LogFAQs > #979864567

DoesntMatter posted...

i'm always down to read about wild ass shit that nobles throughout history got up to. give me a teaser.

The entire Forbidden City essentially ran on the labor of Eunuchs, for one.

One of my favorites is about Zhengde. Zenghde became emperor when he was 13 years old, and he wasnt quite done with the days of childhood. He still liked to make believe, and because he was the emperor, everyone else had to go along with it.
He would force his ministers to dress up as merchants so that he could pretend he was a commoner visiting their shops. This, under Emperor Zhengde, was an imperial duty. Anyone who would not play make-believe with him was removed from their post.
He built a 200-room building called the Leopard Quarter next to the imperial zoo. He and his friends would spend their time there drinking and hunting the animals in the zoo, pretending they were in the jungles chasing wild game.
Zhengde also told his people that he had an identical double named General Zhu Shou. He would give orders for them to pass on to Zhu Shou. Then he would change his clothes and come back out, now forcing everyone to call him Zhu Shou. His men would have to tell him his own orders, and he would pretend to be surprised.
For an imaginary person, Zhu Shou was actually a pretty capable general. Zhengde stayed in power until he turned 29. In the end, though, the liquor got him. Drunk out his mind, he fell out of a boat. The cold water left him with an illness that ended his life.