Yang Guifei 杨贵妃 and Huaqing Palace 华清宫

          In Chinese history there are four women said to be famous for their beauty. They are known in Chinese as 四大美女(sì dà měi nǚ), four beauties. One of these beauties, Yang Guifei, lived during the Tang dynasty. She was said to be full in figure, as was the beauty standard during this period, and so beautiful that every time she walked near a flower, they would turn away in shame. In Chinese, they say 贵妃羞花 (guì fēi xiū huā) or, Yang Guifei puts the flower to shame.

           Yang Guifei was originally the wife of emperor Xuanzong's son, prince Shou, during the Tang dynasty. Emperor Xuanzong took notice of her after his favorite wife died, so he began to think of how he could have her for his own without compromising his honor. In the end, she ended up becoming a nun for a while before finally becoming the emperor's wife, receiving the highest ranking title of guifei. She and her family enjoyed the highest favor of the emperor, and he spent all his time with her. He didn't even seem to notice any of his other wives. She famously loved eating lychees, but this fruit didn't grow in the north. The emperor sent horses across the country to make sure she always had some lychees to eat.

        Yang Guifei eventually became friends with a man named An Lushan (maybe more than friends, but we don't know that for sure). It was even said that emperor Xuanzong gave him to her as a son. She convinced the emperor to make An Lushan a commander of a huge area of land, giving him nearly two hundred thousand troops in his control. This would prove to be a grave mistake.
        An Lushan ended up using the troops that Yang Guifei convinced the emperor to give him to rebel, attacking Chang'an and forming his own dynasty, called the Yan dynasty. Eventually the Yan dynasty was defeated and the Tang dynasty was rebuilt. On the way to a safe haven in the western region, emperor Xuanzong had to make the difficult decision to have most of the Yang family killed and Yang Guifei strangled. Such was the end of the last of the four great beauties of China. She was beautiful enough to not only distract the emperor, but also to cause a successful rebellion against the Tang dynasty.

The Huaqing Palace 华清宫 (huá qīng gōng)
               Huaqing pool was the emperor's personal hot spring bath. The only people who were allowed to bathe there were Xuanzong himself and Yang Guifei. It is said she bathed there often to give her perfect skin. The palace structure dates back to the Zhou dynasty, before China was a unified country, but it was given the name Huaqing Palace during the Tang dynasty. It was partially destroyed during the An Lushan rebellion, but there is still much to see. I am looking forward to seeing the famous white statue of Yang Guifei. I will be sure to take a lot of photos there.

                If you would like to know more about Yang Guifei, there are many television shows, plays, and movies about her, including one with Fan Bingbing. I will eventually have a look at a few of them, and I'll recommend if I enjoy them. For the next post I'll probably talk about another one or few of the many many places I will be visiting in Beijing. I might not have time to cover the big ones like Tiananmen, The Palace Museum, or the Great Wall before I leave on Sunday, because there is just so much to talk about. I will get to everything eventually!