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100 Famous Women in China
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Aust Winner 澳洲长风论坛总目录 -> Multi Languages Section 双语作品、西方文学
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海外逸士

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加入时间: 2005/11/08
文章: 1956
来自: America
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文章时间: 2017-10-29 周日, 下午9:14    标题: 引用回复

26, 潘玉兒 Pan YuEr (a woman who could whip the emperor)
Pan YuEr (?--?) was not only beautiful with white skin and fine figure, but the most famous feature of her beauty was her lovely little feet. She was born in a vendor's family. Her father, almost illiterate, gave her the name called Nizi (literally meaning “Little Girl”). Such a name was deemed vulgar. But her beauty attracted everyone who caught sight of her. They lived from hand to mouth, and so, when she grew into teenage, she often went to help her father sell things. She was familiar with market and trading. Once her mother had a chance to enter the palace as a wet nurse to feed the crown prince.
It was not until 498 AD when the crown prince succeeded the throne and became the emperor. As he often heard the mother, his wet nurse, talk about the girl, he had always yearned for her. Now he sent for her to the palace and made her the imperial concubine. Her beauty stunned him as he first set eyes on her. Her white skin glittered like pure jade. So he changed her name to YuEr (literally meaning “Jade Girl”). He had a new hall built for her. The floor was covered with engraved lotus patterns so that every step of her landed her on a lotus pattern. It was called that her steps produced lotus flowers.
Her feet were so small and lovely. He was a foot fetishist. He liked to caress her white feet and kiss her toes one by one and licked them in turns. Sometimes he bit her big toe and when she felt a big painful, she beat his back with a stick. And he liked it. He was a masochist. In the long Chinese history, Pan YuEr was the sole concubine who could beat the emperor like whipping a slave. Instead of a concubine waiting on the emperor, this emperor liked to wait on her. He made tea for her and massaged her back and legs.
Once she said to the emperor that she had liked the life in a market place. Therefore, he built a market for her, and let maids and eunuchs play the roles of traders and customers. Sometimes, the emperor would let some traders pretend to offend some rules and be brought to the presence of Pan YuEr, who would decide how to punish them. She enjoyed this very much. Once YuEr pretended to be the owner of a wine shop and stood behind the counter to sell wine, and the emperor played the part of the customer. And sometimes the emperor acted like a butcher standing behind a booth to sell pork, and the concubine came as a buyer.
This life style of the imperial couple enraged courtiers. Some of them criticized the emperor. The emperor killed them. He even killed his kinsfolk till one day his brother, afraid of being killed, too, could no longer endure it. He marched his troops to surround the capital and killed the emperor. He gave the girl to one of his generals as a reward for his merits. The general held a banquet to celebrate it. When all the guests wanted to see the beauty that they had heard of so much and so long, the general led them to his bedroom, where the girl should stay to wait for his arrival for the night. But as the door was opened they saw the girl hanging herself from the beam, and still looking beautiful.
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文章: 1956
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文章时间: 2017-11-05 周日, 下午9:45    标题: 引用回复

27, 徐昭佩 Xu Zhaopei (the woman having makeup on half of her face)
Xu Zhaopei (?--549 AD) was the wife of Emperor Yuan of Liang dynasty (502—557 AD), which was a short dynasty during the second warring period. In the twelfth moon of 517 AD, she went to where the emperor lived. On her way there, there were strong winds that blew down houses, then snow storm came. When she arrived there, there were pealing thunders that shattered a pillar. All these were considered as bad omen.
After marriage, she bore a son and a daughter for him. As the emperor had one eye blind, Xu did not like him and was often rude to him. The emperor disliked her, too. Once when he went to her room, she only put the makeup on half of her face to imply that the emperor had only one eye good. So the emperor was enraged and seldom to see her ever since.
She then had adultery with some other people. The first one was a monk and she often went to his temple. The second one was Ji, a favorite courtier of the emperor. They had the action in the temple, too. After the action, they lay on bed and composed poems to each other.
Xu was a jealous woman. Whenever the emperor liked someone, she would find a way to murder her. Although the emperor disliked her, he liked her son and made him the crown prince. But the son died in a battle. The emperor forced her, the mother, to commit suicide. Finally she threw herself into a well and drowned inside it. Then the emperor revealed her lewd action to let people know it so that he forced her to make suicide was not without reason.
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文章时间: 2017-11-12 周日, 下午10:59    标题: 引用回复

28, 婁昭君 Lou Zhaojun (she married a common man, who became emperor finally)
Lou Zhaojun (501—562 AD) had a legendary life. Her father was a courtier of high rank. When she grew up, many official families came to see her father to ask for her hand, but she denied all the suitors. She wanted to find a man fit to be her husband.
One day, she saw a man, a general, called Gao Huan (496—547 AD), doing some work at the battlements. She knew how to read the face. His face showed that he would be a leader of a state some day. Therefore, she married him. Although a general, he had no money. She gave him money and let him use it to make friends with all the known heroes of the time. Besides, she offered stratagems so that he could win merits in battles. He was promoted to be the premier.
When Gao Huan got powerful enough, she helped him to establish a new state, named North Qi. Gao became the emperor and she was the empress. She had born six sons and two daughters for him. Three of her sons were emperors in different times. Her daughters both became empresses of other states. She was frugal by nature. As the empress she would weave and sew herself. She treated her own children and the children of other concubines equally. Once she made sacrifice for her husband.
To strengthen his power for the situation, he should marry the princess of Ruru State. When he asked his empress if this was right for him to do, Empress Lou gave her ascent without hesitation. When Princess Ruru came, she let her be the empress and herself be the concubine. For that, she was praised by people in the small empire. The emperor had one wife and ten concubines. He had fifteen sons and three daughters in all.
Once when she was pregnant and got into hard labor, someone wanted to send urgent massage to the emperor, but she would not agree. At last she gave birth to twin babies, a son and a daughter. When the emperor returned and learned the condition, he was greatly moved.
Once he was defeated. A general came to offer to lead an army for the revenge. The emperor was glad and about to consent, but empress Lou said no. She explained that if the general had an army under command, whether he won or lost in the fight, he would never come back to obey him any more. He would be independent with an army in his control. So the emperor did not let the general go. The general later did betray another emperor in another state.
When the emperor, Gao Huan, died, his eldest son Gao Cheng became the emperor. Lou Zhaojun, as empress dowager, controlled the power. When Gao Cheng died, her son Gao Yang took the throne. Not long later, Gao Yang died, too. His son, Gao Yin, succeeded the throne. Gao Yin was the grandson of Lou. As Gao Yin was not a good emperor, the empress dowager deposed him and made him Prince JiNan. Then her another son Gao Yan was made the emperor. Not long afterwards, Gao Yan also died. She made her another son Gao Zhan the emperor, and made two other sons the princes. She died at the age of sixty-two.
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文章时间: 2017-11-19 周日, 下午10:20    标题: 引用回复

