Song of Phoenix (思美人)

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Song of Phoenix

Episode 65

The road to truth is long and slow but I shall persevere and spare no effort to pursue - Encountering Sorrow (Qu Yuan)

Queen Mother.

Shameless.

Indecent.

As the Great Shaman of Chu, you don't watch yourself!

Spreading contamination with the court ministers.

And now this upheaval you've created.

-Now you've come to seduce the king! -Queen Dowager!

Provoking filth!

Son. Stay away from this woman!

If you don't listen, don't blame me for being heartless!

Leave with me!

Big Sister, are you okay?

You can all leave.

Yes.

Son.

I am old.

I can pretend not to see some things.

But once some rumors reach my ears,

can I ignore them?

Now, this world is yours.

That Vice Chancellor wanted to do political reform and modify our constitution.

Punish corruption and change salt rights.

They all sound like good things.

But how is it that I keep getting such unsettled feeling?

Queen Mother, Beloved Subject Qu-

He just wants to vet out the greedy rats within the royal court.

Pull off the skin and shave down the bone, to give the people justice.

Pull off the skin?

Shave the bone?

That's a fresh way of putting it.

Once he pulls off all those high ministers' skins,

what's next? Whose skin will he want to pull next?

Does he wish to pull the entire royal court?

Queen Mother, you worry too much.

I will remind him to have his limits and keep the big picture in mind.

In this world, there are thousands of people.

Thus you need to be a thousand times more watchful.

You will need to grow even more watchful.

Also, the rumors in this palace,

I don't want to hear about them.

This Qu Yuan and Mo Chou,

just what is going on between them?

Your Majesty, please get justice for me.

Speak.

My wife died in evil hands, and died in vain.

Please give the order to investigate this!

I am also very heartbroken that your wife died terribly.

Because of the political reform, many ministers will like to corner me to death.

It's just, why must they drag down my family?

You mean, Madam Qu's horrible death

has to do with a court official?

In response to you, I did not.

You will say anything.

Jing Mo Ao, the truth has yet to be found.

Please do not make rash conclusions.

You are right, Great Shaman of Chu.

But that's all useless.

Vice Chancellor Qu, your political reform is setting up a mountain on fire.

Causing the entire royal court in upheaval.

Now you blame the death of your wife into this too. For what?

I think you are not doing any political reform. You're trying to ruin a good nation.

God can vouch for my intention for political reform.

Your Majesty, please allow me to list Qu Yuan's three biggest crimes.

First. His atrocious words and actions that have confused the world.

Causing the people to panic and suffering from adversity.

Second. He built up his party in private and shored up his own trusted allies.

Third. His political reform failed and only caused discord.

Shaking the foundation of the dynasty.

Jing Mo Ao, you are completely misrepresenting the facts.

Great Shaman of Chu, you protect him so much.

Are you his partner?

Your Majesty, this political reform must not be continued.

Minister Jing, the political reform was crafted by His Majesty.

How can it be stopped just because you say so?

Chancellor Zhao, you originally supported the change too.

What do you think?

Your Majesty,

I am not talented. It's becoming harder for me to see the benefits of the changes.

These reforms. Forgive me for being frank . . .

If the changes keep going,

I fear that our nation is no longer our nation with indefinite troubles to come.

Chancellor Zhao! No matter what, Vice Chancellor Qu is your son-in-law!

What kind of a father-in-law are you?!

In the royal court, there are only state affairs.

There are no personal emotions!

Grand Adviser, Lord Mo Ao has given his opinion.

So has Lord Chancellor.

It's your turn.

This-!

Qu Yuan! What do your words mean?

Our loyalties can be vouched by the sun and moon.

Did we join together to plot against you?

Great. Great loyalty vouched by moon and sun!

My Chu Nation . . . precisely because of you sage ministers

the mighty Qin won't need to worry about exterminating Chu.

Great Chu won't need to worry about not getting destroyed.

Vice Chancellor Qu, stop your nonsense.

