Your servant Songzhi understands the principles of the Spring and Autumn Annals to be that great evils within the
palace are concealed, while lesser evils are recorded. We have clear knowledge of the fact that Emperor Wen did not
make Madame Zhen empress and went so far as to kill her. If the Wei historians considered this to be a great evil, they
should have concealed it and not spoken of it. If they considered it a lesser evil, then they should not have written falsely
about it. Such revering of embellished and untrue texts is alien to what we learn from the old historians. If we were to
judge from this, then whenever the historians praised the goodness of the words and deeds of the empresses Bian and
Zhen, they would be difficult to find credible. Chen Shou’s abridgements and omissions truly have some basis.
Pei Songzhi’s thoughts on the contradicting stories surrounding Lady Zhen’s death, from Empress and Consorts (via daolunofshiji)
I read this before and decided to reblog this for a moment. Pei Songzhi states Pi KILLED her. Meaning, he intentionally ordered her to take her own life after he received her ire. But, there were some people that time whom spin the events on her death. I haven’t changed my opinion on her death for years. Do people expect Lady Zhen to be ok with him taken the deposed Emperor Xian’s daughters as his concubines, then treat Cao Zhi like dirt, bully Bao Xin’s son, and disgrace the memorial of his father just by abdicating Han Emperor Liu Xie? Lady Zhen was a virtuous woman despite the oppressive marriage she struggle with.
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