29, 穆黃花 Mu Huanghua (an empress became the bawd)
Mu Huanghua (?--?) was the third empress of the emperor Gao Wei, the last emperor of North Qi dynasty. Her mother was a maid in the family of some courtier. Then she was raped by the courtier and bore the girl. When the girl grew up, she went to the palace. At first she was the maid of the first empress of the emperor. Once the emperor saw her and liked her. She became his concubine. In 572 AD, she was made the empress when the original empress died. In 577 AD, another state invaded North Qi and took the capital. The emperor and Mu had to escape. But the emperor was captured, and Mu ran away to ChangAn city, where to make her living, she opened a brothel and became the bawd. Her brothel was at the time well-known on both sides of the Yangtze River. This was a weird experience to her from an empress to a bawd.
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文章时间: 2017-11-26 周日, 下午9:45    标题: 引用回复

30, 花木蘭 Hua Mulan (the first of the four heroines)
Hua Mulan (412—502 AD) was one of four heroines in Chinese history, fighting in the battlefield. The other three were Fan Lihua (Tang dynasty), Mu Guiying (North Song dynasty), and Liang Hongyu (South Song dynasty). Her story goes back to the second warring period. She had an elder sister and younger brother. But both of them could not fight. When Mulan was still young, a minority in the north invaded her country. Then an order was issued that every family must have one man to join the army for defense against the invasion. Mulan's father was too old. Her brother was too young. When a little girl she liked to learn how to fight as her father knew the fighting skills. She was just grown up, and so she offered to go instead of her father, but in disguise of a young man, using her brother's name,.
At that time, the government of the country did not supply a fighter with necessary equipment such as weapon, horse, armor and helmet, etc. Therefore, she had to go to the market to buy all these for herself. She was attired as a man should wear. Then she rode to the registration at the recruit's site. She was sent to the frontier with other recruits. She fought bravely in the battlefields and won a lot of merits. No one knew that she was a woman. After twelve years, she returned victoriously. Then she was known to her fellow fighters that she was a woman, which was at the time deemed cheating. The emperor received her and for her great merits, she was pardoned for the cheating of a good kind. The emperor wanted to let her be an official of high rank in the government, but she excused herself, saying that her father was old, and she must go home to take care of him. So the emperor let her go.
Her legend was written down in a long poem called “Song of Mulan.” In Tang dynasty, a temple was built in memory of her, and a statue of her was carved and put in the temple.
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文章时间: 2017-12-03 周日, 下午11:08    标题: 引用回复

31, 楊麗華 Yang Lihua (sharing the title of empress with other four women)
Yang Lihua (561—609 AD) was the wife of Emperor Xuan (559—580 AD) of North Zhou dynasty (557—581 AD), a short dynasty in the northern China in the second warring period. Her father was Yang Jian (541—604 AD). Later he began a new dynasty, Sui dynasty, and became emperor Wen. Sui dynasty ended the second warring period and united China. Her mother was Empress Dugu.
In 573 AD, when she was only thirteen, she married Emperor Xuan and became one of the four empresses. It was the only emperor in the history, who made all his four women empresses. Then he liked the wife of his nephew, who had to rebel and was killed. The emperor took the nephew's wife as his fifth empress. As the emperor led a lewd life, all the courtiers opposed him. Yang Jian at the time was a powerful courtier and supported by others, he deposed the emperor, who died soon after. Then Yang Jian became the emperor of Sui dynasty (581—618 AD). Yang Lihua, his daughter, could not still have the title of empress, and so her father made her Princess Lepin, till her death at the age of forty-nine.
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文章时间: 2017-12-10 周日, 下午10:45    标题: 引用回复

32, 張麗華 32. Zhang Lihua (empress with special long hair)
Zhang Lihua (560—589 AD) was the favorite concubine of Chen Shubao (553—604 AD). When Chen Shubao was still the crown prince of Chen dynasty (557—589 AD), located to the south of Yangtzer River towards the end of the second warring period, Zhang Lihua was then only ten and entered the palace as the maid to a concubine of the crown prince. When she grew up, she was so beautiful and clever. The most conspicuous thing about her was her long black hair, more than two meters long. She was proud of her long hair. Every morning she spent a lot of time to comb her hair and did her hair up into a stylist knot. When the crown prince saw her one day, her beauty was so attractive to him that he took her as his concubine. He liked her long hair very much, which was unique. The crown prince was a famous poet.
In 582 AD, the crown prince succeeded the throne and Zhang became his favorite concubine. This emperor was talented in music and literature. His poems were so well-known and many handed down to us. One of his famous poems runs as follows:
Up on west tower alone, wordless,
The moon looks like a hook.
With the solitary Chinese parasol,
The deep backyard locking the cool autumn in.

Scissor'd, but not sever'd,
Put in order, yet in disorder,
Is the parting sorrow;
There's an unusual sensation at heart.
As Zhang Lihua could dance gracefully, the emperor composed a famous piece of music, and Zhang Lihua danced to it. The imperial couple led a lewd and dissipated life. At that time, all the separate independent states to the north of the Yangtze River were conquered by Sui dynasty. Only the Chen dynasty to the south of the Yangtze River still survived. In 589 AD, Sui army came to the capital. When the imperial couple was reported that Sui army entered the city, they tied themselves together and jumped into a well. But as the well was an old one without water in it, they did not die. Then Sui soldiers got them out. Zhang Lihua was killed because the commander thought that as she was so beautiful, if the Sui emperor saw her, he would take her to be his concubine, which might cause Sui dynasty to collapse like this Chen dynasty. The Chen emperor was captured and taken to be imprisoned and died a few years later.
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文章时间: 2017-12-17 周日, 下午10:09    标题: 引用回复

