A Fatal Joke About a Woman’s Age
Emperor Xiaowu (362 – 396) ascended the throne of Jin Dynasty China when he was ten-years-old. For the first few years of his reign, the realm was governed by a council of regents. When he was thirteen, he wed a sixteen-year-old, who was either a lush or became one after she was married to Xiaowu, and drank heavily until her death five years later. Xiaowu himself was no stranger to the bottle. He liked to party and booze it up, and left the affairs of state to his advisers. Xiaowu did not remarry after he became a widower, but he did have numerous concubines. Of those, his favorite was the Honored Lady Zhang. One time while drunk at a party in 396, Xiaowu cracked a joke about the then-thirty-year-old Zhang’s years: “Based on your age, you should yield your position. I want someone younger“.
The emperor thought that was hilarious, but Lady Zhang did not. Her power and status depended on her relationship to the emperor, and if he ditched her, she would lose it all. She was also quite angry at the public humiliation. She kept her cool at the party, but later that night, got her revenge. When the emperor passed out drunk as he often did, Lady Zhang escorted him to his chambers. She bribed his guards to look the other way, then had her maids strangle and suffocate Xiaowu to death. Lady Zhang claimed that the emperor had died in his sleep, but the truth came out soon enough. Luckily for her, nobody who mattered cared. Xiaowu had been a dissolute sort who caused his courtiers more trouble than he was worth. They swiftly appointed a child emperor in his place, and ruled as regents.
