Cui Shi

Biodata

Background / History

Marriage into the Wei Family

Cui Shi married Wei Mingde for the Wei family’s lingering prestige as a “ministerial lineage” and its substantial wealth. As his second wife, she became stepmother to Lu Shi’s twin sons, Wei Shouzheng and Wei Nisheng, and later bore Wei Shoucheng. She managed Lu Shi’s dowry estate and wore jewelry left by her predecessor 2 3.

Ancestral Hall Confrontation

During Wei Nisheng’s punishment on a snowy night, Cui Shi appeared to plead for him. Her suggestion that his suffering would pain his deceased grandfather and mother instead provoked Wei Mingde into kicking him. Beneath her gentle manner, she hoped Nisheng would die 2.

Nisheng retaliated by exposing the neglected offerings before Lu Shi’s spirit tablet. Cui Shi had personally inspected the offerings and tacitly approved leaving Lu Shi only dried-out pastries. Unable to excuse the disparity, she was ordered to restore the offerings, write and burn a confession, and kneel before the tablet for three hours after noon each day for a month 3.

Attempt to Corrupt Wei Nisheng

Half a month later, Cui Shi apologized and offered Nisheng a place in the Main Courtyard, where he could study alongside Shoucheng under renowned tutors. She also proposed having her younger half-brother, Cui Fu, introduce him to the Capital. Nisheng recognized the apparent kindness as an attempt to turn him into a wastrel 5 6.

Cui Shi paid Cui Fu three taels to take Nisheng gambling, warning him not to cause a scandal that would damage the Wei family’s reputation. Nisheng reversed the scheme by threatening Cui Fu with Wei Mingde’s wrath, confiscating his money, and ordering him to report that everything had gone as planned 7 8.

Fear After Wang Rong’s Death

Cui Shi witnessed Nisheng kill Wang Rong and threaten suicide at the ancestral hall. She joined Wei Mingde and Wei Shouzheng in pleading with him to stop, trembling beside her husband while Nisheng held the sword 12 13.

Afterward, she urged Wei Mingde not to keep Nisheng in the household, warning that someone who had killed a servant might next turn against them. Wei Mingde ordered her and Shouzheng to avoid provoking him until after the apprenticeship banquet. Badly frightened and barely able to sleep, she questioned Cui Fu about Nisheng’s outing, but he maintained his false account of a successful gambling-house visit 14 15.

Apprenticeship Banquet and Feng Family Connections

At Wei Shouzheng’s apprenticeship banquet, Cui Shi received congratulations from the assembled women. She sent Nisheng formal clothes and summoned him after the ceremony was underway, yet told Qin Yan that he was ill and needed rest. Nisheng’s arrival and subsequent performance brought him Qin Yan’s favor instead 17 18 20.

Cui Shi later sought a transfer for her legitimate elder brother, an official in Taiyuan Prefecture. Having boasted to her parents about the Wei family’s ties to the Feng family, she had promised to help. When Wei Mingde angrily rejected the request, she placated him and secured his agreement to mention it if Lord Feng responded 22.

When Lord Feng’s invitation named Shouzheng and Nisheng but omitted Shoucheng, Cui Shi cried that he recognized only Lu Shi’s sons. Wei Mingde promised to bring Shoucheng anyway and raise her brother’s transfer. Her elder brother subsequently obtained a transfer to Nanchang Prefecture through those connections 25 28 43.

Adoption and Estate Schemes

When Wei Mingde suggested adopting Shoucheng into the eldest branch, Cui Shi fiercely refused. She proposed Nisheng instead, arguing that his adoption need not prevent them from controlling the inherited property. She also persuaded Wei Mingde to separate Nisheng’s lineage from the Julu Wei clan, removing him entirely from their branch 30.

During negotiations with the clan elders, she praised their estate management but tried to retain the eldest branch’s accumulated profits for the household. Wei He rejected her intervention, reminding her that marriage into Wei Mingde’s branch gave her no authority over the eldest branch. At the adoption ceremony, she nevertheless performed a tearful farewell, claiming she had always treated Nisheng as her own 31 32 33.

After Nisheng challenged the clan’s control of his inheritance, Cui Shi devised another plan: once the deeds entered clan custody, they could secretly be transferred to Shoucheng and presented as his grandfather’s bequest. Wei Mingde agreed. Nisheng defeated the scheme by having the deeds registered at three offices, preventing an unauthorized change of ownership. Cui Shi turned pale when she learned that Shoucheng could no longer receive the property 38 39 40.