33, 獨孤皇后 Empress Dugu (empress who'd not let emperor have other women)
Empress Dugu (543—602 AD) was the wife of Yang Jian (541—604 AD), Emperor Wen of Sui dynasty (581—618 AD). She bore a daughter, Yang Lihua (see above), and sons, Yang Yong (568—604 AD) and Yang Guang (569—618 AD).
Dugu married the emperor at fourteen. She was a very jealous woman. When she married him, they had an agreement that he would never touch any other women. She abolished the system that an emperor could have many concubines. She would not allow her husband to have any concubines. Once he had an action with a girl in the palace, the girl was later killed by Dugu. Luckily for her, she had born children for him. She also forbade her sons to have more than one woman. She forbade the palace maids to put on makeup and to gain access to the emperor without her permission. She even interfered with the courtiers in their marital affairs. Once a courtier's wife died, and he married another woman. Dugu let the emperor demote him, because her idea in marriage was that if a man could not be faithful to his wife and needed another woman, how could he be loyal to the sovereign? So she wanted to maintain one husband and one wife system. Besides, if a woman was not allowed to remarry as a tradition, a man should not be allowed to remarry, too.
Anyway, she was just in dealing with state affairs. She often offered her opinions to the emperor and he always thought that her opinions were right. Once one of her cousins committed some severe crime, and according to the law, he must be executed. However, the emperor, considering his relationship with the empress, intended to pardon him from his death sentence. When Dugu learned it, she said that the law must be just, and could not be disregarded owing to special conditions. The cousin thereby was executed.
Once an official presented to her a box of costly pearls. She said to him, “This is not what I need. You can use them as rewards to soldiers who are fighting at the frontier.” She never gave her relatives positions of high ranks. At first, as Yang Yong was the eldest son, he was made the crown prince. Nevertheless, he sought obscenity and merry-making, which the emperor and empress disliked. Besides, the crown prince had four concubines and ignored his wife. All that was against the wishes of the empress. Therefore, he was deposed and his brother Yang Guang was made the crown prince. The empress died before the emperor in the eighth moon of 602 AD, at the age of fifty.
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文章时间: 2017-12-24 周日, 下午10:41    标题: 引用回复

34, 蕭美娘 Xiao Meiniang (an empress married many times)
Xiao Meiniang (582 AD--? ) was the wife of Emperor Yang (Yang Guang) of Sui dynasty. He was the second and last emperor of Sui dynasty. She was a princess of Emperor Ming (542—585 AD) of West Liang dynasty (555—587 AD). As she was born in the second moon, superstitious tradition said that a girl born in the second moon could not bear sons. So she was given to the uncle, and when the uncle died, she was adopted by her maternal uncle, who was poor, and she must do all the housework.
When Yang Guang was still crown prince, his father wanted to choose a wife for him. The superstitious tradition had it that the birthday and birth time of both the girl and the boy should be given to a fortune-teller, who would tell if that of the girl and that of the boy were fit to each other. If they were not fit, and the girl and boy married, misfortune would befall them. All the girls in the area were not fit to be the wife of the crown prince by the calculation of the fortune-teller. Finally a fit girl was found. She was Xiao Meiniang. Therefore, she became the wife of the crown prince. When the crown prince succeeded the throne, she was made the empress. She bore two sons and a daughter for him.
The emperor was a lewd and corrupt man. But he had a great job done. It was the Great Canal, beginning from Luoyang city to Hangzhou city. It made the transportation of goods from south to north easier than before. It was finished by connecting some natural rivers through a lot of digging. But some historians said that the purpose of the emperor wanted to make the Great Canal was that he wanted to travel comfortably on the ship to Yangzhou city, where the most beautiful peonies grew. And it was also said that women in Yangzhou city were all beautiful. When he stayed there to enjoy his extravagant days, he was murdered by a general he trusted. Then there rose many warlords all over the nation.
There were two legends about her end. One was that after the death of the emperor she left the palace and wandered with her grandson like vagabonds till her death without remarrying. The other was that she was taken by the general who had murdered the emperor. When the general died, a warlord got her. Then she was captured by the chieftain of a minority in the north. Finally the famous Emperor Taizong (599—649 AD) of Tang dynasty (618—907 AD) conquered the minority and took her back to the capital. It was said that she became the wife of the Tang emperor.
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文章时间: 2017-12-31 周日, 下午11:24    标题: 引用回复

35, 紅拂女 Hongfu (literally meaning red duster)
Hongfu (?--?) was the nickname and her real name was Zhang Chuchen. But better known as Hongfu in the history. Her father was a general and killed in a battle. Her mother was taken by Yang Su (544-606 AD) a general, and later the first courtier of Sui dynasty, as a wet nurse. She brought her daughter with her. So Hongfu grew up in the residence of Yang Su, and in her girlhood, she became a waiting girl to Yang Su. She often stood a little behind him when he sat on the chair to receive guests. On such occasions, She often held a red duster in hand, hence her nickname.
There was a young man by name of Li Jing (571—649 AD). He was a man of talent and ambition, a strategist as well. Therefore, he came to the capital to seek for fame and a bright future. As he could not directly go to see the emperor, he went to see Yang Su first and became one of Yang's hangers-on, which meant people having food and board in Yang's residence working like advisers. At first, Yang did not think much of Li Jing as he had so many hangers-on in his residence. Once Yang had a talk with him and came to know that this man was talented. But he did not recommend him to the emperor, which was what Li desired. Therefore, Li was disappointed.
When Yang had the talk with Li, Hongfu was present and had also such opinion of him. She admired him to much that one night she went to see him in his room, just as Li was sad and uncertain of his future. When he heard the knock at his door he opened it and saw the girl who had stood behind Yang in his conversation with Yang. When Hongfu was invited in and sat down, she revealed her purpose to come. She offered herself to be his life mate. Li was so happy and accepted. Then they eloped under the cover of night.
The couple were disguised as merchants and went to ChangAn city where another Li family lived as magistrate, and afterwards, this Li family united the whole country and established Tang dynasty (618—907 AD). Li Jing went to visit Li Shiming, the famous Emperor Taizong later, to offer his service. Li Shiming thought highly of him. When Sui dynasty collapsed with the murder of the Sui emperor, there arose many warlords. Although there were constant wars among the warlords, historians did not define this period of time as a warring period, because it lasted very short, only for seven years and the whole nation was united by Tang dynasty. As Li Shiming wanted to unite the nation,he accepted all the known heroes that came to serve him. In the wars conquering other warlords, Li Jing and Hongfu, who could fight, achieved a lot of merits. When the Tang dynasty united the country, Li Jing was rewarded with the title of Duke Weiguo. And Hongfu was his ladyship.
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文章时间: 2018-1-07 周日, 下午9:23    标题: 引用回复

36, 平陽公主 Princess Pinyang (a female commander)
Princess Pinyang (580—623 AD) was the sister of Emperor Taizong by the name of Li Xiuning. She was the only woman in the history who organized and commanded an army. Other women before her, if they could fight, just fought as a female general, not commanding an army.
In the fifth moon of 617 AD, Li family decided to subdue all the warlords and united the country. At the time Princess Pinyang was in ChangAn city while the Li family lived in Taiyuan city. She was married to a general and lived in ChangAn city with her husband. When she got the information that her family would take up arms against all the warlords, she started to recruit enough men to form an army. Her husband went to Taiyuan city first to join in the combats. There were some small groups of rebels. She sent someone to persuade them one by one to join her army, which enlarged greatly. She even defeated several attacks from the army of Sui dynasty.
After the death of Emperor Yang of Sui dynasty, there were warlords occupying separate independent areas. It was the duties of Emperor Taizong now to wipe out all the warlords. And the princess only stayed in the pass called Woman Pass, which was the throat to enter where there was the base of Li family. She must guard it. Her task was very important. If any warlord entered the Pass, the safety of her family would be threatened. Anyway, she defended the Pass well against any attacks till the unity of the nation. The name of the Pass was in memory of her. When she died, the army under her command held a military funeral for her. It was the only funeral that was held by an army for a female in the history.
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文章时间: 2018-1-14 周日, 下午10:48    标题: 引用回复

