Reflections | If Haiti president’s assassination is a puzzle, how about when Chinese imperial palace maids tried to kill an emperor in his sleep?

Haiti has been plunged into another crisis following the assassination of President Jovenel Moise. Known today for its wretched litany of natural and man-made catastrophes, most people are unaware of Haiti’s inspiring past as the first nation in Latin America and the Caribbean to achieve independence from European rule, in 1804, and the only country in history that was founded by a successful slave rebellion.

However, two centuries of misgovernance, political instability, endemic corruption and a host of domestic and external factors have pushed Haiti more than once to the brink of irrevocable disaster. The beleaguered nation, the poorest in the Americas, was dealt another blow in the early hours of July 7, when the Haitian president was murdered in his home.

The most bizarre attempt on a Chinese emperor’s life occurred in 1542, when a group of palace maids tried to strangle the Ming dynasty’s Jiajing Emperor in his sleep. Led by one Yang Jinying, over a dozen of the lowest placed women in the palace decided one night to kill Jiajing in his sleep.

They crept into his bed chamber and attacked him. Shocked awake, the emperor found himself immobilised with his limbs and head pressed down. He tried to scream but a rag was stuffed into his mouth and his face covered with cloth.

Two women wound a rope around his neck and pulled, but he would not stop struggling. Their decision to make a second knot sealed their fates. The dead knot that resulted prevented the noose from constricting further, saving the Jiajing Emperor’s life. In the scuffle, a panic-stricken maid ran to report to the empress, who came to the emperor’s rescue with armed guards.