thefictionvixens Chapter 346 Dongjun, Li Chengyu
Chapter 346 Dongjun, Li Chengyu
In the dimly lit tent, Shen Shixi rolled her eyes dramatically. "My god, what an elegant way to put it, making you seem cultured? Just say my birthday directly, I don't want to hear 'birthday,' I'm only twenty!"
At twenty years old, the legal marriage age in later generations, she is now a mother of two.
Li Yuanke laughed, not holding it against her. He patted her back and asked, "Is there a gift you want? How would you like to celebrate? You like watching fireworks, so I'll have someone set off more fireworks for you."
Fireworks pollute the environment! What's the point of celebrating birthdays? Each one makes you a year older, I don't want to celebrate!
Shen Shixi put his arm around Li Yuanke's neck and said, "Li Yuanke, have some decency! Last year, on my birthday, we got married. The whole court was exhausted, especially that old man Lu Shixun. I bet he wanted to point his finger at you and call you a tyrant."
The Crown Prince will be officially appointed on the first day of the second lunar month next year. This year, on the first day of the second lunar month, you held a full moon celebration. How many people did you invite? The Ministry of Rites and the Court of Imperial Sacrifices haven't even finished their New Year celebrations yet, and they're already busy with all the arrangements.
"It's only been a few days, and you're already throwing me a birthday party. How much silver do you have left in your private coffers? Do you want me to help you out?"
"These are all legitimate matters that need to be handled. Why can't I handle them? Although I don't have much money in my private treasury, am I not even allowed to hold a celebration for your birthday?"
"It's not that I can't, it's just that we're doing this too often! I won't do it, I'm too lazy to bother. To be honest, I can't stand it if you make me sit there wearing a phoenix crown and that complicated dress and have people bow to me."
"We must celebrate your double tenth birthday no matter what, otherwise, history books will record that I treated you badly."
After arguing for a long time, the two finally compromised. On that day, they invited ladies of the court and officials, but not court officials; they only accepted congratulatory greetings.
The Emperor had just held a full-moon banquet for the Crown Prince and the Princess Xihe, and now, just a few days later, he was going to hold a birthday celebration for the Empress. When the news spread, not to mention others, many of the concubines in the harem were green with envy.
How long has it been since the Emperor last summoned his concubines?
It's been a year and a half.
Previously, it was said that they would get married and have children. Now the Empress has given birth to the Crown Prince and has completed her postpartum confinement, but the Emperor still has no intention of summoning concubines to his harem.
Consort Xian and Consort Shu arrived together, each bringing their own children. The Second Prince, the Fourth Princess, and the Fifth Prince were also present.
Shen Shixi then asked the Second Prince, "Why didn't you go to school today?"
When the princes turned five, they would start school at Chongxian Hall, which was under the jurisdiction of the Eastern Palace. There were lecturers and students were all sons of the imperial family, nobles and high-ranking officials in the capital.
The Second Prince respectfully replied, "Your Majesty, today is a day of rest. Since Your Majesty has come to visit, I missed my younger brother, the Crown Prince, and my fifth sister, and also wanted to pay my respects to Your Majesty, so I came along."
Li Yuanke went to court, so Shen Shixi had the wet nurse bring the Crown Prince and Xihe over to play with the Second Prince, the Third Prince, and the Fourth Princess.
The two little ones weren't asleep. Seeing so many people surrounding them, they got incredibly excited, waving their arms and legs and babbling away, saying something unintelligible.
"Both the Crown Prince and my sister are so chubby!" the Fourth Princess exclaimed.
Shen Shixi said, "The Crown Prince's nickname is Dongjun, and the Fifth Princess is Xihe. You are the older brothers and sisters, so just call them by their names."
Shen Shixi did not want his child to be separated from other children from birth because of the distinction between ruler and subject, as this would be detrimental to his growth. If he wanted to rule the empire in the future, he had to first become an ordinary person, understand ordinary people, and then surpass them.
Dongjun and Xihe are both elegant names for the sun.
The fourth princess cried out, "Dongjun, Dongjun! Xihe, Xihe!"
