Zongzheng Heng

Biodata

Background / History

Childhood in the Palace

Zongzheng Heng was born to a low-ranking consort without influential maternal relatives. As an unfavored prince, he endured neglect and bullying from consorts, eunuchs, and palace servants. These experiences drove his determination to obtain enough power that no one could trample him again 8 17.

At eight, he befriended five-year-old Su Yunyan, who entered the palace as a study companion in place of her ill legitimate sister. Both were marginalized by their birth status, and their companionship became one of his few warm childhood memories. The arrangement ended a year later, separating them 8.

Military Career and Accession

At fifteen, he volunteered to campaign against the southern wokou, regarding military service as a chance to escape his vulnerable position in the capital. Over five years, he became a commander described as leading a million soldiers. His victories intimidated the wokou and compelled neighboring coastal nations to submit 8.

Recalled at twenty and granted the title Prince Xuan, he retained command of the southern troops. He was sent to Brahma Sound Temple to temper the murderous disposition associated with his battlefield experience. There, he overheard Su Yunyan praying that she would rather remain unmarried than wed anyone but him 8.

He left her a note asking her to wait and secretly contacted the Imperial Astronomical Bureau. Its subsequent warning against celebrations secured a two-year suspension of marriages in the capital, delaying her arranged match 8.

Zongzheng Heng eventually won the struggle for the throne through violence, including killing his own siblings and eliminating opponents. As emperor, he faced entrenched factions seeking to restrict his authority. He postponed selecting consorts, partly because he believed he could not yet protect Su Yunyan within the palace 8 19.

Appearance

• Face: Handsome, with sword-like brows, dark eyes, a high, straight nose, and thin lips. His expression commonly conveys cool reserve 32 44.
• Build: Muscular chest, sharply defined abdominal muscles, and large, slightly callused hands with pronounced knuckles 2 7.
• Bearing: Upright posture and an unhurried gait distinguish him from an ordinary male favorite even while disguised 16.
• Injuries: His back bears crisscrossing whip wounds inflicted during his captivity in Jinglan Garden 13.
• Tattoo: Qiao Shuyi forcibly tattoos her personal name beneath his collarbone, deliberately driving the needle deep to prevent easy removal 30 31.
• Clothing: Prefers dark colors because they conceal blood; dislikes white and other pale clothing because of his battlefield experiences. After leaving Jinglan Garden, he wears black robes embroidered with dark-gold dragons and a black jade crown 15 37.

Personality

Zongzheng Heng is calculating, patient, and intensely self-restrained. Childhood insecurity taught him to endure humiliation while waiting for opportunities to act. His apparent obedience in Jinglan Garden is initially a survival strategy rather than acceptance of Qiao Shuyi’s authority 6 8 22.

He is ruthless toward enemies and highly sensitive to challenges to his dignity. After Lu Wenzhou humiliates him at the spring banquet, he memorizes the spectators’ faces and later orders Lu’s death and the removal of four other men’s eyes. He recognizes the cruelty attributed to him by his ministers rather than denying it 17 19 21.

Imperial authority takes precedence over personal attachment. Although he becomes reluctant to lose Qiao Shuyi, he concludes that she must die because her knowledge of his tattoo could endanger his throne. The mark is not merely embarrassing to him: its resemblance to penal tattooing could provide political justification for deposing him 30 33.

His attachment to Qiao Shuyi exposes possessiveness and emotional needs he normally suppresses. He reacts angrily to the suggestion of her intimacy with another man, begins seeking her protection despite her abuse, and repeatedly fails to kill her. Even after believing her dead, he cannot stop recalling their time together 18 22 36 44.

Abilities & Skills

Martial Arts and Inner Force

• Possesses martial training that he initially expects will let him enter and leave Jinglan Garden unnoticed 2.
• Can normally direct inner force to his ears to hear whispers from ten zhang away 17.
• Retains considerable physical strength without inner force, gripping Lu Wenzhou’s wrist firmly enough to prevent him from escaping 17.
• Once his martial arts are restored, moves across rooftops in a series of leaps 37.
• Limitation: Power-Dissolving Powder seals most of his strength. Attempts to force his inner power through the restriction cause severe pain and bring blood into his throat 2 4 28.

Military Command

• Conducted five years of successful southern campaigns against the wokou 8.
• Coordinates the encirclement of Qiao Nanyu’s hidden military camp and the seizure of granaries and weapons facilities 33.
• Redeploys eight thousand surrendered troops alongside five thousand Jinzhou soldiers to defend Yanmen Pass, placing Zhao Huchen in command 41.

Espionage and Disguise

• Establishes a false scholarly background in Jinzhou before entering the Prince of Jin’an’s Manor 10.
• Uses his apparent position as Qiao Shuyi’s male favorite to move through the manor without attracting ordinary suspicion 21 33.
• Searches account books, obtains information about a secret compartment, and collects letters and maps proving Qiao Nanyu’s military preparations 21 33.
• Conceals hostile intentions behind obedience, flattery, and affectionate behavior 15 21.

Courtcraft and Scholarship

• Uses the Imperial Astronomical Bureau to delay Su Yunyan’s marriage without openly intervening 8.
• Studies the families and provincial connections of banquet guests as potential targets in his struggle against Qiao Nanyu’s allies 17.
• Reviews state memorials while managing the aftermath of the rebellion 38.
• Has studied classical teachings and statecraft, and composes poetry during his time with Qiao Shuyi 22 31.

