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)

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)

44. 薛濤 Xue Tao (a famous poetess and a courtesan)

Xue Tao (768—832 AD) was a famous poetess in Tang dynasty. She was born in ChangAn city, the capital. Her father was a petty official and moved to Chengdu city. When her father died, she lived in this city ever since.
        She could write poems and knew music at the age of eight. Once her father composed a couplet, “There is an old tree in the courtyard, Its tall trunk rising into clouds.” He wanted his daughter to write another couplet so that the four lines could make a poem. She immediately wrote, “Its boughs welcome birds from north to sough, Its leaves send away winds coming and going.” Her father was glad and proud of her. But historians said that these two lines were the exact description of her own fate as she later became a courtesan that welcomed visitors coming and saw visitors going.
        After the death of her father, her family, mother and herself, fell into poverty. She had to become a singsong girl in a whorehouse at the age of sixteen. As a singsong girl did not have love-making with any visitors. She only entertained them with her song or music play, or wrote a poem or painted something for them. As she was beautiful and talented, she was well-known in the area. Her visitors were all local officials and men of letters. Her nickname was “Poetic whore.”
        The governor of that time liked her talent very much and often sent for her to his residence to entertain his guests by chanting poems of her own composition. Thus she made acquaintance with many famous poets and scholars at the time. She even fell in love with one of them, but their love had no result. The governor adored her poetic talent, and tried to get an official title for her from the central government, but of no avail. When this governor died, the next governor came. He liked her too, and canceled her registration in her prostitute record. She became a free ordinary woman. Then she always wore a Taoist costume. She seldom had visitors now. She lived a quiet life in old age. She made a kind of paper called Xue Tao paper, which was slightly pink. The paper was widely used at the time.

45.  魚玄機 Yu Xuanji (a famous poetess and a female Taoist)

Yu Xuanji (844—871 AD) was a famous poetess in the late Tang dynasty. At first her name was Yu Youwei. In 894 AD when she was five, her family moved to another town and she started her study at a local school. In 854 AD when she was ten, the family moved back to her hometown, where she began to get acquainted with a famous poet at the time. They wrote poems to each other ever since.
        In 858 AD, she was fourteen. A scholar Li Yi (?--?) wrote a poem on the wall of Chongzhen Temple. It was traditional for ancient poets to write poems wherever they could, such as on the walls of a temple, of a wine house, or even  on a cliff wall of a scenic spot. When the girl read it, she liked it and then married Li Yi as a concubine through the introduction of her acquainted poet. As Li had a wife, Yu could only be a concubine. His wife was so jealous that Li did not dare to bring the girl home. He just let her stay in Xianyi Temple.  
        A few years later, her husband deserted her because he was a man liking new love partners, except his wife, whom he was afraid of. Yu began to travel east in the autumn of 861 AD. Next spring, she returned to where she started her trip, ChangAn city. In 866 AD when she turned twenty-two, she became a female Taoist in Yanyi Temple and changed her name to Yu Xuanji, which was better known to us. In that period of time, many men of letters came to seek her favor, but she favored none. She treated everyone coming to visit her equally as a friend. She did not remarry anyone. She kept writing poems, fifty-one in all that we know today.  Although she was a Taoist, she was a famous woman, and had a maid to wait on her. Once she was so angry with her maid that she beat her accidentally to death. For this crime, she was executed. A famous couplet from one of her poems is so written:
        It is easy to get a precious antique,
        But hard to have a boy of true love.

46. 杜秋娘 Du Qiuniang (a famous poetess)

Du Qiiuniang (971--? AD) was a poetess. At the age of fifteen, she became a concubine of  Li Qi (741—807 AD), who was a relative of the imperial family. He was a corrupt official and once when the emperor wanted  him to go to the capital, he was afraid that he would be killed. Therefore, he rebelled, but failed and killed. Du Qiuniang was then taken to the palace. She became a concubine of the emperor, who died in 820 AD. Then the crown prince succeeded the throne and was Emperor Muzong (795—824 AD). Now Du Qiuniang was a middle-aged woman. The new emperor let her be the nanny of his son. When she grew too old, the emperor let her go back to her hometown, Nanking city, where she was born. She died naturally. Her famous poem is thus:
        I advise you not for gold-woven dress to care,
        But advise you for precious time of youth to care.
        If flowers are in full bloom and worth picking, just pick,
        Don't wait till no more flowers, then on empty boughs pick.

