100 Famous Women in China

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.

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.

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)

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)

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)

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)

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 sex 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)

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)

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)

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. (8)

As a rule, once a girl became an imperial concubine, all her family members would get titles. First,her deceased father was given a posthumous honor of the title of the duke of Qi, and her uncle, yang XuanGui, was made the head of the department in charge of feast. Her brother was promoted, too. Especially her male cousin, Yang Guozhong, a low cad before, got promotion after promotion, because he could please the flatter the emperor, till at last, he was made the premier after the death of Li Linfu, the former premier. Yang Guozhong did a lot of bad things like taking briberies and appointing those bribers to be high officials. His two sons married two princesses.
        Yang Guozhong was apt to play a kind of game called E-Pu. Each player had five chessmen and whoever moved the chessmen to the end line won the game. Luckily for him, the emperor also liked to play this kind of game. When he found that Yang Guozhong could play so well, he liked Yang so much that he made Yang his premier despite that Yang had no ability to run the country well.
        The emperor was so fond of Imperial Concubine Yang, who was like his inseparable shadow, he neglected his levees. He stopped receiving his courtiers and discussing with them the national affairs. He trusted everything to Yang Guozhong, who became the most powerful man of the time. No courtiers dared to offend him unless he didn't care misfortunes befalling him or even death. But Yang Guozhong had gradually and unawares made a lot of personal enemies. His greatest and decisive foe was the warlord An Lushan. In Tang Dynasty, a warlord had really the title of lord administered a certain area, but still obeyed the central government. Only he had his own army. He obeyed the central government solely in name.
        Back to the brief biography of Yang Guozhong. In 745, he was appointed a staff official, and  hen promoted to be a judge in a city to sentence criminals. In 747, he was summoned to the capital to be a secretarial clerk in the central government. In 748, he had fifteen titles, and four years later, in 752, he became the premier. He reached the peak of his life. His titles were almost as many as forty more. The comparatively important ones were: equivalent to the head of the prosecutor's department; equivalent to the minister of the fiscal ministry; equivalent to the general manager of central bank; equivalent to the head librarian of the national library; equivalent to the minister of the human resources ministry; equivalent to the minister of the labor ministry, etc. etc.
        In Tang Dynasty, female relatives of the imperial concubine would get honorary titles, generally Her Ladyship so-and-so. First, her mother was conferred the title of the Ladyship of Liang. Her eldest sister the ladyship of Han, her third sister the ladyship of Guo, and her eighth sister the ladyship of Qin. As Imperial Concubine Yang often thought of her sisters, the three sisters were allowed to move and live in the capital. But Imperial concubine Yang could not foresee that her third sister would give her trouble once she arrived in the capital. (9)

Ladyship Guo (?--756) had the maiden name Yang Yuyao while other sisters' maiden names were unknown. Ladyship Guo was beautiful, but lewd. She had had affairs with Yang Guozhong, her distant cousin, before she was married. Then she was married to the Pei family and gave birth to a son Pei Hui and a daughter. When she became Ladyship Guo, her son married a princess and her daughter was the wife of a prince.
        As the three sisters moved into the capital, the emperor gave each a big residence and often summoned them to the palace. They feasted and made merry together. The three sisters, especially the Ladyship Guo, all got in the favor of the emperor. Before long, the lewd Ladyship Guo had affairs with the emperor, for which Imperial Concubine Yang had quarrels with this sister. Ladyship Guo could even directly go into the palace without waiting for the summon from the emperor. A famous poet Zhang Gu wrote a poem about her:
        Ladyship Guo enjoys the imperial favor,
        She often rides into the palace at dawn.
        She's afraid make-up will dirty her beauty,
        Only pencils eyebrows lightly to see the emperor.
She became another favorite of the emperor, and even the daughters of the emperor were afraid to offend her or the Yang family. Once two princesses did offend the Yang family, the emperor was angry and took back all the things that he had gifted to those two daughters, and as a result, their husbands were expelled from government offices.
        Now the end of the Ladyship Guo. In the rebellion of the warlord An Lushan and his successor (the events will be narrated in the later chapters), Imperial Concubine Yang and her cousin Premier Yang Guozhong both died. The other two sisters were also killed in the chaos. Ladyship Guo, her son and the wife of Premier Yang escaped from the capital to Chencang town. The mayor of the town hated the Yang family just like all people at large since the Yang family members did lots of bad things. When he was told that the three of the Yang family came to the town, he wanted to catch them and began to chase them. Ladyship Guo killed her son and the wife of her cousin. She wanted to kill herself too, but did not succeed. The mayor got her and put her in prison. Later she died in the prison and was buried in a suburb of the town. (10)

