A few young maids lifted the curtains and showed them into the hall. After Su Yi had paid his respects, he stood to the side and said calmly: “To send for Su Yi today, I wonder what instructions the Empress Dowager has for me.” With his unyielding-to-the-death character, naturally he would refuse to refer to himself as a slave. The Empress Dowager did not quibble over this, instead she looked him up and down, sizing him up. In her heart she could not help but to feel some grudging respect for him, thinking: no wonder Imperial Son is still obsessed with him to this day, and even Shuo Er is no exception. Indeed, he has an exceptionally distinguished bearing. Just from looking at him here and now, even with his present status, he is still neither servile nor overbearing; not resentful or combative. Doubtlessly, these concubines cannot compare with him in terms of character.
Therefore, she said: I have not summoned you for anything else, just that I [1] have heard from my Imperial Son that you are very proficient in playing the flute. Therefore I wished to hear your music for myself. I wonder if General Su would be willing to play a tune for me?” She had developed some goodwill towards Su Yi, therefore a smile began to grace her face as she spoke to him. She even referred to him as "General Su", implicitly acknowledging that he had a n.o.ble character that would never admit defeat and was worthy of respect.
Su Yi quickly raised his head; he had never expected that this Empress Dowager of Jin Liao would be so magnanimous. After he had been crowned as the Empress, he had not had much opportunity to interact with the Empress Dowager, since she tended not to venture out from her palace very often and also, she had not required that he visit her to pay his respects daily. At this moment, his heart was filled with grat.i.tude and he said sincerely: “Su Yi is unworthy of being thus honoured by receiving such lavish praise from the Empress Dowager and the Emperor, and wishes only to comply. Only, I have not played this song for a very long time. Also, the tune is simple and unpolished, I am afraid that it would cause offence to your sacred ears.” As he was saying this, his heart was feeling bewildered --- he had never, not once, played the flute since he had been taken prisoner, so how did Wanyan Xu know that he had that ability?
The Empress Dowager smiled and said: “General Su is too modest.” Having said that, she promptly ordered someone to go and fetch a flute but Wanyan Xu said: “Mother Empress, that would not be necessary, I [2] have already ordered Zi Nong to fetch one.” Su Yi felt even yet more amazed. A while later, Zi Nong returned; in her hands, she was holding a flute crafted of black bamboo. When Su Yi took a closer look, he grew even more shocked and was in danger of weeping. Zi Nong approached him and presenting the flute to Su Yi with both hands, she said: “When Young Master was captured, all your material possessions were given to Zi Nong to preserve. There has been no wear and tear on them. General Su, please test the sound and see if the sound this flute produces is the same as you remember from days past.”
Su Yi took a look at Zi Nong, before he had to avert his gaze. In his heart a hundred different sensations were churning, and simultaneously, strong emotions were surging up violently. Su Yi did not speak further, holding the flute horizontally across his lips, he started to play. In an instant, wisps of musical notes wafted from the s.p.a.ce between the side of his lips and fingertips, quiet yet evocative, like whispered secrets on an otherwise silent night. In that melody, hard-to-describe pa.s.sions were faintly discernible, hidden through a veil of mist. Love and hate lingered in the tones, beguiling all who heard it. After Su Yi had played for a while, without exception, everybody in that room was totally enthralled. They felt like the music was slowly entering their body through their ears, and was slowly winding its way through to their tendons and organs. Just as they were absorbed in this feeling, suddenly the tune took a turn. The tempo and pitch picked up, reverberating throughout the hall. The tune now took on the flavour of Bai Juyi"s [1] line “a silver bottle is smashed and water gushes forth, armoured hors.e.m.e.n rush forth onto the battlefield with the clang of a thousand weapons”, it was like claps of thunder and whipping winds rolling in from the Heavens. Yet another turn, and the impression became one of a homeless drifter enduring the winds and rains, then sweet and mild emotions and thoughts, then love and hate without reason, and finally of clouds dispersing and rain ceasing, leaving a few strands of residual hate and love to remain entangled, fluttering in the wind with no anchor to rely on. At the finish, all was quiet.