47. 花蕊夫人 Ladyship Pistil (a humorous poetess)

Ladyship Pistil (?--976 AD) was her nickname. She was a favorite concubine of the king of the present Sichuan province. As she liked flowers, such as peony, the king gave her this nickname, which was known to us. She was pretty and clever, and could write poems. The king led a lewd dissipated life and his kingdom became weak. At that time, outside Sichuan province, the whole country was under the rule of Song dynasty. Therefore, in 965 AD, Song dynasty sent army to invade the kingdom. The king surrendered, and of course died later. The ladyship was captured. It was said that she became the concubine of the emperor of Song dynasty till her death. There was a famous and humorous poem we know till today, which is:

The king puts up the flag of surrender on battlements;
How can his lady know in the deep palace?
Forty myriad soldiers take off armors in unison;
No one of them is a man. (meaning no one fighting to death.)

48. 穆桂英 Mu Guiying (the third of the four heroines)

Mu Guiying (982--?) was one of the four heroines. The other three were Hua Mulan, Fan Lihua, and Liang Hongyu. All are included in this book. There was a Yang family in Song dynasty. All the family members were fighters, including females, two daughters and seven daughters-in-law. Mu was married to the sixth son. Her fighting skills were the first among all the females. Her father was originally the chieftain of outlaws. They camped on a mountain, called Mu Camp. The government sent Yang family to conquer the Mu Camp, and the sixth son of the family came out to challenge. The daughter Mu Guiying galloped out to face the challenger, whom she captured after a few rounds. She wanted to marry the son and then surrendered to the government. It was thus settled. The heroine became a member of Yang family.
        Then Liao tribe in the north invaded Han dynasty, and Yang family was sent again to defend the territory. The heroine was the commander and by using some ruse, defeated the Liao tribe. They never dared to invade Song dynasty till later the tribe was conquered by Jin tribe. That was her great merit. Then when a revolt took place in Guangxi province in the south, she and her husband went there to subdue it. So she was conferred the title of Marquise Huntian. When a minority state called Xixia in the west invaded the country, she and all other female fighters went to resist the invasion. At the time, all males in the family died in different battles or occasions. The survivors were all widows. In one of the combats with Xixia, Mu was killed in an ambush of the enemy, but the remaining women vanquished the Xixia army.

49. 李清照 Li Qingzhao (a very famous poetess)
Li Qingzhao (1084—1156 AD) was a famous poetess in Song dynasty ((960—1279 AD), born in Mingshui town of Shandong province. Her father was an official and a famous writer of the time as well. And her maternal grandfather had been a premier. When she was still a young girl, her well-written poems were known in the capital in the literary circle. In 1101 AD, she married Zhao Mingcheng (1081—1129 AD), who was also an official. In 1107 AD, the couple moved to Qingzhou town. They liked to buy books, especially books of old and precious editions. Every time when the husband bought a good edition from the market after work, the couple would enjoy reading it together after supper. Their life was simple and pleasant.
        At that time, there was a minority in the north, named Jin tribe, that often invaded into Song dynasty. In 1127 AD, when the poetess was forty-four, the army of Jin tribe marched south and attacked the town, they had to escape south across the Yangtze River, and next spring they arrived in Jiangning city. As they had to desert their belongings when they fled from the Jin tribe, now they lived in poverty.
        After the death of her husband, she moved to Shaoxing town in Zhejinag province, and lived alone in the house of a local family. In the third moon of 1131 AD, the only things, some old paintings, that left to her, were all stolen overnight. Next year, she went to Hangzhou city to marry another man, but was divorced a few months later, because she found that the man was a corrupt official, who was put in prison afterwards. Then she lived alone and always kept writing poems till the end of her life. But she had only forty-five poems handing down to us. All were well-known to us.