An Lushan (703—01/29/757) was a man of minority in the north. He fought for Tang Dynasty and won great martial merits so that he became a lord ruling over three administrative districts. At first, he and Yang Guozhong had joint benefits, but later, when An became a lord, Yang was so jealous of him and started to hate him. Thus, yang laid the foundation of An's rebellion.
        As a lord, An must from time to time come to the capital to report to the emperor what had happened in his districts. Sometimes, he saw Imperial Concubine yang with the emperor. He was also struck with her beauty. On the side of Imperial Concubine Yang, she was fully aware of the great age difference between the emperor and  herself. Generally speaking, the old emperor must die before her and she knew that the successor, anyone of the emperor's sons, would do unfavorable things to her. She must have someone to back her up for her own safety. She thought that An was a man she could rely for the purpose. Therefore, she often sent for An to see her when the emperor was attending to national business.  Gradually, they made love to each other as An was much younger and stronger than the old emperor.
        A legend about their love affairs goes like that once during the love-making, An accidentally made a scratch on the skin of one of her breasts. Imperial Concubine Yang was afraid that the emperor would see it when they were together, and so she put a piece of brocade over the spot as a decoration. It was said that this was the origination of the bra nowadays. Believe it or not.
        An had a potbelly, and once the emperor asked him what was inside his big belly. An replied that inside was his loyalty to the emperor, who was very happy to hear it. Imperial Concubine Yang liked to take bath and often went alone to Huaqing Pond for it. On her way there, her bodyguards would hold up long pieces of cloth on both sides to form a lane so that no bystanders or passers-by could see her in a imperial coach.
        Sometimes she took An along with her to have bath there. Once after An finished his bath, yang ordered her palace maids to put big swaddling clothes on An as if he was a baby. To flatter Yang, An began to call Yang mom. When the emperor heard of it, he gave An baby bath gift. From then on, An openly called Yang mom, but he never called the emperor dad. When asked why, he said that the minority he belonged to only knew mothers, never knew fathers. The emperor laughed it off. (11)

Li Bai (02/08701—12/762) was one of the best known poets in Chinese history. He was a poetic genius and people named him a deity of poetry. He also knew some foreign language. Historians think that he was born in the present Kyrgyzstan in Mid-Asia (At that time, it belonged to Tang Dynasty) and at the age of five, his family moved to Sichuan province in the west of China. Emperors of Tang Dynasty, their family name was also Li. Historians think that the imperial family and Li Bai's family came from the same ancestors.
        Li Ke, Li Bai's father, was an officer in Ren town. In 705, Li Bai began his education and in 710, he began to learn all the Chinese classics. In 715, he started to learn swordsmanship. He liked traveling and loved to drink wine, often until drunken. So in the olden time, almost every wine house had put up on the wall a placard, bearing these words, 「Drink is the good habit of Li Bai.」
        In the eighth moon of 742, he went to the capital. As the emperor had long heard his fame, he summoned Li Bai to his presence. Then Li had the chance to know Imperial Concubine Yang, and whenever the emperor and Yang went to Huaqing Pond, they would take Li along and asked Li to write poems for the occasion. Li became the palace poet, if this could be his title. He was not a courtier, nor an official.
        A legend about Li Bai goes like this: there was Bohai State in the northeast of China, which was a vassal state to Tang Dynasty. However, any vassal state always wanted to be independent. So they sent a messenger carrying the Credentials in their own language, saying that if Tang Dynasty had such a talented man that could read their language and write a letter of reply to them, they would always obey Tang Dynasty, or they would be independent. At a levee, the emperor showed the Credentials to all the courtiers, but none of them could read the language. When Li Bai was told about it, Li offered to write the letter of reply. So he came to the levee and translated the Credentials to the emperor. Then he was asked to write a letter of reply, he put up some demands. Because he was eccentric, he had offended some courtiers, including premier Yang Guozhong, by looking down on them as no rivals to him in learning. The head eunuch Gao Lishi didn't like him, too. Now Li took this opportunity to avenge on them. When he sat down at a table, he wanted the head eunuch to take off his shoes so that he could sit cross-legged more comfortably. Then he wanted premier Yang to grind the ink bar in water on the ink slab of stone so that he could dip his brush in the inky water and write on paper. These were thought as insult. Anyway, Li wrote the letter of reply in the language of Bohai State. The messenger was subdued and got the letter back to his state. (12)

