Bao Si

Bao Si () was a consort of King You of Zhou. She was considered one of the most beautiful women of the ancient era.

Life

Legends record that during the last years of the Xia dynasty, two dragons entered the palace of the king. When they left, the Xia king ordered that the dragon's saliva left inside the palace be kept in a wooden box. During the time of King Li of Zhou, he tried to open the box despite a taboo against such an act. The saliva accidentally spilled and transformed into a black lizard. The lizard crawled in front of a seven-year-old slave girl. Eight years later she became pregnant while still a virgin, and gave birth to a girl. The mother abandoned the baby, who was later adopted by a couple who escaped to the and raised her to adulthood. She was later presented by the ruler of Bao to King You.

In 779 BC, Bao Si entered the palace and came into King You's favor. They had a son named Bofu. King You decided to depose and her son, Crown Prince Yijiu, and replace them with Bao Si and Bofu.

Bao Si was of a melancholic disposition so King You offered a thousand ounces of gold to anyone who could make her laugh. Someone at the court suggested lighting the warning beacons of Mount Li usually used to summon armies from the surrounding vassal states in times of danger. The nobles duly arrived at the court only to find themselves laughed at by Bao Si. Even after King You had impressed Bao Si, he continued to abuse his use of warning beacons and so lost the trust of the nobles.

Queen Shen's father the Marquis of Shen was upset by the deposition of his daughter and grandson Yijiu and mounted an attack on King You's palace in conjunction with the Quanrong nomads. King You called for the nobles with the beacons but none came as they no longer trusted him. In the end, King You and Bofu were killed and Bao Si was captured at Xi (戲/戏) for the Quanrong leader. King You's death marks the end of Western Zhou and the beginning of the Spring and Autumn period of the Eastern Zhou.

After her capture, the Marquis of Shen managed to get Bao Si for himself. Bao Si accepted a bribe from him and left the capital. Later, during another attack by the Quanrong nomads, Bao Si was unable to escape and hanged herself. Her date of death is unknown.

The story of Bao Si and King You of Zhou is amongst the most well-known and infamous love stories from ancient China, and serves not only as a demonstration of extreme love but also as a cautionary tale of how one beauty can topple a nation. But this story is controversial; according to the record of Tsinghua Bamboo Slips, King You attacked the Marquis of Shen, and the Marquis of Shen allied with the Quanrong to defeat King You. However, warning beacons didn't exist in Zhou dynasty, with the earliest warning beacons appearing during the Han dynasty. Professor Liu Guozhong of Tsinghua University believes this story is fabricated.

Through the few references available, it can be presumed that Bao Si was born in 792 BC (three years younger than King You) and died in 771 BC (assuming that her death happened by suicide shortly after the Quanrong attack).

Legacy

One of her many legacies remains in the epic historical novel ''Chronicles of the Eastern Zhou Kingdoms'', written by Feng Menglong, a late Ming dynasty writer. A poem pertaining to Bao Si is recorded as follows, translated from the original text by Olivia Milburn:

"First in her brocade silk bower she was called the mother of the nation, Then in a stinking yurt she became a traitorous slut. In the end she could not escape the pain of the tightening noose; Would it not have been better to accept being a mere concubine."Menglong, Feng, 'Chapter 3: The chief of the Dog Rong invades to capital at Hao. King Ping of Zhou moves east to Luoyang', in Kingdoms in Peril, Volume 1: The Curse of the Bao Lords, trans. by Olivia Milburn (University of California Press, 2023), p.65.

This legacy provides insight into how Bao Si may have been initially seen as a virtuous woman, but in the end, she was a factor that is attributed to the mythical fall of Western Zhou and degradation of the Zhou dynasty.

See also

* Daji
* Four Beauties: Yang Guifei, Xi Shi, Wang Zhaojun, Diaochan

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bao Si
8th-century BC Chinese women
8th-century BC Chinese people
Zhou dynasty consorts
Zhou dynasty nobility