50. 梁紅玉 Liang Hongyu (the fourth of the four heroines)

Liang Hongyu (1102—1135 AD) was famous to us as a fighter against the Jin tribe invading Song dynasty. Her family fled from north to south to avoid the slaughter and pillage of the Jin tribe. They came to where the general Han Shizhong camped his army. Somehow, she became a military singsong girl and came to know the general Han. She was a special girl, who knew how to use sword. Therefore, the general Han married her.
        She fought together with her husband Han (1089—1151 AD), the commander of an army. In the third moon of 1129 AD, the Jin tribe army took two towns and was about to invade the capital. The emperor and courtiers were in panic. A couple of courtiers wanted to betray the emperor, but were afraid of commander Han, who was then at the frontier defending the Song territory. So they took his wife Liang Hongyu as hostage. When Han marched his army towards the capital, they had to release Liang. When Liang joined Han, they came to the capital to kill the traitors. The emperor was ecstatic and gave Liang the title of Ladyship Yangguo. In addition, the emperor gave her monthly salary, which only male officials and officers could have. As a female she was the first one to have such a treatment.
        Then Liang and Han marched north to defend the border. The number of the enemy was double, even triple greater than theirs. However, they used a better strategy to defeat the enemy. For more than ten years, the Jin tribe did not even dare to advance facing such defenders. So there was temporary peace at the frontier till the death of the couple. The Jin tribe was later conquered by Mongolians, who afterwards marched south and annihilated Song dynasty and established their Yuan dynasty (1271—1368 AD), which was overthrown by Ming dynasty. (see next episode)

51. 馬皇后 Empress Ma (a virtuous woman)

Empress Ma (1332—1382 AD) was the wife of Zhu Yuanzhang (10/21/1328—06/24/1398 AD), the first emperor of Ming dynasty (1368—1644 AD). She was nicknamed Big Feet, because at that time, women generally bound their feet small as a fashion, but women in the countryside still kept their natural size of feet. So did Ma.
        When Ma was a child, her parents died and she was adopted by a close friend of her father, Guo  Zixing (1312—1355 AD). It was then towards the end of Yuan dynasty. There were many groups of rebels against the Mongolians. Guo was one of them. At that time, Zhu Yuanzhang was only a poor vagabond. Once he became a monk for a living. When the rebellion rose, Zhu joined Guo's group and fought bravely and achieved great merits. Therefore, Guo married his adopted daughter, Ma, to him. Once at a time, food was scarce and everyone had a limited ration. In this period of time, Guo doubted that Zhu was not faithful to him, and so cut his ration. Ma had to share hers with Zhu furtively.
        After death of Guo in fight, Zhu became the leader of the group. With the elapse of time, he got many followers and finally wiped out other groups. At last he overthrew the Yuan dynasty and founded his Ming dynasty. He was Emperor Taizu of Ming dynasty. His wife was the empress. She had born five sons and two daughters for him.. Zhu was a cruel man and when his empire was steadfast, he began to kill the generals, who had helped him to conquer opponents, one after the other. When the empress learned it, she advised him not to do so. His reason to kill the generals was because he was afraid that these powerful generals might, just might, betray him and endanger his empire. The empress saved the rest of them. When the empress was seriously sick, he and his courtiers all wished to hold some ceremony in temples to pray for her longer life. But she opposed it, saying that birth and death were decided by destiny, what was the use of prayer. Her last will to her husband was to treat people and courtiers nicely and trust in them for the good of the country. She died at the age of fifty-one.

