The Empress's Chignon

Most of the action here is with Xuande’s crew: Ma Chao defects to him, and Lord Guan fends off Lu Su’s assassination attempts. It’s a good narrative. I’m over halfway through Three Kingdoms, and I’m still finding myself curious to see what happens next.

In Chapter 64, we follow Ma Chao in battle. The worst of it is when noncombatants are mercilessly killed: “They brought out [Ma Chao’s] wife, Lady Yang, cut her down, and flung her corpse from the wall. Next, three of Ma Chao’s infant sons and a dozen close kin were butchered one by one and pieces of the bodies were thrown to the ground.” (pp. 1165-1166). In the next paragraph, Ma Chao gets some revenge: “Pointing at Ma Chao, [Xu’s mother] reviled him, and Chao dispatched her personally.”

For all that violence, it’s Chapter 66 that had the most vivid image. Empress Wu has failed in her conspiracy to get Cao Cao killed. One of his men found her hiding and “pulled the Empress out [of her hiding place] by her chignon.” (p. 1203) She is executed shortly after, and the Emperor is forced to marry Cao Cao’s daughter.

It’s the word “chignon” that I thought was especially apt; it’s a vivid image, and the word in English suggests sophistication and civilization. It is another way the translator and author work together to make Cao Cao look worse: he has cruel men that don’t just abuse women, they grab the Empress (!) by her sophisticated hair (!) when it’s in royal fashion!