Human-kite

The human-kite is a form of torture presented as entertainment: a captive is hauled into the air by a rope attached to a moving horse and made to fly, sometimes with several riders intervening to prevent a fatal fall. The episode gives the expression its brutal literal meaning through A'Zi's treatment of You TanZhi, whose captivity becomes a spectacle for her and the Khitan soldiers, and ends with him carried away unconscious after a failed attempt to fly him herself.

Method and Context

The practice begins with a captive attached to a rope while a horse gallops, lifting the person from the ground and swinging him through the air. You TanZhi initially hears laughter and mistakes the reference to a human-kite for a joke; when the rope tightens behind his neck and he is pulled aloft, he understands that he has become the object being flown. The episode thus turns a phrase into a physical ordeal before he can grasp what the soldiers intend.

The Khitan soldiers describe no harmless game. They have used the method on Song captives, and the account makes clear that the danger is integral to it: most captives fall head-first, while even a fall onto softer ground can be fatal. In the more elaborate maneuver shown here, the rider first drags You TanZhi along the ground and then releases the rope so that he rises higher. At the top of the ascent, four soldiers cast lassos around his waist and pull from different directions, suspending him above the ground. Their timing and balanced force are the only things that prevent the fall from becoming fatal.

A'Zi Turns Captivity into Play

You TanZhi becomes the soldiers' target after A'Zi secretly arranges to recapture him. Unhappy that Xiao Feng released him, she falls behind while traveling, tells her attendants to seize You TanZhi without Xiao Feng's knowledge, and has them turn back after Xiao Feng has gone on. The attendants comply because they know Xiao Feng favors her. When they succeed, A'Zi waits at a temple away from Xiao Feng's residence in Nanjing and asks the Khitan soldiers for ideas for tormenting her captive. Their suggestion of a human-kite appeals to her.

The contrast between You TanZhi's helplessness and A'Zi's amusement governs the scene. He is drowsy when he first hears a woman's laughter; once he is aloft, he recognizes A'Zi, whose cheers make clear that she is watching the ordeal as entertainment. She then insists on taking the rope herself, mounts a soldier's horse, and orders him to dismount. Her role shifts from choosing the punishment to operating it, making her control of the captive immediate and personal.

Failed Flight and Injury

A'Zi has only recently recovered from a serious injury, and her strength gives out while she is holding the rope. You TanZhi falls onto the stone pavement and is badly hurt. Rather than end the spectacle, the soldiers take over. One wraps the rope around his body and beneath his armpit rather than around his neck, then rides off and drags him along the ground before sending him aloft again. The change in how the rope is secured does not make the practice safe: the soldiers next release it, and You TanZhi rises before plunging back toward the ground.

Four soldiers cast their lassos together and pull in separate directions, arresting his fall just above the pavement. He faints. The narration stresses how narrow the margin is: if even one lasso had arrived late, the pull would not have been balanced. The maneuver therefore depends on coordinated timing, but the same coordination does not undo the peril deliberately imposed on the captive.

Aftermath and Significance

Once the soldiers have finished, A'Zi rewards each of them with five silver pieces. When they ask whether she wants another amusement, she sees that You TanZhi has fainted and cannot tell whether he is alive. Her own chest hurts after she exerted herself, so she stops for the day. She instructs the soldiers to bring him to her the next day if he survives, reasoning that he had plotted against Xiao Feng and should not be allowed to die too easily. The soldiers carry away the bloodied, unconscious captive.

The episode defines the human-kite not merely by its rope-and-horse mechanics but by its social setting: captive-taking, collective participation, and an audience that treats another person's peril as sport. The soldiers' practiced coordination offers only a precarious chance of survival, while A'Zi's reward and plan to continue the torment make clear that the danger is no accident or contest. For You TanZhi, being made a human-kite marks a further turn in his captivity: he is seized in secret, injured under A'Zi's direct control, and left with his survival uncertain.