Daji: The Fox Spirit of Xuanyuan Tomb (Part 5)

A story adapted from Creation of the Gods , based on the image I created for The Shadow’s Secret Challenge . My artwork submission: https://budgetpixel.com/p/62597 The king demanded that he prove his knowledge of fate. Ji Chang cast his divination and predicted that the royal ancestral temple would catch fire the following day at noon. King Zhou ordered him detained until the prediction could be tested. The next day, precisely at noon, fire broke out at the ancestral temple. The accuracy of the prediction unsettled the king rather than reassuring him. Ji Chang could no longer be dismissed as a fraud, but neither did King Zhou want such a man returning freely to the west. Ji Chang’s life was spared, and he was sent to Youli as a prisoner. There he would remain for seven years. While Ji Chang spent those years in captivity, Daji’s influence over King Zhou grew even greater. The king indulged her ideas more readily than before, and the cruelty that had once been directed at political enemies increasingly became a form of entertainment. One day, seventy-two palace women were accused of wrongdoing. Daji proposed a new punishment for them. A great pit was dug and filled with venomous snakes and scorpions. The women were thrown into it. Their screams rose from the pit as the creatures swarmed over them, but Daji watched without pity. King Zhou was delighted by the novelty of the punishment and praised her invention. Daji was not finished. Beside the snake pit, she ordered further entertainments to be constructed. A pool was filled with wine, while nearby meat was hung from branches until the place became what she called a forest of meat. When the work was complete, King Zhou and Daji came to enjoy it together. They drank beside the wine pool and feasted beneath the hanging meat while musicians and palace attendants entertained them. The palace had become a place where extravagant pleasure and cruelty existed side by side. Daji devised games for the attendants as well. Those who pleased the king were rewarded; those who failed could be beaten or killed. The revelries continued deep into the night. By the end of Ji Chang’s seventh year at Youli, his eldest son, Bo Yikao, could bear his father’s imprisonment no longer. Bo Yikao traveled to Chaoge carrying rare treasures from the west, hoping to ransom his father and bring him home. He was young, handsome and refined, and was especially renowned for his skill with the qin. When he appeared before King Zhou, he spoke humbly and asked that his father be released. Daji saw him. She was immediately attracted to the young man. When King Zhou learned of Bo Yikao’s musical talent, Daji suggested that he perform. His playing pleased the king, and Daji then asked that Bo Yikao remain for a time and teach her the instrument. King Zhou readily agreed. For Daji, however, the lessons were merely an opportunity to draw closer to him. During one lesson she moved increasingly near, finally suggesting that she sit upon his lap while he guided her hands across the strings. Bo Yikao recoiled. He had come to Chaoge to save his father. To dishonor the king in his own palace was unthinkable, and Daji’s position as the king’s favored woman made her advances even more shameful. He rejected her and rebuked her conduct. Daji had expected desire. Instead she received contempt. The rejection changed everything. She went to King Zhou and accused Bo Yikao of behaving improperly toward her during the lesson. The king was angered, but the accusation did not immediately settle the matter. Among the treasures Bo Yikao had brought from the west was an extraordinary white-faced ape trained to understand music. Daji asked that the animal be brought before the court to perform. As the ape played, something unexpected happened. Daji became so absorbed in the music that, for an instant, her fox-spirit nature was revealed. The animal saw what everyone else could not. It sprang toward her. King Zhou struck the ape down with a single blow. Daji immediately turned the attack to her advantage, accusing Bo Yikao of bringing the animal to the palace as part of a hidden attempt on her life. Bo Yikao protested that he had ordered no such attack, and King Zhou accepted his explanation and pardoned him. Daji was unwilling to let the matter end. She demanded that Bo Yikao play the qin again so that his loyalty could be judged through his music. By then, Bo Yikao understood that Daji meant to destroy him. He played a piece of remonstrance, condemning the corruption of the court and the woman who had drawn the king deeper into ruin. Then he hurled the instrument toward Daji. That ended any hesitation King Zhou still possessed. Bo Yikao was seized. (To be continued in Part 6) If you would like to explore another side of the story, you can also read my Champions and Supernatural Mounts in Creation of the Gods series, which explores some of the most memorable warriors and immortals accompanied by extraordinary creatures. Creation of the Gods (《封神演义》, Fengshen Yanyi ), also known as Investiture of the Gods , is a classic Chinese mythological novel set around the fall of the Shang dynasty and the rise of the Zhou dynasty. It blends history, folklore, Taoist mythology, magic, gods, demons, and legendary heroes into a vast story of war between the Shang and Zhou. The novel is traditionally attributed to Xu Zhonglin (许仲琳), a writer of the Ming dynasty, although its exact authorship remains uncertain and Lu Xixing (陆西星) has also been proposed as a possible author. It was probably written during the late 16th century, with the earliest known surviving editions appearing in the early 17th century, around the 1600s–1620s.