Background
Through the few references available, it can be presumed that Bao Si was born in 792 BC and left by her teenage mother. Two fugitives saved the infant and took her with them to Bao, where she grew into a very beautiful young woman.
Through the few references available, it can be presumed that Bao Si was born in 792 BC and left by her teenage mother. Two fugitives saved the infant and took her with them to Bao, where she grew into a very beautiful young woman.
Bao Si was given to King You by a prince of Bao who had committed some crime and wanted to avoid punishment. In 779 BC, Bao Si entered the palace and came into King You’s favor. She bore him a son named Bo Fu. Legend has it that Bao Si was responsible for King You setting aside his Queen Shen, a daughter of the Marquis of Shen, and replacing the legitimate heir apparent with Bao Si’s son, Bo Fu.
King You was warned against Bao Si but he nevertheless took her as his wife. When the Marquis of Shen joined forces with western barbarian tribes he attacked The house of Zhou. Marquis of Shen wanted to take out on King You for his daughter Queen Shen. The house of Zhou was defeated because the protecting lords did not believe King You’s signals were genuine and were no longer prepared to respond. King You was killed in the attack, Bao Si was captured, and the nobles were reconciled with Zhou. After her capture, Bao Si accepted a bribe from Zhou and left the capital. Later, during another attack by Quanrong nomads, Bao Si was unable to escape and hanged herself.
As the legend implies Bao Si’s evil nature was attributed to her natal house of Bao (in the southeast of present-day Shaanxi Province), which originated at the end of the Xia dynasty (c. 2100-1600 B.C.E.) when the spit of two dragons, named The Two Lords of Bao, was sealed in a vessel. It was not until the reign of King Li of Zhou (r. 878-841) that someone dared open the vessel, causing spit to flow out and fill the room. King Li had women undress and shout at it, believing this would stop its flow, but to no avail, for it changed into a dark tortoise (one source says a black snake), which entered the women’s quarters and impregnated a virgin concubine of about seven years of age. She became pregnant when she was about fifteen. She bore the child during the time of King Xuan (Xuan Wang, r. 827-781), but fearing it, she cast it out onto the road to die. This infant was Bao Si.
Bao Si was considered one of the most beautiful Chinese women ever as well as of a melancholy disposition. According to legend, a smile of Bao Si would move all the world, but Bao Si refused to smile. In an effort to make her laugh, he repeatedly lit beacon fires to summon the lords to come to protect Zhou from supposed invaders. Even after King You had impressed Bao Si, he continued to abuse his use of warning beacons and so lost the trust of the nobles.»
Bao Si was the favored wife of King You of Zhou and bore him a son named Bofu.