Su Yi had poured out all of his own feelings into this song; the notes had flowed smoothly from his flute without conscious thought. When he was spent, and the song finished, he put away the flute. Without exception, everybody in the hall was entranced and deeply moved. Indeed, Wanyan Xu had not been exaggerating when he had described his skill as "a person with such superlative skill comes by only a few times in history". Considering the circ.u.mstances and his own history with the flutist, the song stirred up even more emotions in Wanyan Xu than the rest of the audience and he was almost in a stupor.
Presently, the Empress Dowager was the first to recover her senses, and exclaimed her praise: “Indeed, this must be the peak of perfection! It has the power to move deities and spirits. Only today, do I truly understand what can be considered a good song, and what good skills are. But General Su, I do not know the name of this song; I am puzzled as to why I have never heard this masterpiece before.”
Su Yi said subduedly: “This song has no name; it was a composition that I had just made up on the spur of the moment, Su Yi must have incurred the Empress Dowager’s ridicule through his poor performance. At the moment, I still have tasks that I have to attend to, I beg the Empress Dowager for permission to retire.”
A sombre expression also manifested on the Empress Dowager"s face, after a long pause, she said: “Alright, but since General Su had to compose a song on the spot for us, you must be overtaxed now.” So saying, she called Xiao Chu over and said: “Go and instruct the overseers that they are not to let General Su get more tired today.” She then turned back to Su Yi and said: “General, please proceed.”
After Su Yi formally took his leave, he finally left. Throughout the entire affair, he had not looked at Wanyan Xu even once, but on Wanyan Xu"s part, his eyes had never strayed from Su Yi even a fraction. Even so, without interacting, both of them tacitly understood the affection and painful difficulties that lay between them, and keenly felt the love and hate that dogged them both. Even the Empress Dowager could not help but to feel troubled when she looked at these two men, and could only think ruefully to herself that fate makes playthings of all men.
For a time, n.o.body spoke and the hall was silent. The spell was broken when Wanyan Shuo hastily went up and said: “Imperial Grandma, why don"t you allow me to learn how to play the flute from him? I like the song he played.” When he saw that the Empress Dowager had been pleased by Su Yi"s performance, he had thought to seize the opportunity to help Su Yi escape from the abyss of suffering. But contrary to his expectations, the Empress Dowager shook her head and said: “That cannot be permitted. Even if we don"t consider that he now has the status of a traitor and slave, it will still be inappropriate. You are the Crown Prince; the responsibility of governing the country will be yours in future. The flute is just an instrument of entertainment, how can you expend your energies on it. I do not wish to see you become absorbed by this hobby and play a tune that would cause the fall of our nation.”
There was no hidden meaning behind her careless words, but the listening Wanyan Xu misunderstood them. In a low tone, he said: “Mother Empress"s words are off the mark. Su Yi"s defeat was caused by domestic issues within the country of Qi. The weak and fatuous Emperor of Qi was the one who wrought the disaster, it had no relationship to Su Yi"s playing the flute. If his troops had not been deprived of food and other military supplies in the days before our battle, even if it was I who fought against him, I do not dare to say with certainty that I would have been the victor.”
The Empress Dowager gave him a glance and understood that his heart was still occupied with thoughts of Su Yi. She made no comment on that, but only said blandly: “I was discussing the merits of Shuo Er learning the flute, why is Imperial Son drawing apophenic connections?” So saying, she stood up and said: “We have thoroughly amused ourselves for the whole day, it is about time that we end this gathering. The New Year will come soon, there is no reason to be afraid that there will be no further opportunities to have fun, is there?” The a.s.sembled crowd dutifully echoed agreement, and surrounded the Empress Dowager and Wanyan Xu as they departed. At this point, no one would have thought that it would be during the coming New Year"s Eve that the palace would be thrown in complete confusion because of Su Yi. But of course, these words can only be spoken with the benefit of hindsight.