King You, last ruler of the Western Zhou dynasty (11th century - 771 BC) had a penchant for beautiful women. One of the court sycophants, who wanted to curry favour with him, suggested "The women of the court are becoming old. It's about time we chose some younger ones from the neighbouring states".

It happened that a very small vassal state named Bao, having failed to send in its tribute in time, was being attacked by Zhou troops. A compromise was arranged in which Bao provided ten beautiful women instead.

The most dazzling of the ten, whose name was Baosi, became the king's favourite. He took her everywhere with him, even on hunting expeditions. Baosi had one strange characteristic. She never smiled. However, she let it be known that she liked to hear the sound of tearing silk, so the king ordered that every day a hundred bolts of silk be torn before her by strong housemaids. Still this did not bring a smile to her face. The king dethroned his queen and her son the prince and placed Baosi and her infant child in their stead, but still she did not smile

One day the king took Baosi on an excursion to the Lishan Mountains east of his capital Haojing (west of today's Xi'an). There she showed interest in a beacon tower which was used to alert nearby vassal states to send troops to the aid of Zhou. Hoping to please Baosi, the king ordered the beacon fire lit. When the vassal troops gathered at the foot of Lishan they found no sign nor sound of battle, but only the music of lusheng pipes as King You disported with Baosi. The dukes of the vassal states were extremely angry. As they lowered their banners, muffled their retreat from the tower, Baosi let out a peal of laughter. King You was so pleased that after that he often took her to Lisahn and lit the beacon fire. Soon it became meaningless as an alarm.

In 771 BC Zhou rule was under attack from the Quanrong tribesmen in the north. In conspiracy with troops inside Zhou under the leadership of the brother of the dethroned queen, they approached the capital Haojing. King You ordered the beacon fire lighted, but the neighbouring dukes ignored it and the Quanrong captured Haojing. King You and Baosi were captured. The king was killed at the foot of Lishan Mountains and the latter given to the Quanrong king.

Editor's Notes

A modern reader might well ask whether Baosi, resenting having been sent to the king, acted as she did for revenge, but ancient historians do not tell us this. In keeping with their anti-female bias, she was blamed for the fall of the dynasty.

Legend adapted from Shanghai on Internet