The Four Ancient Beauties are Diaochan, Xishi, Wang Zhaojun and Yang Guifei.
It is said that their beauty would shut out the moon, put the flowers to shame, and make the fish sink and the geese fall. They are regarded as the most beautiful women in the Chinese history. In the Chinese history, they occupied very important position.
Not only their breath-taking beauty, but also their roles in the history make them immortal. As an ambassador for national unity, a noble concubine who made a country failed, or a beautiful woman spy who changed the situation of a war, they all bore special historical mission.
Xishi
Xishi (497 BC) was a legendary beauty of ancient China. She has been described as "equally charming in both heavy and light makeup", "as appealing when she frowns as when she smiles". Of her figure it has been said that "were she plump, you would admire her plumpness, were she thin you would admire her for being slender". She is celebrated as a woman of extraordinary natural beauty with a universal appeal. Although many have praised Xishi's looks, there is but little mention of her notable virtue - she had a great love for her country and her people.
Xishi was the daughter of a tea trader from Ningluo Mountain village in the Zhuji county in Zhejiang Province. This comprised a part of the ancient state of Yue.
When the state of Yue was vanquished by the state of Wu, the King of Yue, Gou Jian was forced to serve the Prince of Wu for three years. On his release, King Gou Jian slept on brushwood and drank gall before each meal to remind himself of the humiliation his country had suffered. He commissioned men to search far and wide for a woman whom he could send as a tribute to Prince Fuchai of Wu. Xishi, whose beauty was much talked of even from early childhood, was selected for this task and sent to the capital.
King Gou Jian approved of the choice and had Xishi dressed in fine robes. He had her trained in royal court etiquette. Gou Jian ordered his minister Fan Li to take Xishi to the Prince of Wu as a tribute gift from Yue. During the journey, Xishi fell deeply in love with the wise minister. Fan Li also grew to admire this courageous lady who was willing to give her life for her country. Consequently, before they parted, they made a secret pledge of undying love.
They arrived at the capital of Wu and the prince welcomed Xishi with open arms. He was enchanted by her appearance and doted on her. Gradually he began to neglect his political duties, preferring to idle away his time with Xishi. He frequently took her out on carriage rides to the noisy and prosperous sections of the city. On these rides, he liked to boast to those around him that he had won the heart of the most beautiful woman in the world. He would add: "If you want to look at her, you'll have to present me with some gold coins!" In this way, he also managed to enrich his coffers.
Xishi, however, never lost sight of her mission. Her aim was to bewitch the Prince of Wu so that his subjects would grow restless and his friends would desert him. The political chaos that ensued would enable the King of Yue to invade the state of Wu, recompensing him for his former humiliation.
Heaven grants the wishes of men. The King of Yue finally annexed the state of Wu. Following the death of Prince Fuchai of Wu, Xishi disappeared from public life. She lived in relative obscurity with Fan Li who became a successful trader.
This story is unique in the history of feudal China as no one has ever found fault with Xishi, even though she had caused the downfall of the state of Wu.
Diao Chan
Diao Chan is destined to be a complicated and bewildering woman with extraordinary life experience.
As a story about Diao Chan praying for moon goes, she was so pretty that the moon itself would shy away in embarrassment
when compared to her looks.
It's said that Diao Chan was a maid of honor in the Han court at first. Later, she used "the beauty trap" to deal with Dong Zhuo and his son Lv Bu. Finally, she successfully assisted his father Wang Yun in rooting out the thief Dong Zhuo and has been remembered as an ideal woman of righteousness and self-sacrifice.
At that time, Dong Zhuo was the thief of the Han Dynasty and condemned by all. Since Wang Yun has such a beautiful girl as Diao Chan, he used a set of interlocking stratagems to kill Dong Zhuo. He first gave Diao Chan to Lv Bu, and then secretly sent Diao Chan to Dong Zhuo, Lv Bu's adoptive father. Diao Chan, following Wang Yun's plan, arrested both men's heart, and stories about "Lv Bu seeing Diao Chan in secret" and "Dong Zhuo furious at the Fengyi Pavilion" are widely known. It is ridiculous to see
a father and a son turn to foe, being jealous of each other because of a woman. Finally, Lv Bu was enraged and killed Dong Zhuo. Although the killing is simply because of a beauty, it works well in rooting out the bad apple of the kingdom.
