Page:Frank Owen - The Scarlett Hill, 1941.djvu/67

RV 62 (PORTRAIT OF AN EMPEROR) babbling incoherently. The parasites of the Court lifted her to her feet. Her Majesty had not fallen. The ground had swerved up.

But still the peonies remained serene. They would not bloom. Thereupon she issued a decree that every peony in the Empire was to be pulled up and burned, and that no peony should ever again be cultivated in China. But flowers care not for edicts. With each new season the peonies came again, like butterflies resting for a moment on a branch.

Nevertheless, despite her sulphuric character, Wu How ruled well. Her hand was strong and firm. She was a phenomenon that the fierce frontier tribes could not understand. Eventually they were subdued by the exaggerated stories they heard of her power. By her edict, officers of the Court were required to pass examinations in poetry.

Meanwhile she banished Kao Li-shih from the Imperial Palace. His temper was too violent; or could it have been because he was opposed to despotism? It is hard to cow a man six feet tall and with tremendous power, even though that power does not include the art of reproduction. A man does not need a beard to stand up for righteousness.

So Kao Li-shih was sent from the Court in disgrace. However, he was brought back when eventually Ming Huang came into power by the abdication of his father Li Tan, who had been named heir by Wu How. It had been through the efforts of Ming Huang that the tyrannical Empress had been overthrown. RV 62 (62)