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, inspired by the Japanese tradition of the death poem, reflected on his fate in these haiku, which they wrote from the prince’s point of view:
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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