There are no provable details about Diao Chan's death, but her beauty, together with her righteousness, is on everyone's lips from then on.
Wang Zhaojun
Wang Zhaojun, a maid in the imperial palace of Emperor Yuan Di of the Han Dynasty, has breath-taking beauty.
Yuan emperors were obsessed with beautiful girls. Ridiculously, they selected beauties through portraits done by painters. All the beauties offered bribes to the painters except Zhaojun, and the painter deliberately painted Zhaojun ugly to prevent her from seeing the emperor.
Later, chief of northern Xiongnu Huhanye Chanyu came to be subjugated by the Han Dynasty. In order to cement their relations, Xiongnu proposed the marriage-for-peace policy, according to which Chanyu would marry a daughter of the Han imperial family. Zhaojun volunteered to go. It was not until then that Yuan Di got to know that Zhaojun is a real beauty. Though the emperor wanted to keep Zhaojun, he could not break his words with Chanyu. Feeling regretful and angry, he gave rent to his resentment, severely punishing the corrupt official in charge of selecting the beauties and killing the painter.
Heading north, Zhaojun played the Pipa (a plucked string instrument with a fretted fingerboard) lonely to express her deep sorrow. Legend has it that the melody was so melancholic and heartbreaking that even the wild geese forgot to flutter their wings and fell on the ground.
Tu Fu, the Poetic Sage of the Tang Dynasty once related and sighed over Zhaojun's widely known story in his famous poem Poetic Thoughts on Ancient Sites.
After Zhaojun went to Xiongnu, the relationship between Han empire and Xiongnu was good and stable. The kingdom flourishes and people living in peace feel gratitude to Zhaojun. Zhaojun's image as the ambassador of national peace, together with her surpassing beauty, was thus engraved in people's mind for all time.
Yang Guifei
Yang Guifei is a famous beauty in the Tang Dynasty. Before she became the high-ranked imperial concubine of Emperor XuanZong, her name was Yang Yuhuan. Glancing back and smiling, she revealed a hundred charms. All the powdered ladies of the six palaces at once seemed dull and colorless. It is said that she was so beautiful that the flowers felt shameful and closed its pedals. Yang was known for her full built, therefore, among all the ancient Chinese beauties, Yang's style is much more like that of ancient western beauties.
Since Yang was fond of litchi, Emperor Xuanzong would ask his men to travel thousands of miles a day to transport fresh litchi northward to the capital Chang'an. As a poem goes: "Princess Yang grinned when the courier horse came, and nobody knew what the horse delivered was litchi."
Since Yuang was dearly beloved by Xuanzong, all her five brothers and sisters got benefits and became celebrities with power at that time. Xuanzong was so indulged in beauty that he neglected his role as an emperor. As a result, the famous "An Shi Rebellion" (The Insurrection Waged by An Lushan and Shi Siming) broke out and the national power of the Tang Dynasty was much weakened. Although starting with a flourishing age, the Tang Dynasty fell at last. During the Rebellion, as Emperor Xuanzong and his entourage fled in discomfiture, a mutiny broke out when they arrived at Ma Weipo of Shaanxi Province. Yang Guifei became a scapegoat for the disaster and Xuanzong was forced to have Yang strangled. The beauty left the world forever, and that became the Emperor's perpetual grief. Their immemorial love and heartrending tragedy became touched the famous poet of the Tang Dynasty Bai Juyi, who wrote the famous poem The Song of Everlasting Sorrow. The classic saying "In heaven let us be two birds flying ever together, and on earth two trees with branches interlocked forever" has been widely used to describe fidelity and true love.
There are plenty of stories about Yang Guifei, among which "Guifei Zui Jiu (The Drunken Beauty)" was adapted into a play of Peking opera. Mei Lanfang, a celebrated impersonator of women's
roles in Peking Opera, used to present the lyrical one-act play, which has become a classic play of Peking Opera. Yang Guifei, while being remembered for her tragic end, serves as a typical case of "the dangerous beauty".