Although Li Bai had offended some important persons, the emperor and Imperial Concubine Yang still liked him. One day in the late spring of 743, when the emperor and Imperial Concubine Yang were in the Eaglewood Pavilion and watched the peony in bloom. The emperor summoned palace musicians and wanted them to sing something new. But Li Guinian, the head musician and singer, had nothing new to provide. Therefore, the emperor sent him to find Li Bai so that he could compose new poems to the music. Li Guinian went to the wine house Li Bai frequented and saw Li Bai there, but drunk. Li Bai was carried to the palace. Imperial Concubine Yang bade a maid to sprinkle some cold water on his face, and presently, Li Bai came to like from a swoon. The emperor asked him to get some new poems. So Li Bai wrote three poems to sing the praise of Yang. They read respectively in the following:
The first one,
        Clouds think of dress while flowers think of visage,
        Spring winds brush the railing, and dews dense.
        If not seen on top of the Jade Mountain*,
        Will meet at Jade Terrace* under the moon.
        *Are places where goddesses dwell.
The second one,
        A red peony with dew spread fragrance,
        Goddess on Wu Hill heart-broken in vain*.
        If Ask who is like her in Han Palace,
        It's lovely Flying Swallow** wearing new dress.
        *meaning no need to meet goddess when he had his Yang.
        **Flying Swallow is the name of the queen in Han Dynasty.
The third one,
        Flowers and the Beauty are both happy,
        They have Emperor look at them smilingly.
        Spring breezes solace Emperor in his sorrow,
        As he leans on north railing of Eaglewood Pavilion.
Then someone who hated Li Bai complained to Imperial Concubine Yang that it was not a good comparison of Yang to Flying Swallow in Han palace, because Flying Swallow was not a good woman. So Imperial Concubine Yang began to dislike Li Bai.(13)

Li Bai felt that it would not be good for him to stay longer in the palace. Next year, he left the capital forever. Then he started to travel again. He met Du Fu (712—770) and they turned to be best friends ever since. When An Lushan rebelled, wishing to help quench the rebellion, Li Bai accepted the invitation of Prince Yong in the twelfth moon of 756, to be his counselor. But before long, Prince Yong offended the emperor, and was executed. All his men were taken as prisoners. Li Bai was exiled to somewhere in the present Guizhou province in the southwest of China. On the way, he was pardoned. He was then fifty-nine. When he reached the age of sixty-one, he was told that General Li Guangbi was commanding a large army to attach the rebels, he wanted to join them, but he had to return halfway, because he fell sick. Next year he died of some kind of disease and was buried at Dangtu.
        A legend about his death goes like that he was watching the bright moon, as he had written a lot of poems about the moon, but he was then drunk. He wanted to pick up the moon in the water and fell in the river and was drowned. A romantic death.
        When Imperial Concubine Yang found the secret meeting of the emperor with Imperial Concubine Plum, she was unhappy. The emperor was so fond of Yang and did not want her to be unhappy. So on the Double Seventh Night (7th night of 7th moon every lunar year), the emperor met Yang in Longevity Hall in the palace. There is a legend about Double Seventh Night. The youngest daughter of the mother goddess, the girl weaver, stole from heaven to the human world to enjoy herself. Then she came across the cowboy, a mortal. She fell in love with him. The mother goddess learned it and got infuriated. She ordered the daughter to come back to heaven and her daughter had to obey. But the cowboy did not want to part with the beautiful girl and ran after her. The mother goddess used her hairpin and drew a line between her daughter and the cowboy. The line she drew became a celestial river (denoting the Milky Way in the sky). The cowboy could not cross it and cried himself to be sick. The daughter sympathized with the cowboy and begged her mother to have pity on the cowboy. Therefore, the mother goddess agreed for them to meet once a year on the Double Seventh Night. But the cowboy had no way to cross the celestial river. It was said that magpies formed a bridge, magpie bridge, to help the cowboy to go over the river. However, there is another end for the legend. The mother goddess changed her daughter, the girl weaver, to be Vega and the cowboy to be Altair so that they could only look at each other across the Milky Way.(14)