Consort Shu said, "Your Majesty is really something. The princes are all so grown up, and you still haven't said anything about giving them names. Your Majesty the Empress, you can't ignore this matter."
Shen Shixi laughed and said, "That's right. Look at our Second Prince. He'll be getting married in a few years. It's really inappropriate for him not to have a name yet."
The second prince was extremely embarrassed, his face turned red, and he lowered his head, which amused Shen Shixi.
Consort Xian then said, "Now that Her Majesty the Empress has finished her confinement period, shouldn't the concubines pay their respects to her? The other day, Consort Rong came to me specifically to discuss this matter."
Consort Shu scoffed and said, "Who doesn't know what she's thinking? When the Emperor took the Crown Prince and Princess to the Imperial Garden earlier, she went and complained to the Empress and Consort Yuan that she wanted to raise the Eighth Prince."
Consort Xian said, "She said that Consort Yuan wouldn't let her see the Eighth Prince, which is truly inappropriate. She herself rarely goes to Huilan Palace, but whenever she does, Consort Yuan has never prevented her from seeing the Eighth Prince. If the Emperor heard this, what would he think?"
Shen Shixi comforted her, "Don't worry about these things. If there's nothing else, I won't bother seeing them. They sent you here to talk, and once you've said your piece, it's over for you. You'll have to work hard on the affairs of the harem."
Oh, how are Consort Jing and Consort Du doing?
Consort Xian said, "I often go to check on her. Anyway, she's just like that, taking care of herself. Her health is naturally not very good anymore. We'll see how long she can hold on. The Imperial Hospital is taking good care of her."
After they finished speaking, the two got up to take their leave. Shen Shixi ordered some gifts to be given to the Second Prince, the Third Prince, and the Fourth Princess. The three of them happily returned home, saying that they would come to visit Dongjun and Xihe again in a few days.
When Li Yuanke returned, he heard that Shen Shixi had given the Crown Prince the nickname Dongjun, so he said that he had already chosen a name for the Crown Prince: Chengyu. This name clearly belonged to the heir apparent.
Shen Shixi then said, "Since the Crown Prince has a name, shouldn't the other princes and princesses also have names? They're all so old, it's not right that they don't have names yet."
Li Yuanke was too lazy to think, so he ordered Li Fude to convey an imperial decree to the Imperial Household Department to name the princes and princesses, and instructed, "The eldest prince shall be named Cheng'an, and the names of the second to ninth princes shall all begin with the character 'Cheng' and the radical 'roof'."
Shen Shixi mentally reviewed the characters with the "roof" radical; there should be eight more that could be used, right?
Sure enough, the Imperial Household Department sent over a list of characters with the radical for "roof" (宀), and the names of the princes were finalized. From the second prince to the ninth prince, they were: Ning, Xuan, Ding, Yi, Shi, Rong, You, and Mi; all were standard and acceptable, and all were auspicious characters.
As for the princesses' names, they were all from the character "和" (he), but Li Yuanke, in order to distinguish them from his legitimate daughters, chose "和敬" (hejing), "和慧" (hehui), "和福" (hefu), and "和寿" (heshou), all of which are auspicious characters and there is nothing wrong with them, but they all seem perfunctory.
When the imperial edict was issued, Princess Hejing saw her name and could not believe it.
"Why is her name Xihe, which means sun, while my father named me Hejing?" The eldest princess also wanted a unique name.
But what's the difference between her name and titles like Xian'an and Yi'an?
It's so tacky it's practically awful!
It's a very common name, with no unique features whatsoever.
She is the emperor's eldest princess, doesn't she deserve a nicer, more special name?
Du Xiurong is getting worse day by day. She can clearly feel her body aging and hasn't looked in a mirror for a long time. She even hates Shen Shixi, who invented such a bright and clear mirror, and ordered all the mirrors in the palace to be replaced with bronze mirrors.
"Why does Your Majesty favor one over the other?" Du Xiurong was panting as she spoke. She couldn't sleep at night and was constantly drowsy during the day, looking no different from an old man in his twilight years.