37, 長孫皇后 Empress Changsun ( a virtuous woman, never jealous)
Empress Changsun (03/15/601—07/28/636 AD) was the wife of the famous Emperor Taizong (599—649 AD) of Tang dynasty (618—907 AD). Her father was a general in Sui dynasty and died when she was only eight years old. She was brought up by her maternal uncle. She married Emperor Taizong at the age of thirteen when Emperor Taizong was then only Prince Qin. She was the ladyship of the prince Qin. The crown prince was the eldest brother of Prince Qin, and he had a younger brother. The three of them vied for the throne, of course, like in many dynasties. The crown prince was no good as a ruler, and the younger brother was a fighter, not fit to be a ruler. To be a ruler needed many qualities. Only Prince Qin had such qualities. Therefore, all the generals of Tang dynasty supported him. It was not just because they thought Prince Qin was a talented man, suitable to be the emperor, but also because they had fought together with him so long in the process of subduing all the warlords.
On the second day of the seventh moon in 626 AD, there was a coup d'état. Helped by the generals, Prince Qin killed his two brothers and became Emperor Taizong. His father was on the throne at the time, but he could not control the situation as all the generals did not listen to him, and only obey his second son. Therefore, after the coup d'état, the father gave up the throne to the son and became the retired emperor. Ladyship Zhangsun was due to be the empress. She bore for the emperor three sons and four daughters. Later her youngest son became the crown prince and then the emperor, Emperor Gaozong, the husband of Empress Wu the Great. That's another book I wrote.
She was a virtuous woman, never jealous. She treated other concubines and maids and eunuchs nicely. So the palace was peaceful, no competitions between concubines for the special favor of the emperor. She often educated the children, no matter those of her own or those of other concubines, equally that they must be frugal, not extravagant. She always gave the emperor good advice, and whenever the emperor made any mistakes, she would persuade him to correct them. She even dissuaded the emperor to give her own brother a powerful position, lest the brother turned arrogant because he had power and then made unpardonable mistakes.
When she was seriously sick, the emperor wanted to have a ceremony in a temple to pray for her quick recovery, but she disagreed to it. She was not a superstitious person. She did not believe in prayer to make sickness better. She died at the age of thirty-six. When she was sepulchered in imperial grave, the emperor did two things for her that no other emperors did before or after for their spouses. Firstly he had a collage built in front of her grave and let some maids live there like to wait on her as if she was still alive. Secondly he had a high tower built in the palace so that whenever he thought of his empress, he could mount it to watch her grave. However, for this tower, he accepted the advice of a courtier later and demolished it.
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38. 樊梨花 Fan Lihua (the second of the four heroines)
Fan Lihua (?--?) lived in the reign of Emperor Taizong. She was one of the four heroines. Her father was originally a general of the Sui dynasty. When this dynasty was overthrown, he escaped to a minority in the west of present China. When Tang dynasty sent army to conquer that minority, Fan Lihua helped her father to resist Tang army. But once when she saw the son of the commander of Tang army, who came out of the camp, to fight, she fell in love with him. Therefore, she and her father surrendered to Tang dynasty and Fan Lihua married the son of the commander of Tang dynasty. She had great fighting skills and knew strategies. She helped the Tang army to conquer the minority. Later when some tribe in the northwest invaded Tang dynasty, Her father-in-law was made the commander of Tang army again. She went as a female general and fought together with her husband against the invaders.
When her father-in-law died in the battlefield, she, not her husband, succeeded the position of the commander, as she could fight better and knew how to use stratagems while her husband could only fight. They returned after victory and owing to her great merits, she was given the title of Marquise of Weining. She bore four sons. The third son was a naughty one, and often did something wrong. Once, by accident, the third son killed a prince. That was a serious crime. Therefore the whole family were executed. Only Fan Lihua and two of her sons escaped before the execution happened.
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39﹐ 武媚娘 Wu Meiniang (the sole female sovereign in China)
Wu Meiniang (02/27/624—12/16/705 AD) was the concubine of Emperor Taizong (599—649 AD), and after the death of emperor Taizong, she was the empress of emperor Gaozong (628—683 AD), the son of emperor Taizong. Such thing happened in the history of China. After the death of emperor Gaozong, she was the empress dowager, and then the empress sovereign.
She was summoned to the palace at the age of fourteen and was assigned to be in charge of the emperor Taizong's clothes. Soon the emperor was serious sick and the crown prince came everyday to the sick bed to look after his father. As Wu was the woman always waiting on the emperor, she would see the crown prince every time he came. As she was beautiful, the crown prince fell in love with her. When Emperor Taizong died, the crown prince took the throne and became emperor Gaozong. He wanted to make Wu as one of his concubines, but there was an obstacle. As a rule, all the women formerly serving the late emperor must become nuns. Wu was sent to a nunnery. However, the new emperor often went to the nunnery on the excuse to worship Buddha there. In fact, he went there to meet Wu and had affairs with her.
Anyway, rule or no rule, the emperor could do anything he liked. So one day Wu was carried in a palanquin into the palace, into a special room prepared for her. The empress disliked it, but she must obey the emperor. Wu bore some children for the emperor, but the empress had no child. Therefore, Wu of course became the favorite of the emperor. One day Wu's baby girl was dead and she framed the empress for killing the baby. So the empress was removed from the position, and Wu was made the empress. As the new emperor was not healthy and could not read many of the reports from courtiers, he let Wu help him. Gradually Wu was familiar with how to handle state affairs. By degrees, Wu controlled the situation and had power.
When Emperor Gaozong died, one of her sons became the new emperor, Wu was the empress dowager. As all the courtier listened to her, she stayed in power. Her son was only a puppet. Supported by courtiers, she declared herself to be the sovereign empress just like the emperor. Her son became a prince. She was the sole female sovereign in the history of China. Under her rule, the country was prosperous. She stayed in such position for tens of years. Some of the courtiers did not like a woman to be the sovereign of the nation, but they did not dare to oppose her openly.
When Wu grew old, over eighty, and her health was not good, these courtiers who supported the son forced Wu to give up the throne to her son. Therefore, she had to retire and died at age of eighty-four. There was a legend about her. One day in the cold weather, she wanted to have a tour in her imperial garden, and so she gave an order in the poetic form to all the flowers in the garden that they must bloom the next day. The order was like this:
I will go to see the imperial garden tomorrow,
And send this message to Spring right away;
All flowers must be in full bloom overnight,
Don’t wait for morning winds to make them blow.
Tomorrow when she was there, all flowers did blossom except peony. She was angry and sent the flower to Yangzhou city at the Yangtze river. That was why the peony in that city was very flourishing.
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40﹐ 文成公主 Princess Wencheng (the princess married to Tibet)
Princess Wencheng (623—680 AD) was the daughter of Emperor Taizong. She was pretty and clever, and was familiar with Chinese culture. She believed in Buddhism.
Tibet was then independent of China. It became a vassal state to China only in Qing dynasty, but still only in name. It ruled itself independently, even under KMD government, till CPC sent its army into Tibet and actually ruled it. At that time, sometimes it was friendly to Tang government and sometimes invaded Tang territory. It depended on who ruled Tibet. At the time, Songtsen Gampo was the king of Tibet.
It was a leap year in 640 AD. The lunar calendar has a double month in the leap year. There were two tenth moons in that year and in the bissextile tenth moon, the king of Tibet sent someone to the capital of Tang dynasty with five thousand taels of silver and hundreds of gems and other valuables, asking for the hand of one of the princesses. Emperor Taizong was on the throne at that time and agreed to marry Princess Wencheng to the Tibetan king.
On the fifteenth day of the third moon in 641 AD, Emperor Taizong ordered Prince Jiangxia, his cousin, to escort Princess Wencheng to Tibet for the wedding ceremony. When the princess arrived, the king was very happy and had a palace of Tang style built for her. The king also liked the clothes and etiquette of Tang style. Whenever he went to see the princess, he put on gauze clothes of Tang style. According to the history record, the princess brought Tang culture there together with silkworm eggs, which affected the life and customs of Tibetan people. They began to breed silkworms and made silk clothes. She also brought a statue of Sakyamuni, and the king built Ramoche Temple for it. The princess was the second queen of the Tibetan king. His first queen was a princess from Nepal.
In the fifth moon of AD 650, died the king of Tibet, the husband of Princess Wencheng and so the brother-in-law of the present Emperor Gaozong, son of Emperor Taizong, who already died. Emperor Gaozong was the brother of Princess Wencheng. The son of King Songtsen Gampohad died early and so his grandson was made the king. As the grandson was a child, the prime minister Ludongzan had all the power to rule Tibet. He was talented and so Tibet became strong.
In the second moon of 679 AD, another king of Tibet died, and his son, eight years old, succeeded to the position of king. In the tenth moon, the sad news of the death of the Tibetan king, Songtsen Gampo, her husband, sent by Princess Wencheng, who was still alive, arrived in the capital of Tang Dynasty. A courtier Song Lingwen was sent to attend the funeral.
During the tenth moon of 680 AD, Princess Wencheng died in Tibet.
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41. 太平公主 Princess Taiping (a lewd and ambitious woman)
Princess Taiping (670—713 AD) was the daughter of Emperor Gaozong and Empress Wu the Great. She was pretty and ambitious like her mother. Her real name was Li Lingyue and Taiping was her Taoist name. Once the king of Tibet wanted to marry her and sent a messenger to the capital. The emperor and empress would not let her marry so far, and so let her become a female Taoist, but only in name, because a female Taoist could not marry so that she could refuse the king of Tibet without offending him. Hence, historians call her Princess Taiping (literally meaning peace). Instead, Princess Wencheng married the king of Tibet (see above).
In 681 AD when the princess was sixteen, she married her husband, the nephew of Emperor Gaozong. This was her first marriage, which ended in 688 AD, because the brother of her husband joined in a rebellion and was executed. Her husband, though innocent, was put in jail and starved there.
Her second husband was the nephew of Empress Wu. The couple lived for twenty-two years and the husband died one year before her. During her second marriage, she often had adultery with whomever she liked, sometimes a courtier, and sometimes a monk, who was stout and could have longer action than others. Her husband did not dare to say anything as she was the favorite princess. Empress Wu liked her this daughter better than her other children, because she was more like her mother in appearance and character. To please her mother, she sometimes brought strong men into the palace to entertain her mother. The monk was one of them. When the monk became the favorite of empress Wu, he turned to be arrogant and did a lot of things against the law. The monk was later killed because of his misbehavior.
When Empress Wu grew old, she made her son Li Xuan the crown prince. In 705 AD, Premier Zhang Janzhi (625—706 AD) had coup d'état and forced Empress Wu to retire and give the throne to the crown prince, who was Emperor Zhongzong (11/26/656—07/03/710 AD). His wife was Empress Wei. She had a daughter, Princess Anle (?--710 AD), who yearned for power, too, and even asked the emperor to make her crown princess so that she could be the successor to the throne. At the same time, Princess Taiping became more powerful as she had supported the emperor to get his throne.
Empress Wei did not love the emperor. She was also an ambitious woman, and wanted to be the empress sovereign like Empress Wu, who was them dead. So she conspired with her daughter to poison the emperor, her husband. After the death of Emperor Zhongzong, her brother, Princess Taiping and Shangguan WanEr (see next) drafted the will of the diseased emperor to make Prince Wen the crown prince. Empress Wei was the regent and supplanted members of Li family and supported members of her Wei family. So the two family members fought each other. At last, Li family gained the day and killed empress Wei and her family members. In this event, Princess Taiping had a finger and she supported Li Dan (662—716 AD), another son of Empress Wu, also her brother, to be the emperor, who was Emperor Ruizong.
In the seventh moon of 712 AD, Emperor Ruizong retired and gave the throne to his son, who became Emperor Xuanzong (09/08685—05/03/762 AD), who was the husband of the famous Imperial Concubine Yang, the fourth beauty of the four beauties in the history. Princess Taiping vied with Emperor Xuanzong for power, but she failed at length, and was forced to hang herself at home.
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42. 上官婉兒 Shangguan WanEr (a poetess and talented woman)