Story Role / Major Arcs

Undercover Investigation in Jinzhou

• Enters Jinzhou to investigate Qiao Nanyu, the Prince of Jin’an, expecting that eliminating him will bring most of Great Zhang’s military power under imperial control 1 8.
• While using the identity Zhigui, is seized by Qiao Shuyi and brought into Jinglan Garden. She immediately doses him with Power-Dissolving Powder, undermining his intended freedom of movement 2 10.
• Endures confinement in a woodshed, forced service, whipping, and a water dungeon while continuing to seek the manor’s financial records 3 5 13.
• Initially regards Qiao Shuyi as an unpredictable obstacle, unaware that she recognizes him as the emperor and is deliberately alternating punishment with affection to make him emotionally dependent on her 1 6.

Attachment to Qiao Shuyi

• Becomes increasingly involved in their intimacy while insisting to himself that he will kill her after exposing her father’s rebellion 9 14.
• At the spring banquet, Lu Wenzhou’s attendant forces him to kneel, and Lu repeatedly kicks him. Qiao Shuyi delays intervening as part of a plan to make him feel indebted to her; her eventual arrival nevertheless brings him relief 17 18.
• Rejects Qiao Shuqin when she drugs him and attempts to force herself on him. He fears the consequences for his relationship with Qiao Shuyi and urgently denies that anything happened when she arrives 27 28.
• Is forcibly tattooed with Qiao Shuyi’s name. He threatens to kill her and later seizes her throat, but releases her and resumes their intimacy 30 31.
• Receives the antidote to the Power-Dissolving Powder while continuing to act as her captive. By the time he leaves the manor, his martial arts have been restored 33 37.

Destruction of the Prince of Jin’an’s Manor

• Obtains account books, secret correspondence, and maps documenting Qiao Nanyu’s troops, provisions, and weapons workshops. He sends the evidence to Gu Huai’an and orders coordinated military action 33.
• Gu Huai’an interrupts Qiao Nanyu’s birthday banquet with an imperial edict stripping him of his title, confiscating his property, and sentencing all 137 members of the Qiao household to execution 35.
• Despite repeatedly deciding Qiao Shuyi must die, cannot carry out her request that he personally kill her. Her apparent concern that the family’s downfall should not implicate him unsettles his understanding of her 36.
• Leaves her sleeping the following morning and resumes his public role as emperor at the Jinzhou prefectural office 37.

Escape and Apparent Death

• As the execution approaches, admits to himself that he does not want Qiao Shuyi dead and rides to the manor to stop it. There, he learns she has escaped and is pregnant with his child 38.
• Orders her captured alive, but witnesses a Black Armor Guard’s arrow strike her shoulder before she falls from a cliff 38 39.
• Searches the area and receives her waterlogged clothes and apparent human remains. Refusing to stop immediately, he orders the jackals killed and the search extended another hundred li along the riverbank 40.
• Qiao Shuyi has actually survived using protective armor and a concealed cave. She plans to travel to Jiangnan and meet him again in two years; he remains unaware of the deception 40.
• Ends the search after news of a northern invasion, organizes reinforcements for Yanmen Pass, and prepares to return to the capital 41.

Return to Court and Southern Tour

• Encounters Su Yunyan before the palace consort selection, hoping that choosing her will help him forget Qiao Shuyi. Instead, their meeting brings Qiao Shuyi’s behavior vividly to mind 44.
• Later protects Su Yunyan, now Consort Shu, within the rear palace and agrees to visit Wu Commandery during his southern tour 47.
• Travels with consorts and senior officials while adopting an incognito appearance 49 50.
• At Su Jingyun’s residence, agrees to be examined by Lady Liu, a physician recommended as a possible treatment for his migraines 50.

Role in the Original Novel

• In the book remembered by Qiao Shuyi, he spends two years after the Qiao family’s destruction purging the court of collaborators, rival princes’ supporters, and officials who resist his authority 6.
• Su Yunyan eventually becomes empress and receives his exclusive favor. However, the transmigrated Su Yunyan interprets their celebrated romance as partly a facade, since his chief interests remain government and political stability 44.
• An extra chapter set five years later depicts him falling for a vibrant, uninhibited courtesan during a journey to Jiangnan. This is an event from the original book, not an established development in the current storyline 44.

Relationships

• Qiao Shuyi — Captor, lover, and mother of his unborn child. Her calculated abuse and tenderness produce simultaneous hatred, desire, and attachment; he ultimately tries to prevent her execution and is devastated by her apparent death 6 33 38 40.
• Su Yunyan — Childhood companion and later Consort Shu. He remembers her as a source of warmth during his neglected youth and delays her marriage while pursuing the throne. Unknown to him, the transmigrated Su Yunyan deliberately staged the temple prayer that renewed his attachment 8 44 47.
• Qiao Nanyu — Rebellious prince and principal investigative target. Zongzheng Heng infiltrates his household, secures evidence, and coordinates the destruction of his military network 1 33 35.
• Gu Huai’an — Trusted official who receives his evidence, delivers the edict against the Qiao household, and brings him reports and state memorials 33 35 38.
• Qiao Shuqin — Attempts to sexually assault him while he is drugged, hoping to hurt Qiao Shuyi. He rejects her and responds with intense hostility 27 28.
• Lu Wenzhou — Humiliates and beats him at the spring banquet. Zongzheng Heng subsequently orders his death 17 18 21.
• Late emperor — Father. Zongzheng Heng comes to believe that his father valued sons as instruments of power rather than as children to protect 18.
• Empress dowager — Pressures him to select consorts and later organizes the selection awaiting his return from Jinzhou 8 38 41.

Notable Quotes

“It's not light. It's already very heavy.”
— On the affection and attention he has shown Qiao Shuyi 22

“Qiao Shuyi, you treat worldly conventions as nothing. That's your affair. But you want to use something you don't care about in exchange for what someone else does care about. What a clever calculation.”
— Rejecting her claim that a reciprocal tattoo would settle his humiliation 32

“I won't let Shushu fall.”
— Before carrying Qiao Shuyi on his shoulders to pick fringe blossoms 26