"Attend me," the Emperor said. The chief eunuch had been waiting beneath the corridor eaves and had heard everything clearly. He immediately answered, "This servant is here."
"Bring the imperial decree I drafted earlier."
"Yes, Your Majesty."
The chief eunuch bent at the waist and hurried to the Imperial Study. Within the hall, this most exalted couple beneath heaven once again fell into silence.
Fortunately, the eunuch returned quickly, carefully presenting the imperial decree.
"I have already finished writing this decree. Only the title needs to be filled in." Like a child displaying a treasure, the Emperor unfolded the decree for the Empress to see.
At a glance, the Empress saw that the decree was made of silk, a single pure azure in color, with two dragons at either end and the four seal-script characters "By Heaven's Mandate, Imperial Proclamation" embroidered upon it.
It was indeed used exclusively for the granting of titles. Written from right to left in regular script, the full text of the decree had largely been completed. At the signature was already stamped a vermilion square seal bearing the seal-script words "Seal of Imperial Proclamations."
The Emperor spread the decree flat again. The eunuch had long since prepared the ink. Dipping his brush into it, the Emperor directly wrote the two words "Marquis of Dai" in the blank space.
Only those truly close to and familiar with imperial power knew the weight of a single decree. Under all heaven, there was no land that was not the sovereign's land; to the ends of the earth, there was no one who was not the sovereign's subject. In this stroke was condensed the authority of the entire realm. Once it was issued, even a commoner could become a lord on the spot.
Unlike what Xu and many others