Shangguan (double surname) WanEr (664—710 AD) was a poetess and worked as a secretary for Empress Wu the Great. When her grandfather was killed by Empress Wu, because he opposed her to be the empress, she and her mother were taken to the palace as slaves. She was then still a child. Under the education of her mother, she became a girl of talent. She developed a good memory. Later when Empress Wu found her talent, she liberated her from slavery and also her mother. As she could write well and exercise good calligraphy, Empress Wu made the girl her secretary and let her draft edicts for her. She endeavored to please Empress Wu and soon became her favorite. Empress Wu let her handle some state affairs and by degrees, she got some power.
In 705 AD, during the rule of Emperor Zhongzong, the emperor let her draft all the imperial edicts, which was a very important position. The emperor trusted in her so much that her power grew as well as her ambition. It was said that she had adultery with the emperor. Next year, she had adultery with Wu Sansi, a nephew of Empress Wu. In the seventh moon of 707 AD, the crown prince led his bodyguards to attack the residence of Wu Sansi and killed him. The crown prince wanted to kill Shangguan WanEr, too, because she supported Wu family. WanEr escaped to the palace and the emperor's mother, Empress Wei, protected her. Then the imperial guards came forth to defeat the crown prince, who was killed in the combat.
In 710 AD, when Princess Taiping became more powerful, WanEr tended to support Princess Taiping. When Emperor Zhongzong was poisoned by Empress Wei, she and Princess Taiping drafted the will of the late emperor to make Prince Wen as the crown prince and Empress Wei became the regent. In the seventh moon, Prince Linzi, son of Emperor Ruizong, led the imperial guards to enter the palace and killed Empress Wei, her daughter Princess Anle, and also Shangguan WanEr, who was thought to be the follower of Empress Wei. When the son later became Emperor Xuanzong, he admired the poetic talent of WanEr and gave order to collect her poems into a book. One of her poem runs as follows:
Just as leaves fall on the Tongting Lake,
I think of you ten thousand miles away.
The dew is dense and the scented quilts are cold;
The moon sets and the brocade screen is empty.
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43. 楊玉環 Yang Yuhuan (the fourth beauty of the four beauties)
這個故事太長﹐所以分段上貼。
Imperial Concubine Yang (06/01/719—08/15/756 AD) was born in Yongle of the present Shanxi province. Her maiden name was Yuhuan (literally meaning Jade Ring), or Yunu (literally meaning Jade Slave). She was very beautiful, though a little chubby, and was one of the four beauties famous in the history of China. The standard beauty in Tang Dynasty (618—907 AC) should be a little chubby. Men of that time didn't like girls skinny. A legend about her beauty goes like that once when she went round the imperial garden and touched some flowers, the flowers she had touched bent down like in timidity. So it was said that she had the ability to make flowers feel shy.
The other three were Xi Shi (date of birth unknown and died in 448 BC) who lived in a village in the present Zhejiang province, the area belonged to Yue State in the earliest War Period (472 BC—221 BC). A legend about her beauty goes like that when she went to wash her gauze clothes in a nearby stream, the fish in there, seeing her beauty, sank to the bottom of the stream in bashfulness. At that time, Yue State was defeated by Wu State and the king of Yue State wanted to revenge. His famous courtier Fan Li (516 BC—448 BC) had a plan and he went round to find beautiful girls. One day he came across Si Shi who was washing her clothes by the stream. Her beauty stunned the courtier Fan. He took her to the palace and she was trained to sing and dance. Then she was sent to the palace of Wu State. The king of Wu State liked the girl very much, enchanted by her great beauty. He made her his queen and watched her sing and dance everyday. He neglected his state affairs. The king of Yue State secretly gathered and trained his army till one day he thought he was strong enough and invaded Wu State and conquered it. Then he thought of the beauty Xi Shi and wanted to send for her for his own enjoyment, but the beauty was nowhere to be found. History had it that the courtier Fan was afraid that the king of Yue State would be enchanted by her beauty, too, and so he took Xi Shi with him to where the king could not find her. Fan later became a rich businessman. He and Xi Shi died in the same year.
The second beauty was Wang Zhaojun (52 BC—19 BC) in West Han Dynasty (206 BC—8 AD). A legend about her beauty goes like that when she went to marry the Mongolian prince and on her way there, and when the wild geese in the north saw her beauty and became so listless that they fell down from the sky. When in teens, Wang was selected to be a palace maid. All maids in the palace wished to get in the preference of the emperor and be made an imperial concubine. They asked the palace painter Mao Yanshou to paint their portraits beautiful because the portraits would be sent to the emperor who would choose the most beautiful as his imperial concubines. Most maids bribed the painter, but Wang refused to bribe him so that he painted Wang with some facial defects. She was of course not to remain as a maid. The Mongolian in the north often made war against Han Dynasty, and to maintain peace along the border, Han Dynasty often held out the olive branch by marrying a princess to the Mongolian prince, but actually, a palace maid was chosen and sent to Mongolia as a princess. This time Wang was chosen for the purpose. Before her departure, as a rule, she was summoned to the presence of the emperor. When the emperor, seeing her beauty, regretted to marry her away. However, for the peace of the nation, he had to keep his promise. Anyway, he killed the painter for painting Wang so ugly. Wang died in Mongolia at the age of 33. (1)
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The third one was Diao Chan (dates of birth and death unknown) who lived in East Han Dynasty (25 AD—220 AD). She liked to worship the moon goddess in the courtyard when it was full moon in the sky every month. A legend about her beauty goes like that whenever she worshiped the moon goddess, the moon lost its sheen as if shaded by her beauty. Her family name was Ren and her maiden name was Hongchang. She was very clever and at the age of fifteen, was chosen to work in the palace as a maid in charge of the emperor's clothes and headgear. Her job title was Diao Chan, hence she was known in history by her job title. Except for certain historians, common people don't know her real name. When the palace fell in chaos, she escaped and was adopted by the high official Wang Yong (137-192 AD). Then a bad courtier Dong Zhuo (141—05/22/192 AD) controlled the court. The emperor was only a puppet. He had an adopted son, Luu Bu (birth day unknown and died on 02/07/199), who was the bravest knight at the time. Dong and Luu were both lewd men. Wang Yong always wanted to get rid of Dong Zhuo and restore the power to the emperor. Hr harbored a scheme, the Chinese called Beauty Strategy. First he invited Luu to his home for dinner. During the dinner time, he let Diao Chan come out to dance before Luu. Since Luu was a lewd man, he immediately fell in love with the beauty. Luu expressed his wish to marry the girl and Wang gave his ascent. Only he needed time to prepare for dowry, which was reasonable. So Luu left in great ecstasy. Next day, Wang invited Dong Zhou to his home for dinner. At dinner he also let the girl come out to dance before Dong, who liked the girl at the first sight. Dong ordered Wang to send the girl to his residence, which Wang never dared to refuse. A few days afterwards, when Luu came to ask to fix a date for his wedding, Wang told him that his adoptive father Dong took his future wife, which enraged Luu. One day he met the girl in the garden of Dong, the girl instigated him to kill Dong and marry her, which he did. And he did marry the girl.
Since Yang's was a big family, they had a huge residence divided in three sections. The front section was the servant quarters. The middle section was the main living part for family members. The last section was the place for the worshiping of the ancestors. They had a large garden in the back of the residence with an artificial lake and a zigzag bridge over it. There were grottoes and some pavilions dotting here and there among flowers and trees. This was typical Chinese architecture for a big family residence in old time. There was a small pond, later called Imperial Concubine Pond, below Watch-River Pavilion. It was said that the girl Yang used to wash her hair in the lucid pond.
Her father, Yang XuanTan, was an official in Shuzhou and died when Yang was ten. Then she went to live with her uncle, Yang XuanGui, also an official, in HeNan province. Generally, girls in big families were well educated. They were taught to read and write, to dance and play some musical instruments, and to paint. Yang Yuhuan was talented in dancing.(2)
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Her brother was Yang Gua, who was an official in the central government.
Her famous male cousin was Yang Guozhong (birth day unknown and died in the fifth moon of 756 AD). When young, he was nothing, despised by all the neighbors for leading a low life. Then he joined the army in Sichuan province and later was promoted to be a petty officer. But he was still poor. At the end of his three year's term, he had even no money to pay for his board and food in any inn to return home. Anyway, he often visited the family of Yang Xuantan, though Xuantan was already dead. He had an affair with the second sister of Imperial Concubine Yang, who had three sister and one brother, besides this cousin.
The most active sister was Yang Yuyao, who was also beautiful and had affairs with her cousin Yang Guozhong. She was afterwards married to Pei and gave birth to a son and a daughter for him. Pei died soon.
At that time, the emperor on the throne was Xuanzong of Tang Dynasty (618—907 AC). He was the grandson of Empress Wu the Great. Now the emperor wanted to find a girl as the wife of his favorite son, Prince Shou, who had already reached the age to marry. Generally, the Tang emperors would look for girls for their sons from Wei family, Yang family, or Wu family.
Yang XuanAo, the uncle of Yang Yuhuan, had worked as a matchmaker to select girls for sons of the imperial family, and of course, he learned the message that the emperor wanted to find a girl for his son. Since Yang Yuhuan was his niece and was the most beautiful girl among all girls of Yang family, he decided to make his niece be the wife of Prince Shou. Through his influence with the new matchmaker, he succeeded in putting the name of his niece in the list of selection. After several interviews like through a sieve, Yang Yuhuan was at last chosen to be the wife of the imperial son. She now crossed the threshold to enter the imperial circle. (3)
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The wedding ceremony of Prince Shou and Princess-in-law Yang took place in Luoyang city. They lived there less than a year and then Prince Shou took his wife back to ChangAn city, the capital, to see his father, the emperor, in the tenth moon of 736 AD. But he could never imagine that as soon as he arrived in the capital, he was unexpectedly involved in a political plot, schemed by his mother, the imperial concubine Wuhui. The imperial concubine Wuhui always wanted her son, Prince Shou to be the crown prince and looked for a chance to get rid of Crown Prince Ying.
In the eleventh moon of 736, Crown Prince Ying, the eldest son of the emperor, Prince E, the fifth son , and Prince Guang, the eighth son, gathered in their palace residence and complained about their mothers out of the favor of the emperor. Yang Hui, the son-in-law of the imperial concubine Wuhui, came to know it and reported to Wuhui. Wuhui found a chance to report to Emperor Xuanzong, adding that the three princes formed a clique. The emperor hated anyone to form a clique behind his back, afraid that they would plot against him. The emperor fell in great fury and summoned the premier to consult him about deposing the crown prince and other two princes.
The premier Zhang Jiuling (678—740) was an upright man. He said to the emperor that as there was no evidence against them, His Majesty should not rashly make the decision to depose them. The imperial concubine Wuhui learned it and sent someone to bribe Zhang, who refused and reported to the emperor about the bribery. The emperor was moved and made up his mind not to depose the three princes. Wuhui's scheme failed.
Some time afterwards, Wuhui created some rumors about Premier Zhang and caused Zhang to be demoted. The next premier was Li Linfu (683—752), who was a wicked sly person. To please the imperial concubine Wuhui, he often sang praises of Prince Shou before the emperor.
In the fourth moon of 737, Wuhui secretly told her son-in-law to spread rumor that the crown prince and other two princes were planning a mutiny. When the emperor was told the rumor, he sent for Premier Li for consultation. Li said that it was the emperor's family affairs and the emperor could make whatever decision he thought fit. Therefore, the three sons were executed and deprived of their titles of prince. (4)
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文章时间: 2018-3-25 周日, 下午8:24    标题: 引用回复

