Long ago, as Prince Li Zhong’s enemies were closing in on him, he disguised himself as a woman, seeking refuge in the women’s quarters, where assassins might not follow him. He was right, but they caught up with him eventually, and forced him to commit suicide.

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A poet reflected on his fate in these haiku:

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I am twenty two,

Have lived my life to the full,

Got and given love,

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Chrysanthemum Thrones

And Princely names, Prefectures

Given and taken:

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The old Emperor danced

When I was born, but this new

Empress stamps on me—

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I’ve hidden myself,

Disguised my sex, who I am’s

No longer my choice:

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My favourite people

Taken from me, I must go

Find my rest with them.

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Life in the imperial family could be as brutal as the violent deaths they were addicted to inflicting on each other.

The prince’s namesake, writing a few centuries later, was a great poet who often reflected on fate, and unfulfilled promise, and may well have done so when pondering the prince’s, on the anniversary of his death, which happened on 6 January 665.

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Photo by Freddie Oomkens