong Wu-yan to put
on her armour and to rescue the country. Zhong
Wu-yan agreed to lead the Qi army and to
defend her country, on the condition that if she
won the battle, the King would welcome her at
the gate to the capital. The King agreed.

Zhong Wu-yan marched to the frontier with her
army which she had little time to train. She used
her super power to drive the Mongolians to a
valley where the Qi soldiers had already set up
an ambush. Zhong Wu-yan flew herself into the
Mongolian army and killed many of them. She
found the Mongolian Chief and captured him.

Zhong Wu-yan brought the Mongolian Chief with
her back to the Qi capital .One night during her
journey back to the capital, she dreamt that a
fairy god mother had erased the black birth
mark from her face. As this was only a dream,
she did not pay much attention to it and
continued her journey back to the capital.  

The report that Zhong Wu-yan had won the
battle had reached the  King. When Zhong Wu-
yan arrived at the gate, the King was already  
there waiting to welcome her. However, beside
him stood Xia Ying-chun. Zhong Wu-yan knew
that the King would not change his ways and
would continue to favour Xia Ying-chun because
of her beauty. Although she felt aggrieved, she
nonetheless dismounted from her horse, knelt to
the King and handed over the Mongolian Chief
to the King. The Mongolian Chief surrendered
and promised to pay tribute to the State of Qi
every year.  When the King saw Zhong Wu-yan,
he could not take his eyes off her face as his
Queen appeared to be the most beautiful
woman he had ever seen. Not knowing this
herself, one of Zhong Wu-yan’s ladies in waiting
told her that her birth markhad disappeared and
that she was stunningly beautiful. Zhong Wu-yan
did not believe this but when she looked at a
mirror presented to her by a maid, she was in a
state of ecstasy and realized that the dream
that she had on her journey back to the capital
was true.

When the King was just about to take the hand
of Zhong Wu-yan tohis private chamber, Zhong
Wu-yan stepped back.  She told the King that
she would only return with him to the palace if
Xia Ying-chun, who had all along made the King
indulge in leisure, was to be sent toan isolated
chamber all her life. The King agreed and so
ordered.

Zhong Wu-yan later took over the command of
the Qi army and transformed it into one of the
strongest amongst the warring states.
She also made the King attend to his court
affairs diligently.
ORIENTALWOMEN TALK