Your Majesty, in this great State of Chu,

There are also drunkards! In this court,

there are also foolish people! Only if Your Majesty is awake,

can this state be saved, can our people have hope for the future!

Your Majesty, you must never listen to Qu's nonsense.

The changes cannot keep going!

May Your Majesty be vigilant.

Your Majesty, if the changes keep going,

our Great Chu's foundation will be shaken.

What mighty Chu shall be left? What chance of restoring old glory shall there be?

Your Majesty, with this jade disc as promise,

I hope Your Majesty will investigate this and continue making changes!

This world isn't mine alone.

These changes are not yours alone either.

Vice Chancellor Qu, I admire your intellect.

You want to do away with patrimonial selection to favor equal opportunity based on merit and I approve.

You want to distant the nobles and I approve as well.

You say to modify the constitution and rectify the old system.

I hesitated but in the end I also approved of it.

However, what about you? You continue to say to me,

that you want to repay me. That you want to repay Chu a great political system.

But now? There is only lament and discord everywhere.

Is this the beautiful political landscape you wanted for me?

Your Majesty, in the implementation of reforms in the past, which of them weren't met by extreme opposition?

The changes are my own matter.

And also the matter of the ministers of this court.

then I will leave the matter of change to the court officials.

For Chu to stay progressive for hundreds of years, we must not change our foundation.

Your Majesty, you cannot change. You cannot change!

Your Majesty! You cannot change!

Your Majesty, forget the reforms. The country is already not looking like a country.

Your Majesty!

Spring is but brief, when cuckoos start to sing,

and flowers will fade that once did spread and spring.

This gaudy age so fickle proved its will,

that to what purpose did I linger still?

Qu Yuan, it's not that I do not support change.

It's that all the court officials don't support it.

From today on, you don't need to worry about court matters anymore.

Just be at ease and be the Minister of the Three Great Families.

Yes, Your Majesty.

What a joke. What a joke!

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Queen Mother, why have you come?

Son, you finally got rid of

the pain in my heart.

I heard you demoted Qu Yuan to

being the Minister of the Three Great Families.

I feel bad about demoting Qu Yuan.

Regardless, the reforms that Qu Yuan wanted

was for the benefit of Chu.

But these changes depend on timing.

You must act with the circumstances.

What's right now may be wrong in the future

while what's wrong in the past might be right now.

Queen Mother, what do you mean?

Qu Yuan's plan for change

incited the anger of the entire court.

And his Vertical Alliance strategy to fight Qin wasn't also successful.

Presently, the alliance of the six countries has obviously failed.

If you keep being this alliance head,

then Qin will surely blame the attack by the six countries

on our Chu.

So what? At the worst, I'll fight to the death with Qin!

You can give up your life for the State of Chu.

Is the entire state supposed to give up their lives for it?

Then Queen Mother, what should be done?

Right now,

we can only repair our relationship with the State of Qin

and reestablish partnership.

But now, the alliance of the six countries still exist.

As their allies, how can we just abandon and betray them?

Son, there are no eternal friends.

Perhaps the other states became allies with Qin long ago.

Only we have been kept in the dark,

always fighting with the State of Qin.

Vice Chancellor Qu, I admire your intellect.

You said that you want to remove inherited titles and salaries,

to choose the skillful and talented ones to serve, I allowed it.

You said that we must distance from nobility, I also allowed it.

You said that the constitution must be reformed, the old laws must be changed, I hesitated.

But in the end, I still allowed it.

But how about you. You resolutely told me

that you will give me back, give Chu back good governance.

But what now? So many grievances, the government is not in harmony.

Is this the good governance that you want to give me?!

Grand Adviser Manor

Lord Jing, Lord Zhao. Come come come.

Drink wine! Everyone! Come!

Lord Zhao, we are impressed that you turned your back on your family!

We are impressed!

Chancellor Zhao, I drink to you.

Before, I was unreasonable.

Starting now, we should help each other more.

I do not dare. We are all officials of Chu, so naturally we are family.

Ah!

That's right!

That Qu Yuan has already been demoted to being a Minister of the Three Great Families.

The Qu family now