How the Palace in Chigu Was Built
A person gets used to everything! The princess got accustomed to her situation,
In Chigu, there was a famous market (primitive from the perspective of a resident of Chang'an). Here, local craftsmen sold grain grinders, crudely made clay dishes, pestles, hammers, anvils, whetstones, sickle-shaped knives, and even hoes—some of the herders tried to cultivate the land. Trade was mainly barter. People came from all around to the market.
Naturally, the caravans traveling from China to the West and back also made a stop in Chigu. Many caravans passed through during the summer season. The caravans were so numerous that, as the historian Sima Qian wrote, "one did not lose sight of the other." Han merchants established trade with the Western region—"Xiyu." Local herders bought silk, ready-made dresses, elegant trinkets and jewelry for their women, as well as handicrafts (knives, bowls, boxes, etc.)—they were of much higher quality than the crude products of local craftsmen.
In exchange, Chinese merchants took away wool, furs, hides, skins, musk—in short, products of animal husbandry and hunting, and drove off herds of horses.
To this day, archaeologists find Chinese artifacts from that time on the shores of Issyk-Kul, in the Chui Valley, and in southern Kyrgyzstan. And in China, many items from the Western region have also been discovered.
The Usun rulers and clan elders profited greatly from trade. Caravans paid duties and left gifts. Therefore, the roads were zealously guarded, and attempts at robbery were decisively suppressed.
When caravans stopped in Chigu, the princess often had the chance to see her dear compatriots. This was all the more pleasant since the merchants always brought her gifts from Chang'an—the imperial court did not forget either the ruler or his younger wife.
A year passed. Another. The third. The fourth. The fifth. During this time, a Han embassy visited Chiguchan. The proud wife of the kunbag never complained to her compatriots, but despite her haughty appearance, the experienced eyes of diplomats could tell: she was unhappy.
That was how it was at first. However, the princess's emotional state mattered little in the grand political game.
The third embassy was pleasantly surprised: the Lotus Flower had bloomed again. Her thin cheeks had rounded, her eyes no longer resembled those of a wounded doe. Her face was tanned because she often spent time riding, galloping no worse than a natural horsewoman, and now she resembled little the refined noble lady from Chang'an.
Her old husband gave her a new name—Capricious Camel Calf—and apparently, this name no longer bothered her at all.
She no longer lived in a tent...
But let’s go in order.
One night, her husband said:
— Do you want me to build you a palace like that of the Dazhan lords?
— Can you do that?
— Just say the word! — the gunmo pretended to be offended.
The princess clapped her hands in joy. Her husband suggested she "take a walk" around the Warm Lake for a month—until the palace was ready.
In joyful anticipation, she set off on a summer journey. Her imagination already painted for her—based on memories—one of the palaces of Chang'an, or at the very least, Luoyang. Life seemed beautiful to her.
In general, for some time now, the princess had been free of melancholy. She had fallen in love with the Warm Sea. What sunsets there were! The sea bay stretched toward the city of Chigu between a mountain range on one side and low hills on the other. The sun, before sinking into the waves somewhere in the west, painted the waters with magnificent crimson. Thousands of ducks, swans, and other birds unknown to her landed and took off from the water's surface, slightly rippled by poetic waves.
The mountains, bathed in pink, seemed to acquire weightlessness in the sunset haze...
And on a summer day, the incredible gentle blue of the wonder-lake shone! Like precious lapis lazuli in a crown of malachite mountains. And, in general, the princess gradually warmed up. She was enchanted by the high mountain valleys with emerald grass, gloomy mysterious gorges where slender tall firs ran down from the hilly slopes, and the noisy mountain rivers with crystal icy water... These rivers were home to many tasty fish. The herders did not eat slippery cold-blooded creatures, but the princess diversified her table with great pleasure. In the lake, in the reed-covered bays, in the evenings, one could hear splashing and sloshing... Through the transparent water, thick bodies three chi (chi = 32 cm) long could be seen lazily moving their tails and fins.
