Anshi

Anshi (安氏 (アンシ) , Anshi^?) is a secondary character in The Apothecary Diaries. She is the Empress Dowager of Li, as the widow of the Former Emperor, and the mother of the Emperor and the Imperial Brother.

Appearance

Anshi looks quite young, only being eleven years older than her eldest son. She is considered a graceful and regal beauty.

Personality

As a young girl, Anshi was aware that her supposed role is of a pawn meant to be used by her family. She tended to go along with this expectation, even if it meant that she had do something she didn't agree with it, like seducing the Former Emperor, whom she thought of as "pathetic and cowardly" and hated for the horrors he put her and other women through as young girls. Even so, she felt pity for the man who was so scared of adult women that he could only feel safe around children, and that was forced into a role he didn't want and ill equipped to handle.

Maomao surmises that Anshi was behind the other sexual victims of the Former Emperor being forced to stay in the rear palace, which led to their anger and resentment, as a traumatic response to her situation. It is suggested that she did this due to utter loneliness. Scared and isolated, she desperately wanted some form of company in her situation, but she was also furious at her situation and lack of control over her own life, so she used her power as empress to condemn others to her plight. It would explain her request for her eldest son to allow her husbands's other victims to work in a more rewarding position in which they could help other palace ladies and indulge in some luxuries such as books as a form of attonement.

Abilities

Intelligence: Anshi is described as "deceptively smart" and "calculating".

Influence: As the Empress Dowager, Anshi holds immense power within the inner and outer courts. She founded the unofficial clinic run by court ladies in the Imperial Palace.^[2]

Background

Anshi was the illegitimate daughter of a court official. She was sent to the inner court by her unscrupulous family in order to seduce the Former Emperor, whose preference for little girls was well-known, and conceive his children under the guise as being an attendant to her older half-sister, who was sent as a middle consort in a more official capacity. She had been chosen due to starting her menstruation early, meaning that she was capable of bearing children, but she still looked like a young girl. Her father saw this as a rare opportunity since due to the emperor's prefer for prepubescent looking girls and his fear of adult women being so intense he broke down into hysterics at the slightest touch from them, the chances of him producing any heirs was incredibly low. Since the rest of the emperor's family had died in a pandemic the royal bloodline was at risk of dying put altogether, meaning whoever could produce viable heir would be guaranteed a place I the family securing their family the highest level of power and fortune. So when her older half-sister touched the emperor's arm and started crying, Anshi asked if he was okay, deliberately getting his attention. He sexually assaulted her, and she later gave birth to the current Emperor; due to her young age, the court physician, Luomen, had no choice but to deliver her first son by performing a Cesarean section, leaving her with scars in her belly. She and her son were attended by her lady-in-waiting, Suiren, whom she developed a close friendship with.^[3]

When Anshi grew up, the Former Emperor became scared of her. While she did not love him, she was angry at the thought of him replacing her with a younger model after she became an adult, invalidating all the suffering she had been through. She did not want to be forgotten by such a pathetic man to the point where she took matters into her own hands by sexually assaulting him and taunting him about her scars.^[3] This act caused a psychological break in the emperor and he ended up shutting himself away till his final days. Because of this she came to regret her actions over time, and could not love her second son, who was born from the rape she commited, so she agreed to exchange him with Jinshi, her first grandson, when his mother Ah-Duo suggested the idea.

After her eldest son ascended to the throne, Anshi encouraged him to stop the practise of making eunuchs the Empress Regnant had started and persuaded him to allow female medical practitioners in the inner palace, albeit unofficially. The latter advice allowed her to give work to her fellow sexual victims, who were imprisioned in the inner court, and ensure that regular palace ladies would receive some kind of medical care. She has gained the reputation of a benevolent and wise empress dowager who dotes on her granddaughter Lingli.

Trivia

• Anshi was unnamed in the web novel. Likewise, her background and her perspective on the baby swap are not explained.
• In the light novel, young Anshi was less aware of why she was sent to the palace and did not mean to grab the Former Emperor's attention when she reached out, while in the manga she did it intentionally knowing that her ambitious father had sent her there for the express purpose.

References