However, after a few days, the emperor thought that there was something wrong with the case. He killed three of his own sons without any evidence. He regretted. Just then, Premier Li came to see him and reminded him of the vacancy of crown prince, adding his suggestion that Prince Shou should be the right person for it. The emperor didn't say anything about it.
One day, a courtier Pei Zhen came to see the emperor and said that he heard that someone had suggested Prince Shou to be the crown prince. He reminded the emperor of the fact that people were all complaining that the crown prince had been wrongly killed. So it was not the right time to make Prince Shou the crown prince. Besides, through seniority, there were some elder brothers to be considered first. The emperor knew that it was the right consideration. When Premier Li put up his proposal again to make Prince Shou crown prince, the emperor said, “I won't select him.”
The emperor had a favorite eunuch named Gao Lishi. Although a eunuch was low in social status, as a favorite eunuch of the emperor, who often listened to him, he had great power. One day the head eunuch said to the emperor, “Your slave know that Your Majesty can't decide which princes to be the crown prince. In your slave's humble opinion, it should go by seniority.” The emperor said, “You are right.” In the sixth moon of 738, the emperor declared his decision that his third son, Prince Zhong, should be the crown prince. The hope and plan of imperial concubine Wuhui ended in nothing. She died soon.
Prince Shou and Yang Yuhuan retired to their own residence and lived a peaceful life for the next five years. During these five years, Yang Yuhuan didn't bear any sons, nor daughters, for Prince Shou. Readers may think that Yang Yuhuan would thus lead her smooth life till the end.
However, her fate was differently arranged. She was destined to give us readers a touching romantic love story. On the eleventh day of the tenth moon in 740, when she was twenty-two years old, the turning point of her fate befell her. That day, the emperor came to Huaqing Palace on a short vacation as usual. It was the twenty-second time to come here. But on the day, he summoned Yang Yuhuan to the Huaqing Palace to meet him. Why did he want to see the wife of Prince Shou there? It was because since his imperial concubine Wuhui died, the emperor had had an empty feeling for his ★违反论坛条例!★ life. To make him happy, his head eunuch went to the Yangtze River area to seek beautiful girls for him. At last, he found a beautiful girl by the name of Jiang Caiping, daughter of a doctor. She was so talented. She could read and write, versed in poetry, a renowned poetess in the neighborhood. She could also paint, and play zither and chess. The head eunuch took her to the capital in the north. The emperor liked her very much and made her his Imperial Concubine Plum because the girl loved plum blossoms. The emperor ordered plum trees to be planted round where she lived. After several years, the emperor grew tired of Imperial Concubine Plum and needed a new girl. (5)
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文章时间: 2018-4-01 周日, 下午9:13    标题: 引用回复

