Jealousy and Resentment in the Harem

333.3 X 218.2cm oil on canvas 1993-1994

Consort Qi was a favored concubine of Liu Bang, the founding Emperor of the Han Dynasty, and Empress Lü was long ridden with jealousy towards her. After the death of the Emperor (195 BCE), Empress Lü attempted to murder Consort Qi and her young son, Ruyi. Empress Lü’s had Consort Qi punished in an extremely creul way:

She had Qi's limbs chopped off, forced her to drink a potion that made her mute, eyes gouged out, ears burned deaf, and thrown into a latrine, and called Qi a "human swine".

According to Records of the Grand Historian by Sima Qian