Appearance

• Face and bearing: A gentle face and a modest, proper presentation at her introduction; her welcoming expressions often conceal hostility 2 6.
• Ancestral hall attire: A moon-white, open-front jacket with trailing floral embroidery, a pale yellow chest wrap, and an eight-panel skirt embroidered with pale cloud patterns. Her concentric bun is secured with a simple silver hairpin 2.
• Main Courtyard attire: A lotus-root-colored silk blouse beneath a pale jade-green jacket embroidered with crabapple blossoms, accompanied by a deep purple sash and mutton-fat jade pendant 5.
• Ornaments: A high bun decorated with a pearl crown and gold-filigree dragonfly hairpin; at the apprenticeship banquet, she wears splendid clothing with pearls and jade 5 17.

Personality

Cui Shi cultivates the image of an affectionate mother and accommodating wife. She serves tea, offers pastries, apologizes, and speaks gently while pursuing schemes against Nisheng. Her farewell tears during his adoption are explicitly presented as practiced acting rather than genuine grief 5 6 33.

She is highly attentive to Wei Mingde’s moods and vanity. When direct requests anger him, she changes her approach, agrees with his complaints, and reassures him of her loyalty before returning to her objective. She also flatters his appearance and supposed youthful brilliance 21 22.

Her strongest attachment is to Shoucheng. The possibility of his adoption strips away her usual restraint, prompting furious protests that he is her life. Her concern for him also drives her efforts to redirect Nisheng’s inheritance into his name 30 39.

Cui Shi favors her legitimate relatives while treating Cui Fu as an expendable subordinate. She refuses him ordinary hospitality, employs him for risky errands, and helps her full brother obtain a transfer without offering comparable support to Cui Fu 7 41 43.

Abilities & Skills

Persuasion and Emotional Performance

• Uses affection, flattery, tears, and apparent submission to influence Wei Mingde 21 22 25.
• Recognizes that his anger toward Nisheng makes him easier to sway 39.
• Can provoke hostility while outwardly appearing to defend its target, as demonstrated in the ancestral hall 2.
• Her performances do not deceive Nisheng, who recognizes both her false kindness and her staged farewell 5 6 33.

Household Management and Financial Scheming

• Oversees ancestral offerings and manages Lu Shi’s dowry estate 3.
• Recruits and pays Cui Fu to carry out errands on her behalf 7.
• Proposes exploiting Nisheng’s minority and clan custody of his deeds to seize his inheritance 30 39.
• Her authority is constrained by lineage rules, and her final deed-transfer scheme fails against Nisheng’s official registrations 32 40.

Relationships

• Wei Mingde — Husband and partner in schemes against Nisheng. She regularly placates and flatters him, but openly defies him when Shoucheng’s place in the family is threatened 22 30 39.
• Wei Shoucheng — Biological son, aged two at her introduction. She is affectionate and fiercely protective of him, seeking both recognition and property for his benefit 2 25 30 39.
• Wei Nisheng — Stepson and principal adversary. Her attempts to provoke, corrupt, dispossess, and remove him are repeatedly overturned by his use of reputation, ritual law, and official procedures 3 8 30 40.
• Wei Shouzheng — Stepson whom she has treated courteously. He does not defend her during the offerings dispute, but later supports her demand to deal with Nisheng 3 14.
• Lu Shi — Wei Mingde’s deceased first wife and mother of the twins. Cui Shi benefits from her estate and jewelry while neglecting her ancestral offerings 3.
• Cui Fu — Younger half-brother born to a concubine. Initially her paid errand runner, he conceals his failure to corrupt Nisheng and eventually pledges himself to Nisheng instead 7 8 15 41 43.
• Unnamed elder brother — Her legitimate full brother, whose transfer from Taiyuan to Nanchang she helps secure through the Wei and Feng families’ connections 22 43.
• Wei He — Wei clan patriarch. She attempts to influence his estate negotiations, but he rebukes her for interfering in a branch to which she does not belong 31 32.

Notable Quotes

“Shoucheng! Are you happy? Your second brother will soon be a good-for-nothing~” 6

“Cheng’er is my life! If you want to have him adopted away, you might as well kill me first!” 30

“Lord Feng only said ‘adoption.’ He never said we couldn’t ‘take back the property,’ did he?” 30