Radiant Emperor Week

Route 1: Using Zhu’s Age for Reference

We know Zhu’s birth year pretty exactly. She’s 10 years old in 1345 and 19 in 1354, making her birth year reliably 1335.

Zhu is 12 years old when Chaghan (then Prince of Henan), Esen, Ouyang, and Baoxaing visit the monastery in 1347. The narrator describes the three boys as “radiant youths” and “young,” though their specific ages aren’t given.

When Ouyang returns to the monastery as a General of the Yuan in 1354, Zhu is 19. She recalls him from their prior encounter in 1347 as “younger than she was now.” Meaning, Ouyang was younger than 19 in 1347. It’s not clear how much younger.

If we assume he was between 16-18 in 1347, that puts his birth year in 1329-1331.

Ergo, during the main canon years of TRE, he is 23-25 at the beginning (1354) and 25-27 at the end (1356).

Kinda gives new perspective to that scene in 1354 when he makes fun of the Red Turbans’ general for being 22, doesn’t it? ;)

Route 2: Using Esen’s Spring Hunt History for Reference

Here’s where things get more concrete—but also more contradictory.

Early in SWBTS, Ouyang has a bit of a rambling internal monologue about his past history with Esen vis-a-vis the Great Khan’s yearly Spring Hunt.

Here’s the narration we get:

“Ouyang had attended once when he was twenty, when he had been the commander of Esen’s personal guards. But the next year the Prince of Henan had retired from campaigning, and since then Esen and Ouyang had always been in the south during the Spring Hunt. This would be the first time in seven years that Esen would be available to accompany the Prince of Henan to Hichetu. And it was all because of Ouyang’s defeat.”

Omg this is so much easier! Seven years ago Ouyang was 20, so now (as of the 1355 Spring Hunt at least) he is 27, making his birth year 1327. Easy peasy.

But here’s the thing. If Ouyang was born in 1327, Zhu’s statement about him being “younger than she was now” (aka younger than 19) in 1347 would be simply incorrect. He would be 20 in 1347 and Esen would be 22—not exactly youths by (TRE’s) Yuan standards.

All told, I’m inclined to go with the second reading, which more directly pinpoints Ouyang’s birth year, and lets him be a bit older, which his ancient creaky ass soul deserves.

What this means, though, is that Zhu’s judgement of Ouyang’s (and Esen’s) ages aren’t exactly accurate. The narrative really sets them up to look and act like teenagers, not adults, in that 1347 scene.

More Event-Dating Wobbliness

So how old was Ouyang when he became Esen’s eunuch slave? Obviously pre-puberty, but when exactly?

During that deeply homoerotic scene (aren’t they all) from SWBTS in which Ouyang helps Esen with his armor, he reflects that he’s served Esen for sixteen years. This is in the first month of 1355.

(But in ~thee murder scene~~, in the second month of 1356, Ouyang says “I was nearly twenty years by your side.” Just some exaggeration I guess—“seventeen years” doesn’t sound quite as satisfying or cathartic when you’re trying to psych yourself up to kill your master/best friend/eternal toxic crush.)

At any rate, let’s assume Ouyang became Esen’s slave sixteen years before 1355, in 1339. If we follow Route 2 (Ouyang born in 1327), he is 12 when he first enters the Prince’s household.

But here’s another complication!!!

Remember this scene?

If Ouyang is 12 when he first becomes a slave, there’s no time at all for the “before picture” this scene paints. No “had always been able” possible. Ouyang has to have been with Esen for at least a couple years prior to Esen turning 14 in order for this dynamic to work out.

So let’s go back to Route 1 (Ouyang born in 1329-1331) for a minute. In that scenario, Ouyang was anywhere from 8-10 when he first becomes a slave. To me this seems a lot more plausible.

A third explanation might be that that “sixteen years” figure might be inaccurate, or not the full picture. It could be that Ouyang really has been “at [Esen’s] side” for something like 20 years, but have only been his specific attendant for 16 of those years. Maybe he did other slave-duties (whatever they might have been) prior to that time. That would allow him to keep his greater age (I don’t think he deserves to start the main narrative at 23 lol) while also preserving a longer connection to Esen and a bit more tragedy.

Anyway. What can we conclude, if anything, from all this. Frankly I emerged from this process more confused than I began it.

For the sake of the childhood fic I’m currently plotting, this is how I choose to proceed: Ouyang comes to the Prince’s residence as a slave at age 8, in 1335. Esen is 10 at the time. The two rather secretly become friends, and Esen demands that Ouyang become his specific attendant slave in 1339, when Ouyang is 12 and he is 14. Thereafter, Ouyang gradually rises to become commander of his personal guard and eventually his general. Then canon events unfold as written. 🥲

[/start image id:

the image is of a contrapuntal poem meaning two poems written side by side which can be read separately as two poems or together as one poem.

the first stanza of the poem on the right side reads: blood lingering, clinging there sweet metallic a hopeless surrender sparks of pain, pressed against a painted edge of

the second stanza reads: your surrender shapes you into a man pain builds you let me hurt you you are my shadow I carve you on your knees open yourself to me

the third stanza reads: be my sword— please something to me

the first stanza of the poem on the left side reads: knelt a blossom along nerve edges bright bright bright collapsed, face pressed onto dirty boots sweet release

the second stanza reads: your pain builds me into a man arrogance shapes you into something beyond me I crave a kneeling figure of a long line of pain on all fours panting

the third stanza reads: no I will not be anything to you

together, the first stanzas of the two poems read: blood knelt lingering, clinging there a blossom along nerve edges sweet metallic bright bright bright a hopeless surrender collapsed, face pressed onto sparks of pain, pressed dirty boots against a painted edge of sweet release

together, the second stanzas of the two poems read: your surrender your pain shapes you builds me into a man into a man pain builds you arrogance shapes you let me hurt you into something beyond me you are my shadow I crave I carve a kneeling figure of you a long line of pain on your knees on all fours open yourself to me panting

together, the third stanzas of the two poems read: be my sword— no please I will not be something to me anything to you

the poem ends with the title in bold which says "but still you grin on bloodied knees."

/end image id]

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