The head eunuch knew the emperor best and hinted to have Yang Yuhuan as his next favorite. That year, Yang was only twenty-two while the emperor was already fifty-six, with age difference of thirty-four years. When Yang arrived in the palace, the emperor just expressed his wish to have Yang for his imperial concubine. Of course, Yang could not reject the emperor, who could decide her life or death. After a few days' stay, Yang was allowed to return to her own residence, as she was still the wife of his son.
During her stay, the famous tune of “Rainbow-Colored and Feather-Adorned Dress” was played and Yang Yuhuan danced to the tune. When she left, the emperor gave her a gold hairpin and a jewelry box inset on the surface with gold, silver, and jade specks.
People always are curious to know why Yang Yuhuan was really in love with the old emperor, thirty-four years older than she. The emperor could have been her father. The reasons were, besides yielding to the power of the emperor, the emperor was a handsome person and also talented in many respects, while her present husband Prince Shou was not romantic, without talents. The emperor could practice calligraphy well. Traveler can still see the tablet with his calligraphy on in XiAn city. The place is called Tablet Forest with a lot of other tablets there. He also liked music, could compose music and play some musical instruments, especially could beat a kind of drum called Jie Drum beautifully. A Jie drum was made of wood, somewhat round like a barrel, but thinner in the middle. The two ends were covered with dried goat skin. It was placed levelly on a shelf and was played on both ends with two drumsticks. (Readers can see pictures of Jie drum by copying and pasting these two Chinese characters 羯鼓 into Google image search box.) Therefore, Yang Yuhuan could dance to the beating tune of the drum played by the emperor. They could really form a music couple in spite of the great age difference. They had true love between them and so handed down to us the moving love tale.
In Tang Dynasty, moral for marriage was loose. The grandmother of the emperor, Empress Wu the Great (readers can get the fact from my book of this same title), became a nun after her first husband died and before she married her second husband, the son of her first husband. Therefore, the emperor followed this example, with a little change, and so Yang Yuhuan became a female taoist in the imperial temple. What is the difference between a nun and a taoist? Besides the different clothes, a nun must shave off all her hair, while a taoist put up her hair in a knot. When a nun wants to shift back to be a lay person, she must let her hair grow long, while a taoist is easy to shift back by just letting her hair down. So the emperor chose to make Yang Yuhuan go the easy way.(6)
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文章时间: 2018-4-08 周日, 下午8:49    标题: 引用回复

