Bao Si () was a concubine then consort of King You of Zhou. She was considered one of the most beautiful women of the ancient era.
Life Legends record that during the last years of the Xia dynasty, two dragons entered the palace of the king. Upon leaving, the king ordered that the dragons' saliva be kept in a wooden box. During the reign of King Li of Zhou, he tried to open the box despite a taboo against such an act. The saliva accidentally spilled, transforming into a black lizard. The lizard crawled in front of a seven-year-old slave girl. Eight years later, she became pregnant while still a virgin, and gave birth to a girl. The mother abandoned the baby, who was later adopted by a couple who traveled to the and raised her to adulthood. She was later presented by the ruler of Bao to King You.(昔自夏后氏之衰也，有二神龙止于夏帝庭而言曰：“余，褒之二君。”夏帝卜杀之与去之与止之，莫吉。卜请其漦而藏之，乃吉。于是布币而策告之，龙亡而漦在，椟而去之。夏亡，传此器殷。殷亡，又传此器周。比三代，莫敢发之，至厉王之末，发而观之。漦流于庭，不可除。厉王使妇人裸而噪之。漦化为玄鼋，以入王后宫。后宫之童妾既龀而遭之，既笄而孕，无夫而生子，惧而弃之。宣王之时童女谣曰：“厌弧箕服，实亡周国。”于是宣王闻之，有夫妇卖是器者，宣王使执而戮之。逃于道，而见乡者后宫童妾所弃妖子出于路者，闻其夜啼，哀而收之，夫妇遂亡，奔于褒。褒人有罪，请入童妾所弃女子者于王以赎罪。弃女子出于褒，是为褒姒。) Shiji, vol.04
In 779 BC, Bao Si entered the palace and came into King You's favour. They had a son named Bofu.Revised Chinese Dictionary, Ministry of Education, Taiwan King You decided to depose and her son, Crown Prince Yijiu, and replace them with Bao Si and Bofu.
Bao Si was of a melancholic disposition, so King You offered a thousand ounces of gold to anyone who could make her laugh. Someone at the court suggested lighting the warning beacons on Mount Li, usually used to summon armies from the surrounding vassal states in times of danger. The nobles duly arrived at the court only to find themselves laughed at by Bao Si. Chapter 1 Even after King You had impressed Bao Si, he continued to abuse his use of the warning beacons and so lost the trust of the nobles.
Queen Shen's father, the Marquis of Shen, was upset by the deposition of his daughter and grandson Yijiu and mounted an attack on King You's palace in conjunction with the Quanrong nomads. King You called for the nobles with the beacons, but none came as they no longer trusted him. In the end, King You and Bofu were killed, and Bao Si was captured at Xi () and taken to the Quanrong leader. King You's death marked the end of Western ZhouPhương Thi Danh (2001), Niên biểu lịch sử Trung Quốc and the beginning of the Spring and Autumn period of the Eastern Zhou.Cambridge History of Ancient China, 1999, pages 546 and 551
After her capture, the Marquis of Shen managed to get Bao Si for himself. Bao Si accepted a bribe from him and left the capital.Sima Qian, Records of the Grand Historian • Zhou Dynasty Annals Later, during another attack by the Quanrong nomads, Bao Si was unable to escape and hanged herself. Her date of death is unknown.
The story of Bao Si and King You of Zhou is among the best-known and infamous love stories from ancient China. It serves not only as a demonstration of extreme love but also as a cautionary tale of how one beauty can topple a nation, but this story is controversial. According to the record of Tsinghua Bamboo Slips, King You attacked the Marquis of Shen, and the Marquis of Shen allied with the Quanrong to defeat King You. However, warning beacons didn't exist during the Zhou dynasty, with the earliest warning beacons appearing during the Han dynasty. Professor Liu Guozhong of Tsinghua University believes this story is fabricated.
Through the few references available, it can be presumed that Bao Si was born in 792 BC (three years younger than King You) and died in 771 BC (assuming that her death happened by suicide shortly after the Quanrong attack).
Legacy One of her many legacies remains in the epic historical novel Chronicles of the Eastern Zhou Kingdoms, written by Feng Menglong, a late Ming dynasty writer. A poem pertaining to Bao Si is recorded as follows, translated from the original text by Olivia Milburn:Menglong, Feng, 'Chapter 3: The chief of the Dog Rong invades to capital at Hao. King Ping of Zhou moves east to Luoyang', in Kingdoms in Peril, Volume 1: The Curse of the Bao Lords, trans. by Olivia Milburn (University of California Press, 2023), p.65.
"First in her brocade silk bower she was called the mother of the nation, Then in a stinking yurt she became a traitorous slut. In the end she could not escape the pain of the tightening noose; Would it not have been better to accept being a mere concubine?"
While Bao Si may have initially been seen as a virtuous woman, her legacy provides insight into how she was a major contributing factor to the Western Zhou in Chinese myth.
See also Daji Four Beauties: Yang Guifei, Xi Shi, Wang Zhaojun, Diaochan
Notes
References