On that night, the emperor and Yang made their love vow about their eternal love, not just in this life, but also in every next life, till eternity. Imperial Concubine Yang liked to eat litchi, which only grew in the south of China (at that time). To please the girl he deeply loved, the emperor ordered fresh litchi to be fetched to the capital by military dispatch on horseback. Du Mu, a famous poet of Tang Dynasty, had a couplet to describe this event:
        As a horse gallops through dusts, the imperial concubine smiles;
        And no one knows that it』s the litchi that is coming.
The poet's sarcasm lies there: military dispatch should be used for conveying urgent military messages, not for the purpose to satisfy the personal taste of an imperial concubine.
        Once Imperial Concubine Yang had a quarrel with the emperor. Generally no one dared to bicker with the emperor. Only Yang knew that the emperor loved her so much that he would not take it to heart if she quarreled with him. But this time, the emperor got furious and drove her away from the palace. Yang had to go back to her mother's residence. Anyway, after a while, the emperor thought of Yang and sent the eunuch Zhang Taoguang there to see how the imperial concubine passed her days. Seizing the opportunity, Yang cut a strand of her hair and let the eunuch take it to the emperor. Seeing this, the emperor was scared, because in old Chinese tradition, if a girl cut a strand of her hair and sent it to the boy, it meant that she would have nothing to do with the boy any more. Their relationship would thus end. That's why the emperor was afraid as he was so fond of Yang. Therefore, he sent his favorite eunuch Gao Lishi to fetch Yang back to the palace. Imperial Concubine Yang used it just as a method to go back to the side of the emperor. So when Gao Lishi came to take her back to the palace, she was delighted and immediately got into the coach. And the emperor and Yang reconciled.
        The second offense happened one morning in the seventh moon of 746. She made the emperor enraged, and the emperor drove her away again. But at lunch time, the emperor began to think of her and he refused to eat anything. His favorite eunuch wanted to assuage the emperor and mentioned that since the imperial concubine left in a hurry, she did not take all the stuff she needed. Could his slave gather all the things and take to her? The emperor gave his consent. Then her clothes, cosmetic things, her trinkets, and so on and so forth, loaded one hundred carts. The emperor also let the eunuch bring her the food she liked. In the afternoon, the emperor thought of Yang more and got restless. The eunuch implored the emperor by continuous kowtowing to let the imperial concubine back to the palace. So in the evening, Imperial Concubine Yang was permitted to come back. Yang also admitted her wrong doing and begged the pardon of the emperor. So the emperor and Yang made up again.
        The rebellion started on12/16/755 AD and ended on 02/07/763, almost seven years. (15)

At the beginning of Tang Dynasty (618—907 AC), their military forces were almost centered round the capital for the purpose of strong defense. The farther from the capital, the weaker was the defense force. At the north frontier, the Tang government totally entrusted the defense on minorities. So the minorities had their own troops. Since Tang Dynasty enjoyed long-time peace till the present emperor, the army was not used to fighting and the whole forces became weak while the forces of the minorities became strong. The strongest army belonged to An Lushan, a minority nobility. He had an ambition to invade Tang Dynasty and rule over it. He just waited for a chance.
        The emperor Xuanzong, since he had Imperial Concubine Yang, had neglected the national affairs and let the premier Yang Guozhong, the cousin of the imperial concubine, decide on everything. Yang Guozhong, a low cad when young, had an ability to flatter, to please anyone he wanted to. As now he became the imperial brother-in-law, he did everything to please the emperor and so he got the entire trust from the emperor. Under his administration, the whole officialdom went corrupt. Common people led a bitter life and hated Yang family. They wished that some day someone would come to kill all the Yang family members.
        As An Lushan got stronger, Yang Guozhong felt a threat from An and was afraid that some day An would endanger his power and safety. Therefore, he always slandered An to the emperor. Then, An felt a threat from Yang, too. So An Lushan revolted using the excuse to expel Yang Guozhong from the government lest he should bring more harm to the nation and the people. At that time, Tang government had only 80,000 soldiers to defend the capital while An had 150,000 soldiers, as other minorities all obeyed and supported An.
        On the ninth day of the eleventh moon of lunar calendar (equivalent to 12/16 AD) in 755, in Fanyang city, An Lushan declared his mutiny against Tang government. Most towns and cities in the north were soon taken by An's troops. When the emperor was reported about the insurrection on the fourteenth day of the same moon, he ordered general Feng Changqing to defend Luoyang city, which was a strategic spot in battles. If An wanted to come to the capital, he must occupy Luoyang city first. Then the emperor appointed his sixth son Prince Rong to be the grand marshal and general Gao Xianzhi as the vice marshal. (16)


