[Idiom] Buying a Smile for a Thousand Gold (A Thousand Gold for a Smile) [Western Zhou]

Buying a smile for a thousand gold

Paying a huge sum of money just to see a beautiful woman smile 😂

The story behind this four-character idiom dates back about 3,000 years to a crazy king (a foolish ruler) and his wife 😂
(Even in times of peace, you'll definitely get a terrible monarch, right? 😂)

The beginning of Chinese dynasties, confirmed by archaeology, isXia. (Xia was over 4,000 years ago. Actually, it's said there might have been a "Yu" dynasty before that.)
Next isShang,where oracle bone script (writing) appeared. Its capital was also calledYin. It seems they already had bronze vessels decorated with gold. (There is a myth thatDaji, whom the last king of Shang favored, was a nine-tailed fox spirit. This king developed lust after seeing the goddess Nüwa, so she sent a demon to the king, and the Shang dynasty perished... For details, please refer to "Fengshen Bang".)
And now, theZhoudynasty, which lasted 700 years!

Since this was before the capital moved to Luoyang, we call itWestern Zhou. Western Zhou was a stable nation that valued seniority and rituals.
Since Qin Shi Huang hadn't appeared yet, the leader was calledKinginstead of Emperor. They were called things like "Great King," but later people distinguished them as King Wu of Zhou (because he was good at fighting) or King Hui of Zhou (because he was wise).
This is the story of the 12th one,King You of Zhou.

What was so terrible was that he just played around, ignored disasters, kept wise ministers at a distance, and killed them immediately if he got angry (his grandfather was already bad, but King You was the most unhinged).

At one point, he was obsessed with finding beautiful women, and a super beauty namedBao Si(it seems there were many people with the surname Bao) was sent to him, and he stopped governing even more. Eventually, a son was born. He committed the outrageous act of driving away his original wife and son (who was the firstborn and treated as the next king, the "Crown Prince") and making this new child the Crown Prince.

However, this Bao Si rarely smiled, so he announced that he would give a large reward to anyone who could make her laugh. A minister (Guo Shifu) proposed a "Lishan Beacon Fire" strategy (a fire 🔥 to signal to surrounding countries* that the capital "Haojing" was under attack so they would come to fight). He suggested lighting it and then saying "Just kidding!" when the armies arrived. It was adopted.

Just as planned, when the armies rushed over only to be deceived, Bao Si clapped her hands and burst into laughter at the sight of them being flustered.... (This woman was also strange; she liked the sound of tearing silk).

And Guo Shifu got a huge reward! This is the origin of "buying a smile for a thousand gold."

It's just like the boy who cried wolf... 😂 And then, he was really attacked by theXirong army, and no one came to help. A man who happened to be there,Zheng Bo You, bravely tried to protect King You of Zhou at the cost of his own life, but in the end, both the king and his beloved son were killed.
At this point, the surrounding countries finally rushed over, but it was too late. "A country cannot be without a king for a day." They had Zheng Bo You's son,Jue Tu, bring back the original eldest son and installed him as the next king (King Ping of Zhou).

Even so, because they were frequently attacked by the Xirong army, King Ping of Zhou moved the capital to Luoyang (the beginning of the Eastern Zhou = Spring and Autumn period).
And Jue Tu received most of the Zheng state as a reward, inherited his late father's title, and becameDuke Wu of Zheng. (It became one of the powerful states in the early Eastern Zhou, but his wife was a troublesome person, and their sons would cause problems... 😭)

*At that time, after King Wu of Zhou defeated Shang (refer to "Fengshen Yanyi" for this part), he didn't rule all of China himself, but divided the land and had it governed by meritorious ministers calledfeudal lords. (For example, the state ofChucalled itself "King," so it ended up being called "Nanman" by Zhou... From the perspective of Zhou in the Central Plains, Chu was down the Yangtze River, so they were southern barbarians 😭)
The five titles in order of rank are Gong (Duke), Hou (Marquis), Bo (Count), Zi (Viscount), and Nan (Baron).

That was the story of King You of Zhou, who toyed with the feudal lords.
(King You of Zhou's beacon fire prank on the feudal lords)