52. 唐賽兒 Tang SaiEr (a female leader of rebellion)

Tang SaiEr (1399--? AD) was the leader of the up-rising peasants. She was not illiterate and learned fighting skills from her father. At fifteen she got married, but soon her husband died. Then she shaved her hair and became a Buddhist nun. The second emperor of Ming dynasty, Emperor Chengzu, used a lot of peasant labor to build palace and other constructions, etc., so that the peasants were all angry against the government. Tang then founded a religion called White Lotus and a lot of peasants believed it and joined it. Tang named herself Buddhist Mother. In 1420 AD, White Lotus took up arms and began to attack towns. The mayors of the towns either escaped or were killed. Other groups of up-rising peasants joined them.
        When the emperor was reported of it, he sent a messenger to negotiate with them, only wanted them to surrender. Of course, Tang refused. The emperor send army and his army was vanquished several times. The process of the battle was like this. The government army surrounded the mountain, on the top of which camped the rebels. Tang thought of a stratagem. She sent someone to the government army, saying that there was scarcity of water and most of the rebels wanted to surrender.   Only their leader Tang refused. She wanted to break through the line in the east that night. Therefore, the commander of the government army maneuvered most of his force to the east in hopes to wipe out the rebels. But at night, the rebels came down to assault the west side of the government army with not many soldiers there. These soldiers were defeated and the rebels went round to attack the back of the  most part of the government army and put them to rout.
        At last when the emperor sent armies that outnumbered peasant force, which was defeated and Tang escaped to no one knew where. No one knew the end of her either. The emperor ordered to arrest all the Buddhist nuns and checked them one by one to see if there mingled Tang, but in vain. Anyway, the believers of the White Lotus religion scattered all over the nation. Only they could not gather enough force to riot again.

53. 万貴妃 Imperial Concubine Wan (a woman nineteen years older than emperor)

Imperial Concubine Wan (1428—1487 AD) was originally a maid in the palace in charge of apparels of the grandmother of emperor Xianzong of Ming dynasty, and then became his concubine when he took over the throne. When this emperor was still the crown prince, he often went to see his grandmother and saw the maid, who was nineteen years older than he. She joked with him and played with him. They got more and more familiar with each other. As time elapsed, they liked each other. When the grandmother died, he took the maid to his living quarters as his maid.
        When he became the emperor, the empress dowager wanted to choose an empress for him. It was surely done, but he did not like the empress whom the empress dowager selected for him. He liked Wan better and made her his concubine. No one understood why he preferred a woman nineteen years older than he, but not the young empress and other concubines of his age or even younger. Of course, though she was much older than he, she was still a virgin when the emperor married her.
        As a favorite concubine, she did not respect the empress. Once she offended the empress, who ordered her to be beaten by her maids. Wan went to the emperor and complained bitterly. So the emperor deposed the empress and confined her in a separate room of the palace. He wanted to make Wan as the empress, but the empress dowager opposed it because she was too old and had been only a maid. Generally an empress must come from the family of a courtier of high rank. The empress dowager appointed another concubine as the empress. This empress was afraid of concubine Wan and often exercised forbearance and let Wan do whatever she liked. In the feudal China, a husband and a wife should come from the families of almost the equal social status. But a concubine did not matter.  Some wealthy families had concubines often coming from poor families, or even from whorehouses. Girls from rich families were not willing to be concubines, who were only a step-up better than maids. Even the parents would not allow that.
        Although Wan was not the empress, she was powerful and acted as an empress. She bore a son for the emperor, who was happy to have an heir. However, the baby died within the month. Then she was jealous of other concubines who were with child. She would let them drink some drugs to abort the child. No one in the palace dared to say anything about it. So the emperor did not know of it. Nor did the empress dowager.
        Once the emperor sighed and regretted that he did not have a successor yet. A eunuch secretly told him that he did have a successor, secretly kept somewhere lest the boy be killed or poisoned. As the emperor often had sex with any concubine or even any maid, he could not know which one was pregnant. Once he had sex with a petty female palace official, who became pregnant soon. There were some female officials in the palace just like male officials in the government, to be in charge of some special departments in the palace. As the emperor never saw this female official again, he did not know that she was with child. But Wan learned it and sent someone to watch over her. If this woman bore a daughter, it was okay and she was safe. If this woman bore a son, she and her son would lose both lives. Then the woman bore a boy and told a eunuch to throw the baby outside the palace and leave it to his fate, lest he be murdered by concubine Wan. The eunuch thought that as the emperor did not have a successor yet, he should keep this baby alive. Therefore, he took it to the deposed empress who hid it and fed it without Wan's knowing of it.
        When the emperor learned it, he wanted to see his son and so the boy of six was brought to his presence. He immediately made this son as the crown prince. Later the emperor had some other sons with other concubines. All the sons were well guarded. Not long afterwards, Wan died.