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Accordingly, An marched to attack Luoyang city and, on the twelfth day of the twelfth moon, he entered the city. Generals Feng and Gao had to escape to the city more important strategically, which was called Tong Pass. Later, the emperor executed both for failure of the defense of Luoyang city, and appointed another general Ge Shuhan as the vice marshal in charge of the defense of Tong Pass, which was easy to defend and hard to attack.
        On the first day of the first moon next year, An Lushan declared himself to be the emperor of Dahan Dynasty. As Tong Pass was difficult to take, General Ge adopted the tactic to void direct combat and only stayed in the city. In the first moon of 756, An Lushan sent his son An Qingxu to assault the city, but was defeated by general Ge. An's army was blocked and could not make any progress forward for several months. Then An Lushan got a stratagem and ordered his general Cui Qianyou to conceal the strong troopers somewhere,  and displayed his old, weak, or even sick soldiers to Tang's spy. When the  emperor got the false information, he issued an edict to general Ge to take the initiative to assail the rebellious army. Although Ge knew that it was a wrong decision, he had to obey, with sighs and tears for the predictable failure.  
        On the fourth day of the sixth moon, general Ge was forced to lead his army out from the city and marched to attack An's army. An's general Cui laid an ambush on the south ridge of the mountains, between which there was a narrow valley the Tang army must go through if they wanted to attack An's army. It means that Tang troops fell into the ambush unexpectedly. When arrows and stones came down from the mountains, Tang soldiers had to scatter for shelters and many were killed. When Ge wanted to defend the city, he had gathered 200,000 men. After the battle, he had only 8,000 left when he escaped to the city. On the ninth day, general Cui occupied the city and general Ge escaped again to a small town nearby. Finally he was captured by An's army. Then An's army marched toward ChangAn city, the capital of Tang Dynasty. (17)

At the same time, a detachment of the revolting army was sent to attack Jiuyang town to the east of the capital. Zhang Xun, the general in charge to defend the town, had only 8,000 soldiers against 130,000 rebellious troops. For many times, he defeated the assault of the enemies. He and his soldiers held the town firmly for three hundred days, which gave time for the government to gather troops. But he ran short of provisions and other necessities until the day he had not but to kill his own wife as food to feed his soldiers. In China, in great famine, people would eat dead bodies. If they could not find dead bodies, they would exchange each other's babies. One family ate another family's baby. Such things did happen in the history of China. However, as the enemies outnumbered Zhang's troops, Zhang at lost fought to death and the town was occupied by the enemies. Thirteen days afterwards, the government army came and subdued the enemies. The revolt thus ended.
        When the emperor was reported of the approach of the rebellious army, he escaped south together with his imperial family members and also Imperial Concubine Yang and Yang family members, guarded all the way by his imperial bodyguards. One day when they reached the place called Makuipo, the soldiers killed Yang Guozhong, the premier and cousin of Imperial Concubine Yang, as they had long held a drudge against the Yang family. After they killed all Yang family members, they were not satisfied and demanded the emperor to let the imperial concubine die. They were afraid that if the imperial concubine was still alive when peace restored, she would surely revenge the death of her family members on the soldiers. Their leader General Chen put up the demand to the emperor, who, for his own safety, had to agree. So Imperial Concubine Yang hanged herself on a tree and was buried on the spot. But after the rebellious army was conquered and peace was restored, the emperor went back to the capital. Then he sent his favorite eunuch there for the purpose to carry the body of the imperial concubine Yang back to the capital and re-bury her among the imperial graves. When the temporary tomb was dug open, there was no corpse seen. It was empty.
        Therefore, the emperor thought that Yang was not dead and went to some islands to live with goddesses there. Chinese people in the ancient time believed that there were islands in the East Sea, on which dwelt goddesses. Then the emperor asked a taoist from Linqiong to search for the soul of the Imperial Concubine Yang from heaven to the nether world, including those islands on the sea.  Then the legend was continued in a poem by a famous poet at the end of this tale.
        Another legend about her end goes like that when the emperor ordered the death of Imperial Concubine Yang, someone in the bodyguards took Yang away for her beauty and they hid somewhere to lead a common life as an ordinary couple. That's why the temporary tomb was empty.
        And still another legend coming from Japan is like that the bodyguards leader General Chen could not harden his heart to kill such a beauty and used one of her maids to die instead of her. He secretly had someone to escort her to Japan. She was warmly welcomed in Japan as an imperial concubine from Tang Dynasty. She lived there for thirty years more and died at the age of sixth-eight. The famous Japanese movie star Momoe Yamaguchi declared that she was the descendant of the imperial concubine Yang. (18)