Azi flies You Tanzhi as a human kite

Azi flies You Tanzhi as a human kite in a scene that makes a practice used against Song captives into an intimate display of her power over him. After Xiao Feng releases You Tanzhi, Azi secretly arranges his recapture and has him hauled aloft behind a horse. She first watches, then takes the rope herself; when the performance nearly ends in disaster, the soldiers catch You Tanzhi with four lassoes. The episode exposes the violence concealed by Azi’s playful delight and sharpens the contrast between Xiao Feng’s act of release and her refusal to let You Tanzhi go.

Background and Secret Recapture

Xiao Feng had released You Tanzhi, but Azi resented his decision. She deliberately fell behind as the party rode away and instructed her attendants to capture You Tanzhi without telling Xiao Feng. Knowing that Xiao Feng favored Azi, the followers accepted her orders. They pretended to adjust a saddle strap, waited until Xiao Feng had gone on, and then turned back to pursue You Tanzhi.

Azi returned to Nanjing and waited at a temple some distance from Xiao Feng’s residence. Once You Tanzhi had been brought to her, she asked the Khitans for new ways to torment him. A suggestion that he be flown like a human kite pleased her. The scheme was therefore not an impulsive response to seeing him in danger: she had arranged his capture, concealed it from Xiao Feng, and sought out a method of punishment for her own amusement.

The Human-Kite Spectacle

The soldiers fastened a rope around You Tanzhi and galloped until his body rose into the air. Pain and the wind made it difficult for him to breathe, but he heard a woman laughing and realized that Azi was watching. At the sight of her, he felt an intense response he could not sort into happiness or sadness; suspended and unable to act, he could not think clearly.

Azi cheered the spectacle and then asked to take over. She mounted a soldier’s horse, took the rope, and ordered him down. Recently recovered from a grave injury, she still lacked strength in her hand. When her wrist weakened and the rope slackened, You Tanzhi fell onto a bluestone floor and struck his forehead against a sharp edge. Azi reacted with disappointment and complained that he was too heavy, treating the danger to him as a flaw in the amusement rather than a reason to stop.

Rescue and the Practice’s Wider Meaning

Azi wanted the soldiers to send You Tanzhi up again. One soldier secured the rope around his body and beneath his arms rather than around his neck, then dragged him for several rounds before releasing him high into the air. As he fell headfirst, four soldiers cast lassoes around his waist at once and pulled in different directions, leaving him suspended above the ground. He fainted. The account stresses how narrow the margin of safety was: if any one of the lassoes had been cast late, the opposing pulls would not have balanced, and the fall could have killed him.

The soldiers knew this as a trick practiced on Song captives. The narration says that most captives subjected to it struck the ground headfirst and died, whether from a fatal head injury or a broken neck. You Tanzhi’s survival depended on the soldiers’ coordinated catch, not on any mercy from Azi. Once the ropes were released, she paid each soldier five silver pieces and entertained their question about what she wanted to try next.

Relationships and Narrative Significance

The episode’s defining relationship is the imbalance between Azi and You Tanzhi: she commands, while he is made into the object of a spectacle. Even when the ropes suspend him beyond the reach of ordinary choice, his attention remains fixed on her; the intensity of his response contrasts with the indifference with which she treats his safety. Her orders to conceal his recapture from Xiao Feng also show that her conduct depends on keeping this exercise of control outside his knowledge.

The human-kite scene also carries a wider political violence into a personal encounter. The same method is described as a way Khitan soldiers torment Song captives, with death a common outcome. Its reuse against You Tanzhi places his suffering within a practice shaped by the conflict between Khitans and Song people, while Azi’s command turns that practice into entertainment. The soldiers’ precise, collective intervention saves him in this instance; it does not make the act safe, or soften the contrast between the human life at risk and the spectacle Azi wants to prolong.