And such wealth was hardly used by anyone. The majestic expanses of the Warm Sea were very rarely traversed by boats. Fishing was only done by the enslaved people—the very poorest.
For an entire lunar month, the Capricious Camel Calf, accompanied by her entourage, enjoyed the trip while eagerly awaiting the return.
Meanwhile, in the capital, feverish work was underway. The very Liu Shu, the chief of the princess's guard, took on the role of architect. To the builder slaves, the kunbag said:
— If you please my younger wife, I will arrange a feast for you where you will enjoy meat and kumys as free men.
While the princess bathed in the sacred waters of the Warm Sea, the palace grew not by days, but by hours. The slave-ants bustled about, Liu Shu shouted sternly in both Usun and a language they did not understand, and the work progressed.
By the end of the summer bathing season, the palace was ready.
The princess was invited.
She arrived. Looked. Laughed uproariously. Then cried hysterically. Liu Shu hid just in case.
The slave-builders stood in a crowd to the side.
The kunbag himself arrived. And was delighted.
— Oh, oh! — he shook his head. — Perhaps not worse than in Dawan, huh? Why are you crying?
The palace represented a vast Chinese rural estate, surrounded by a high wall. There are many like it in Henan. And what else could "an architect like Liu Shu" build? Such an estate was the limit of his dreams: at the luxurious wooden gates, there was a tower-like booth for the gatekeeper. Further on was a spacious, quadrangular enclosed courtyard with a compacted clay surface. On the sides were utility buildings: a barn, a kitchen, a tall tower (presumably in case of siege), and toilet rooms. At the end of the courtyard was a large residential house—a "wonder of art." Its gabled tiled (not some kind of reed!) roof cast the same reddish shadows under the August sun as the beard of the gunmo himself.
When the lord dismounted and entered inside, he opened his mouth wide in astonishment.
The central room—the hall—could accommodate a good hundred feasting guests. Two mighty wooden columns made of Tian Shan spruce supported the high vaults. They rested on stone pentagonal bases of irregular shape.
The floor, smeared with clay and manure, gleamed glossy. Doorways to a dozen rooms opened into the hall. In the room designated to serve as the princess's bedroom, there were even tablets with ancient songs from the "Shijing," a silk stand for writing with a hair brush, the brush itself, and a jasper vessel with ink made from pine soot. Want to write poetry...
— Perhaps I will also move here, — said the kunbag, stroking his beard. — Set aside a corner for me, okay?
The kunbag kept his promise: the jubilant slaves, shaking their tools in unison, sat right in the courtyard, where they were served a hearty meal—a feast. And ahead—freedom. Liu Shu was especially rewarded—with a "heavenly horse"—an argamak, which is priceless. The princess, seeing the bedroom, was touched. And rewarded the architect with a gift—a white-toothed smile.
For the old Liu Shu, the smile of the ruling beauty was certainly not an argamak, but it was still something...
...The estate was located right on the shore of the lake. Since then, the princess chose her tower as a place for solitude.
From here, the entire bay and the stretch of shore where women washed clothes could be seen... For some time now, the princess had begun to feel jealous of the lord towards his senior wife.
— Why don’t you send her away? — the princess shouted. — Let her go back to her Hunnic steppes.
— But she demands that you go back to Chang'an.
— Choose: me or her,
— Why choose? — The kunbag cut a piece of horse meat and began to chew it with his strong white teeth. — She is on her own, you are on your own... Each of you has your own dwellings. And you have no right to be indignant: I spend my days with you, my nights—here too... Whatever you wish—everything is done for you... And she is the senior wife...
The princess immediately resorted to the oldest female weapon—tears.
— Why cry? — The kunbag wiped his greasy fingers on the hem of his robe and only then began to stroke his wife’s head. — You are a smart girl, you should understand: you are not just wives, you are the guarantee of peace between our peoples. As long as you are both here, swords rest in their sheaths, and people can peacefully graze their cattle...
The Trade War of the Han and Dawan