By Qing Si

A L ady Commander I n Qing D ynasty

By Qing Si

I n early Tongzhi’s reign,Qing Dynasty,General Dorongga oversaw the military affairs of Shanxi Province at the emperor’s command. The general’s army had to recruit lots of laborers for the camp services,and Chen,a dark-skinned boy whose face was covered with pimples and scars, was among those who came.

The boy was quite big and strong, and then was assigned to take care of army horses.Because of his notable strength and fortitude shown in the hard labor,Chen was soon chosen to be a soldier,and made contributions continually in the succeeding warfare.

Onedecadeoffrequentwars changed the fate of the ugly lad forev er:he was graced with the title of Baturu(“valiant war hero”)and promoted to be a provincial commander, under the direct command of the famous viceroy Zuo Zongtang,the then Governor-General of Shaanxi and Gansu Provinces.

Commander Chen was very friendly to Zhu,one of his secretaries.Zhu was anintellectualwhohadrepeatedly failed in theImperialExamination (which was almost the only way in ancient China to become a government official),and decided to work for the army.Zhu the secretary was handsome,gentle,and courteous,and Chen seemed to love this reverse icon of himself.

Chen’s love was later proved to be literal when one night he invited Zhu to his house for drinking alone.After drinking several cups of wine,the host suddenly asked his guest to sleep with him.Zhu was aghast at the unexpectedrequest and refused at once,but as Chen drew out a blade,the unarmed secretary began to think his life more sacred than his sexual preference.

Again unexpectedly,Zhu found that there was no need to give up what he had prepared to sacrifice,when undressed Chen turned out to be a woman.From then on Zhu visited Chen every night,and stuck to the latter every day.This should have been a happy ending if the officers had not discovered their special relationship and expressed reasonable contempt.

What’s worse was that Chen was pregnant.The commander dared not to see the doctor because the exposure of her real gender would be an unforgivable scandal which could lead to her death.When she asked Zhu what to do,the secretary said that confession to her superior Zuo Zongtang might work,according to the ancient precedent of Hua Mulan[1].

Astonished at Chen’s confession, Zuo was to report to the Imperial Court,but was stopped by one of his aides.The aide told Zuo that any attempt to report was unwise because it had been no one but Zuo who had recommended Chen to be awarded.If this incident would cause the emperor’s wrath,the wrath might fall upon Zuo as well.

Zuo thought the aide’s words reasonable and did it another way.He secretly ordered Zhu to be renamed as Chen,and to take Chen’s position; Chen was ordered to abandon all what she had and become Zhu’s wife.

Now Zhu was a man of power.He began to feel that Chen was an unworthy wife for her skin was too dark,her face covered with scars,and her body too big and stout.In a word,she was not like a graceful lady at all.

When Zhu(in Chen’s name)made some battle achievements in a war later,he applied for the recovery of his original name,and his application was allowed.And then Zhu married two concubines.

Chen was furious but helpless.She had neither the power to stop her husband nor the determination to expose all the secrets.The former lady commander made her final decision.She broke up with Zhu,and moved to somewhere afar,taking her son and her personal belongings with her.

There is a folk ballad,Yousuosi (“Thinking of My Lover”),in the Han Dynasty collection.In the ballad,when a girl knows that her lover cheats on her,she decisively breaks the expen sive hairpin she was about to give theunfaithful man,and says that she will“cease her thinking of the man from now on”.While in our story,Chen is as decisive both in her pursuit of love and in her quit of it.

The above Chen’s story is excerpted fromQingdaiyeji(“Unofficial Anecdotes of Qing Dynasty”)written by Zhang Zuyi.The fortitude and decisiveness of the heroine was so appreciated by the author that he commented, if there could be an opera adapted from the story,it would be wonderful enough to be best-known. Note:[1]Hua Mulan is a legendary woman warrior from the Southern and Northern Dynasties(420–589)of China who was originally described in a ballad known as theBallad of Mulan.In the ballad,Hua Mulan takes her aged father's place in the army. She fought for twelve years and gained high merit,but she refused any reward and retired to her hometown instead.

(FromBinhai Times,Aug.25,2015. Translation:WangXiaoke.Illustration:Chen Quansheng)