(This scene takes place at a point when the Emperor has been spending most of his nights with Huafei.) Qin Guan's poem emphasises the lovers' devotion to each other despite being forced to live apart. They are permitted to meet for one day each year, on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month, when a flock of magpies form a bridge to allow them to reunite. It tells the story of the Weaver and the Cowherd, two lovers who were banished to opposite sides of the Heavenly River.
The poem she is reciting is 'Immortals at the Magpie Bridge' by Song Dynasty poet Qin Guan. Zhen Huan is quoting from his groundbreaking essay “Discourse on Factions” (Pengdang lun). Ouyang Xiu was a Song Dynasty essayist, politician, poet and historian of great influence during the reigns of Emperors Renzong, Yingzong and Shenzong.
#Emperor shenzong of songpress fuca series
I'm fairly sure it's the first time in the series that Zhen Huan indicates that she is now considering actively gaining political power and possibly even planning to become Empress Dowager.) (I find her choice here interesting: by using this analogy, she not only implies that Lady Fuca might suffer a similar fate to Consort Qi should she continue to cause trouble, but she also identifies herself with Empress Lü, a powerful stateswoman who later became Empress Dowager. After her husband's death her son, Emperor Hui, ascended the throne Lü became Empress Dowager and famously had Consort Qi, her late husband's favourite concubine, killed in the manner Zhen Huan describes.
During her husband's reign, she became the first woman to assume the title Empress of China.
Zhen Huan’s literary allusions from this gifset (had to make a separate post because tumblr wouldn’t let me add it to my first post lmao)Įmpress Lü (241–180 BC) was the empress consort of Emperor Gaozu of Han.