Daji: The Fox Spirit of Xuanyuan Tomb (Part 6)

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 Part 5 Daji decided his punishment. After he was taken down from the hall, the young man was pinned down and cut to pieces. Even as he died, he cursed Daji and declared that she would bring the kingdom of Shang to destruction. King Zhou ordered the remains disposed of, but Daji stopped him. She had thought of another use for them. Ji Chang was renowned throughout the realm as a sage who could understand omens and foresee good and bad fortune. Daji proposed that they test whether his reputation was deserved. Bo Yikao’s flesh would be prepared as meat cakes and sent to his imprisoned father. If Ji Chang recognized the flesh of his own son and refused to eat, then his powers were real. Such a man would be too dangerous to release. If he ate, then his reputation as a sage was nothing more than empty talk. King Zhou delighted in the idea. The cakes were prepared and sent to Youli. When the royal messenger arrived, Ji Chang understood what had happened. He knew that Bo Yikao was dead, and he understood the purpose of the king’s gift. If he refused the food, he would reveal that his knowledge of divination was genuine and almost certainly condemn himself to death. So the old man suppressed his grief. Before the messenger, Ji Chang thanked King Zhou for remembering a prisoner who had spent so many years at Youli. Then he took the meat cakes and ate three of them. The messenger returned to Chaoge convinced that the famous Marquis of the West had failed to recognize the flesh of his own child. King Zhou laughed when he heard the report. If Ji Chang could not even recognize what had happened to his own son, perhaps his reputation for supernatural foresight had been exaggerated after all. For the first time, the king began to consider releasing him. Fei Zhong warned against it. Ji Chang might have known exactly what he was eating and endured it merely to preserve his life. With the east and south already in rebellion, releasing another powerful regional lord could create fresh trouble in the west. King Zhou therefore hesitated. In the west, however, Ji Chang’s ministers were already working to secure his freedom. San Yisheng gathered precious gifts and sent them to Chaoge. Once Fei Zhong and You Hun had been won over, the advice reaching King Zhou changed. The same men who had warned him against releasing Ji Chang now argued that the western marquis posed no serious threat and that seven years of confinement had been punishment enough. Persuaded by their advice, King Zhou finally ordered Ji Chang’s release and allowed him to return to the west. Ji Chang appeared before the Shang court one last time, thanked the king for his mercy, and departed from Chaoge. He did not curse King Zhou. He did not speak of revenge. He simply returned west. King Zhou believed he had released a man who no longer posed an immediate danger, and for the moment his throne still seemed secure. But far from the wine pool, the meat forest, and the pleasures of the Shang palace, resentment against him was spreading. The east and south had already been driven into rebellion, while in the west, the power that would one day bring Shang down was beginning to rise. To Daji, the disorder consuming the realm was no cause for alarm. It was the very work Nüwa had sent her to accomplish. Long before Daji entered the palace, Nüwa had told the spirits of Xuanyuan Tomb that the fortune of Shang was fading and that a sage ruler was rising in the west. King Zhou did not understand that his own actions were hastening the fate she had foretold. And still, beneath the silks, jewels, and royal robes, the thousand-year-old fox spirit of Xuanyuan Tomb remained at his side, carrying out Nüwa’s decree. The end she had been sent to hasten was no longer a distant prophecy. It had already begun. -End- 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.