When Yang Yuhuan was back home, she felt restless. But Prince Shou knew nothing about it and passed his everyday as usual. The emperor was more restless and wanted to have the beauty beside him right away. Anyway, that a father-in-law possessed his daughter-in-law by force was really a scandal though no one could say NO to him. It was better to get her in a roundabout way. So Yang Yuhuan became a female taoist in the imperial temple, belonging to the imperial family. And her taoist name was Taizhen. So sometimes people called her Yang Taizhen. Before the emperor took Taizhen to his palace, he found another wife for his son to comfort him.
In winter of 741, Taizhen went with the emperor to Huaqing palace on Mt. Li, where there was a hot spring for bath. So Huaqing palace was also called Huaqing Pond, a small artificial pond for bath. That time, the emperor and Taizhen stayed longer, from the nineteenth day of the tenth moon to the fourteenth day of the eleventh moon. This time, when the emperor went back, he took Yang Taizhen with him to his residence—Xingqing Hall, not to return to the temple. From then on, Yang Taizhen began to live with the emperor though she didn't get the title of imperial concubine yet. The emperor was still afraid of gossiping among people.
After three years of living together, the emperor at length conferred the title of imperial concubine to Yang Taizhen. That was in 745 after the emperor appointed the daughter of the courtier Wei Zhaoxun to be the next wife of his son Prince Shou. In feudal society of China, an emperor could do anything he liked. He could take the wife of his son to be his concubine. He could also the daughter of any courtier to be the wife of any son of another courtier. The parents could not refuse. On the contrary, they must think it was a great honor to them and must thank the emperor. If the son and the daughter could not get along well after marriage, it was their fate. They could not make any complaints against the emperor.
The emperor gave a new wife to his son as a compensation and then he rightfully declared his son's old wife to be his new imperial concubine. There was no empress any more. Anyway, the emperor didn't make Yang the empress, and in reality, Yang enjoyed her status in the palace like an empress.
Before Imperial Concubine Yang entered the palace, Imperial Concubine Plum had been the favorite of the emperor. As the time elapsed, her beauty gradually faded. When Imperial Concubine Yang came, beautiful and young, the emperor's favor transferred from Imperial Concubine Plum to Imperial Concubine Yang. Besides, it was said that Imperial Concubine Yang a little resembled the deceased Imperial concubine Wuhui. So Imperial Concubine Plum was ignored and led a lonely and quiet life. (7)
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文章时间: 2018-4-15 周日, 下午9:46    标题: 引用回复

One night, the emperor went to sleep alone in West Cuihua Pavilion. He suddenly thought of Imperial Concubine Plum and sent a eunuch to fetch her there. They lay side by side in bed, resuming their former heart-to-heart talk. Then Imperial concubine Yang came to know it and rushed to the pavilion. Fearing that the two women might quarrel or even fight, emperor bade Imperial Concubine Plum to hide somewhere in the room. Imperial Concubine Yang dashed into the room and asked the emperor, “Where is the Plum Genie” The emperor said, “In her own pavilion.” Yang said, “Why not send for her and we can make merry together.” The emperor made no answer and ignored her. Yang began to cry and left for her mother's home. Before long, the emperor thought of her and sent a eunuch to fetch her to the palace.
Once the emperor thought of Imperial concubine Plum again and sent a eunuch to give her a pearl necklace. She returned the necklace with a poem, which read like this:
My two eyebrows are not drawn for long,
My tears smear my torn and worn red gown.
I've never put makeup in my pavilion ever since,
Why give me pearl necklace to solace my loneliness?
What was the end of Imperial concubine Plum? Many years hereafter, when a warlord An Lushan rebelled and marched into the capital, the emperor and Imperial Concubine Yang escaped southwest, and Imperial Concubine Plum made suicide by throwing herself into a well, fearful of being raped by the rioters.
After Yang Taizhen became an imperial concubine, her former husband, Prince Shou, turned to be her stepson. When he came to visit the emperor, his father, if Imperial Concubine Yang was present, he must kowtow to her and call her stepmother. A weird relationship. (Cool
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