Wah...

* Yawn. Nothing much happened today at work except this:


Han Dynasty (206BC - AD 220)

BACKGROUND
* Empress Dowager Lü and Consort Qi are both Emperor Gao's wives. But since Empress Dowager's son Li Ying (Emperor Hui) was crowned king after the husband's death, she is of higher authority than Consort Qi.


A SHORT ACCOUNT OF WHAT HAPPENED
Emperor Hui (Empress Dowager Lü's son) resided Ruyi (Consort Qi's 12 year old son) in the palace and checked for poison in any aliment delivered to him. Emperor Hui also brought Ruyi with him wherever he went.

In one early morning in the twelfth month of the first year of Emperor Hui, the emperor had to attend a shooting ritual; this time Ruyi was left alone since he could not wake up early.

Emperor Hui supposed his mother would not plot against his brother as several months had passed without incident. Nevertheless Dowager Lü had someone force venom down Ruyi's throat...

After she killed Ruyi, she then chopped off Consort Qi's hands and feet, blinded her by scooping out her eyes, cut out her tongue and abandoned her to live in a toilet, and insulted her as "the Human Pig" (人彘).

Several days after, Empress Dowager Lü summoned her own son, Emperor Hui to have a look of "the Human Pig". After he saw and realised who "the Human Pig" was, the weak emperor was so sick of his mother's cruelty that he virtually relinquished his authority, withdrew himself to carnal pleasures. (Paraphrased quotation from the Records of the Grand Historian, chapter 9)


EFFECTS ON ME
This is the reason why I can still be wide awake on a boring Tuesday afternoon. Yucks... got gruesome picture in my head now. Truly, there's nothing like a woman on a deadly course.