81 King You and Bao Si

A4.37 

In his third year (779 BC), King You favored Bao Si. Bao Si gave birth to a son, Bo Fu, and King You wanted to depose the crown prince. The crown prince's mother was the daughter of Lord Shen and the queen. Later, King You got Bao Si and loved her very much. He wanted to depose Queen Shen and Crown Prince Yi Jiu, and make Bao Si the queen and Bo Fu the crown prince. Zhou Taishi Bo Yang read the historical records and said, "The Zhou Dynasty is about to perish." When the Xia Hou clan was declining, two dragons landed in the courtyard of the Xia emperor and said, "We are the two monarchs of Bao." The Xia emperor divined whether to kill them, drive them away, or keep them, but did not get a good omen. The diviner asked to collect the dragon's saliva, and got a good omen. So the Xia emperor prepared silk and wrote a prayer on a bamboo slip. After the dragon flew away, it left saliva. The Xia emperor ordered people to collect it in a wooden box and keep it. After the fall of the Xia Dynasty, this artifact was passed on to the Shang Dynasty. After the fall of the Shang Dynasty, the artifact was passed to the Zhou Dynasty. For three consecutive dynasties, no one dared to open it. It was not until the end of King Li's reign that it was opened for viewing. The dragon's saliva flowed into the courtyard and could not be cleaned. King Li asked women to shout loudly in the courtyard naked. The dragon's saliva turned into a black lizard and entered King Li's harem. The lizard was encounted by a slave girl in the harem at the teeth-changing age and she became pregnant a few years later when she turned fifteen. She gave birth to a baby girl without a husband, and out of fear she abandoned the baby. During the reign of King Xuan, there was a child song went around. "There will be a couple who sell bows and arrows made of mulberry wood, and they are the ones who will destroy the Zhou Dynasty.” When King Xuan heard about it, he put an order out, that if a couple found selling these bows and arrows would be arrested and executed. Then on their way of escaping, the couple saw the baby girl abandoned by the harem slave on the roadside. They heard the baby crying at night, and adopted her out of pity. The couple then fled to Bao. Years later when a man from Bao committed a crime, he offered the abandoned girl, now grown, to the king to atone for his sin. The girl was from Bao, so she was called Bao Si. When King You had reigned for three years, he came to his harem and saw Bao Si and fell in love with her. Then she gave birth to a son, Bo Fu. King You even wanted to depose Queen Shen and the crown prince, and make Bao Si the queen and Bo Fu the crown prince. The historian Bo Yang said, "The disaster has already happened, there is nothing we can do about it!"

三年，幽王嬖爱襃姒。襃姒生子伯服，幽王欲废太子。太子母申侯女，而为后。后幽王得襃姒，爱之，欲废申后，并去太子宜臼，以襃姒为后，以伯服为太子。周太史伯阳读史记曰：“周亡矣。”昔自夏后氏之衰也，有二神龙止于夏帝庭而言曰：“余，襃之二君。”夏帝卜杀之与去之与止之，莫吉。卜请其漦而藏之，乃吉。于是布币而策告之，龙亡而漦在，椟而去之。夏亡，传此器殷。殷亡，又传此器周。比三代，莫敢发之，至厉王之末，发而观之。漦流于庭，不可除。厉王使妇人裸而譟之。漦化为玄鼋，以入王后宫。后宫之童妾既龀而遭之，既笄而孕，无夫而生子，惧而弃之。宣王之时童女谣曰：“檿弧箕服，实亡周国。”于是宣王闻之，有夫妇卖是器者，宣王使执而戮之。逃于道，而见乡者后宫童妾所弃妖子出于路者，闻其夜啼，哀而收之，夫妇遂亡，奔于襃。襃人有罪，请入童妾所弃女子者于王以赎罪。弃女子出于襃，是为襃姒。当幽王三年，王之后宫见而爱之，生子伯服，竟废申后及太子，以襃姒为后，伯服为太子。太史伯阳曰：“祸成矣，无可奈何！”