“Yellow Sky”: Crisis for the Han Dynasty sample (Act I) -- T. P. M. Thorne
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“To come in here, and suggest such a thing… preposterous!” the Empress Dowager continued. “You would murder valued and trusted vassals, and replace them with who…? Or would you would have us attended by men…? Do you hold the court in such a low regard…? What kind of women would have men be so intimate with them…?”
“We can replace the eunuchs with other eunuchs, new ones that have been more carefully selected,” Dou Wu suggested humbly.
“And in the meantime…?” the Empress Dowager challenged. “If I-! …If the women of the court are waited on for even one night by a man, what does that say…? What does that make His Majesty? And these ‘crimes’ you speak of… preposterous! How could they do such things, when their role is to be undying servants of the Son of Heaven, devoid of reason or inclination for such things?”
The eunuchs whined quietly to accentuate their sorry plight.
“We will hear no more of this,” the Empress Dowager said with a patronising tone. “The attendants are mostly delightful and sincere, and serve diligently… and as I have said, what purpose is there for them in anything, least of all committing treason…?”
Dou Wu stepped back, kowtowed, and retreated to his place at the right side of his emperor, who was noticeably bemused by the proceedings and his non-existent role in them; the Excellency of Works, Yuan Tang, stepped forward and prepared to read the name of the next person to speak, and the court proceedings continued.
“This is humiliating!” Dou Wu hissed once he and Chen Fan were safely installed within the private office of the former.
“Has something happened…?” the attendant Shan Bing asked with concern.
Dou Wu turned to his eunuch ally Shan Bing and said, “My own daughter speaks to me as if-!”
“The Emperor is too young to govern unaided, and the Empress Dowager holds the interim seal of authority, making her - regrettably - your superior in matters of state… something that the eunuchs have ensured that she is aware of,” Chen Fan interrupted. “I warned you… but now, that is the way of things. Might I suggest something…?”
“…What…?” Dou Wu said with frustration.
Chen Fan glared at Shan Bing, who bowed slightly and moved to another part of the office.
“There is no need to show Shan Bing such contempt,” Dou Wu insisted.
“It is only that I might inadvertently speak in a way that offends… I wished to avoid that,” Chen Fan promised.
“…So what was your suggestion?” Dou Wu said with fatigue.
“I owe you everything,” Chen Fan continued. “When I was ousted for my own protestations against the eunuchs, my life was as good as over… you never forgot me, and here I am now. I cannot therefore allow you to suffer this burden alone… I will submit my own memorial, at risk to my own safety, and hope that it inspires others to make their own complaints. Sometimes there is safety in numbers… this is the idea I cling to now, in order to do this thing that will brand me as a fool.”
“You were right all along; I always knew you were, and you still are,” Dou Wu said with regret. “I am the fool here, believing that such wickedness can be purged with anything but direct action… destroying them as they destroy others, without regard for due process. I suppose that I wanted to be seen as doing things in the right way… but can a man fight an enemy that does not adhere to moral and legal decency without also discarding those same values? Can we win without becoming as bad as them, Mister Chen…?”