The Northern Song Dynasty’s eighth emperor, Song Huizong, was very talented and a man of great attainments in calligraphy, painting, and poetry. In particular, the so-called “Slender Gold” style of calligraphy created by Huizong is unique, and no one could rival him in this respect.
This Taoist emperor also believed in fate and often asked Taoist fortune tellers to relate his future.
Emperor Huizong held the throne for 25 years. Then, in the later years of the Northern Song Dynasty, forces from the Jin kingdom launched a southward invasion. When the Jin forces approached Bianjing (today’s Kaifeng), Huizong was so afraid that he passed the throne to Prince Zhao Huan in haste and retired from being emperor.
Huizong visits a fortune teller
Legend has it that after Huizong abdicated the throne, he made a tour incognito with his bodyguards to inspect his people in various places in the countryside. When seeing so many homeless people begging for food on the streets and the chaotic situation in the urban and suburban areas, he was very sad.
As he was about to return to the palace, he spotted a fortune teller’s stand, which was outstanding on the bustling street. Seeing an older man with grey hair leisurely sitting in front of the fortune-telling table, Huizong suddenly felt like consulting the fortune teller.
When approaching the fortune teller, Huizong thought he should not reveal his birth date to others, as he was an emperor. He thus asked the fortune teller to predict his fortune according to a Chinese character he would write down.
When the fortune teller handed him a pen and a piece of paper to jot down a Chinese character for analysis, Huizong feared his identity might be recognized because of his “Slender Gold” calligraphy style.
After thinking it over, he decided to ask the fortune teller to write down the character for “horse” on the paper on his behalf.
After looking at the character for “horse,” the fortune teller suddenly changed his countenance, stood up, and began to talk to Huizong politely, saying that Huizhong was by no means an ordinary person.
It was hard for Huizong to believe that the character written by someone else on his behalf could reveal his identity.
The fortune teller’s dire predictions
Unexpectedly, he was even more surprised by the following words related by the fortune teller: “If we look at the character for horse upside down, it symbolizes the essence of the master, with three strokes on its sides and four dots on the bottom.
As the character of the master is upside down, you are no longer a real emperor, and the three strokes on the side might mean your future will not go smoothly. Judging from the fact that the four dots on the bottom are disconnected, you will suffer from many years of chaos.
Although Huizong was an emperor who believed in his corrupt officials and was addicted to a life of vanity, after listening to what the fortune teller mentioned, he dared not lose his temper on the spot. So instead, he left right away after leaving some small silver coins.
Huizong suffers his sad fate
After returning to the palace, Huizong summoned a Taoist priest to conduct a Taoist ritual for him to defeat the invading Jin kingdom and save his chaotic nation. But unfortunately, it turned out to be true that fate can never be changed.
The troops of the Jin kingdom defeated his troops from four directions. Eventually, after Bianjing was conquered, he was captured and escorted to Wukuocheng in the north (today’s old town in the north of Ilan County in Heilongjiang Province).
Huizong suffered tremendous torture along the way and was placed under house arrest in Wukuocheng. He was subjected to various kinds of torture and persecution and deported to northern Manchuria for the last eight years of his life. He died in poverty from diseases and extreme melancholy when he was 54.
During his imprisonment, the mental torture, remorse, and sorrow he suffered are reflected in the poems he wrote.
This story about Huizong shows that man’s fate is predestined. Therefore, regardless of how talented and capable you may be, whether you are an ordinary person or a supreme emperor, your fate can never be changed, even if magic tricks are exercised.
