Author: Linkai
Last update: 2022, December 10th
"King Zhou of Shang gave himself over to drinking, women and abandoned morals, preferring these to the proper governance of the country, and ignored almost all affairs of state. Da Ji as the incarnation of a nine-tailed silvery fox that assumed a human form after a thousand years of self-cultivation, she was summoned by Nü Wa, the celestial sovereign, to corrupt King Zhou, so that his people would rise and overthrow him", written in "The Investiture of the Gods"/封神演義 (Fengshen Yanyi).
That, is a tale and may be an explanation why Da Ji is portrayed with a fox tail in "Fate of The Empress", not because another name of hers is Naruto. Of course in real life, Da Ji is just a normal human. Da Ji was the beautiful daughter of a noble family named Su in the state of You Su. Daji was blamd for the fall of the Shang dynasty by corrupting King Zhou. Da Ji, along with Mo Xi of Xia (not Mozi), Bao Shi of Zhou, and Li Ji of Jin, are "Four Great Bewitched Ladies"/四大妖姬 (Sì dà yāo jī), great examples of the phrase "紅顏禍始" (Hóng yán huò shǐ), which means "Beautiful women are the root of disasters and dynasty's collapse".
In 1047 B.C., King Zhou, the tyrant of Shang, conquered the state of Su and took Da Ji as his trophy. He had been known as strong, heroic, oratory, and well-versed in music. He certainly had his Achilles’ heel, namely, his infatuated love for women. Ever since Zhou had Da Ji as his concubine, things began to change, for the worse.
Zhou liked Da Ji so much that he tried every means to ingratiate himself with her. Da Ji liked animals, so he built her a zoological Xanadu with a large collection of rare birds and animals. She liked dancing and singing, so he ordered artists to compose lewd music and choreograph bawdy dances. He would gather three thousand guests at one party to enjoy his “pond of wine” and “forest of meat,” which was cooked meat strips hanging from wood of trees. King Zhou would allow the guests to play a cat and mouse game in the nude among the trees so that Da Ji could be amused. When a maid of honor, daughter of Lord Jiu, could not bear the sight of such debauchery and protested, King Zhou had her slain, her father grounded, and his flesh fed to the tyrant's vassals.
(Da Ji and King Zhou, casted by Fan Bing Bing in the movie "League of Gods" 2016)
Eventually, Da Ji became a brute herself. It was said that her greatest joy was to hear people cry in physical suffering, and would reportedly laugh at every execution (Yea I also don't know why she's a Doctor in Fate of The Empress). One day, she noticed a farmer walking across ice barefoot, and so she ordered his feet cut off to understand why he was resistant to low temperatures. In another story, Daji had a pregnant woman's belly cut open so that she could find out herself what happened inside.
While King Zhou was occupied with making himself and Da Ji happy, a Zhou tribe began to grow increasingly stronger. Its hatred towards the tyrant was deep-rooted. The last straw is when King Zhou had Boyi Kao, eldest son of Ji Chang, leader of the Zhou tribe, killed and his body grounded when he doubted Kao had a love affair with Da Ji. Zhou even made Ji Chang drink the soup of his son's flesh before jailing him. Twelve years after Ji Chang’s death, his youngest son Ji Fa launched an attack against Shang to revenge on his family. The anger and hatred created by the brutality of tyrant Zhou and Da Ji among their own people made it easier for Ji Fa to achieve his goal, the invincible army of Shang even gave in and many soldiers even turned their weapons against their tyrannical ruler. Seeing his dynasty doomed, tyrant Zhou committed suicide by setting fire upon himself. Da Ji was later put to death by Ji Fa, king of the new Dynasty of Zhou.
(Da Ji casted by Gillian Chung in the movie "The Queen" 2021)
Apparently, Chinese monarchs were known for their debauchery, which caused the fall of many a dynasty. But in the female-biased society, the blames were often placed upon the women involved with them. Da Ji has always been depicted as the worst woman that China has ever had in its long history. While Diaochan also used her beauty to end the brutal reign of Dong Zhuo and was praised, Da Ji was criticized for that.
According to "The Investiture of the Gods", however, after the fall of the Shang Dynasty, Nu Wa sentenced Da Ji, the incarnation of a fox, to death instead of making her immortal as she had promised because she found her overzealous in doing what she had been asked to do. Buu Nu Wa.
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