54. 秦良玉 Qin Liangyu (a woman with many official titles)

Qin Liangyu (1574—1648 AD) was a female general and strategist with great fighting skills. She had a lot of titles such as left governor (next to governor),  magistrate somewhere in Sichuan province, head general of an army somewhere, Marquise of Zhongzhen (literally meaning loyalty), and first-rank ladyship, etc., the only female who had so many official titles in the history.
        In 1592 AD, she married Ma Qiancheng, a magistrate. She helped her husband to train an army, called White Cudgel Army.  In 1599 AD, she marched her army and defeated the rebels in west of the country. In 1613 AD, When her husband died, she took over the position and became the high-rank official. In 1620 AD, she sent her brothers, one elder and one younger, with three thousand White Cudgel armymen, to Shenyang city in the northern China, for a defensive combat. At that time, a minority there often invaded Ming dynasty (1368—1644 AD).
        In the third moon of 1621 AD, she herself marched her army there and defeated the minority. In the ninth moon of the same year, she was sent by the emperor to Sichuan province and conquered the rebels there. Next year,she took back Chengdu city and Chongqing city occupied then by rebels. In 1623 AD, she wiped out all the rebels in that area in Sichuan province. At that time, the Manchurian turned strong and often invaded Ming dynasty. In 1630 AD, they took four towns and threatened the safety of the capital. No other generals but female general Qin came to the rescue and drove back the invaders.
        In 1634 AD, another group of rebels entered Sichuan province, she went there to drive them away. In 1640 AD, still another group of rebels entered to Sichuan province. Why they wanted to occupy Sichuan province was because the land features were easy to defend and hard to attack, and besides, there produced provisions galore, enough to feed the army or rebels. So the female general went there again to vanquish this group of rebels. In 1646 AD, the Manchurian army occupied Peking, the capital of Ming dynasty and marched south. General Qin was already over seventy and took Sichuan province as her base to resist the Manchurian army. In 1648 AD, on the twenty-first of the fifth moon, she died  at the age of seventy-five. She had started her fighting career at twenty-six and fought for forty-four years. She was a unique female in the history.

55. 柳如是 Liu Rushi (one of eight famous singsong girls)

Liu Rushi（1618—1664 AD）was one of the eight well-known singsong girls in the Qinhuai river area, i.e., Nanking city and its vicinity. She was the most beautiful girl among the eight girls. She was versed in painting and calligraphy. In 1628 AD when she was ten years old, she was adopted by a bawd and so became a singsong girl later. Before receiving visitors, every singsong girl got special training in many fields such as writing poems, playing zither or lute, painting and calligraphy, singing or dancing so as to entertain visitors.
        As a rule, a famous singsong girl never had any action with male visitors, who were mostly men of letters. They came to see her just to ask a scroll of calligraphy or painting from her own creation, or have a pleasant conversation with the girl to diverse his sad mood or make him happy, or listen to the girl sing or watch her dance. Nothing more. They never thought of having love actions with such famous talented girls. If they needed that, they could go somewhere else. Sometimes, of course, she would fall in love with one of the visitors. So did she, when she met Chen Zilong (1608—1647 AD), who was a petty official in Nanking city, but a learned man. Chen already had wife, who was very jealous. Chen did not dare to take the girl home and they lived together in Songjiang city. Afterwards when the wife came to know it, she went to Songjiang and made a scene. Therefore, Liu went back to where she came from.
        In 1638 AD, when she was twenty years old, she met Qian Qianyi (1582—1664 AD), who was a high-rank official. He was twenty-eight that year. In 1640 AD, they met again. Qian took Liu for a tour among mountains and on streams. They had a  happy time of the life. They chanted poems to each other. Liu liked the man very much, though he was over fifty then, while she was only twenty-two. They married anyway. She bore a daughter for him. In 1644 AD, the Manchurian army occupied the capital of Ming dynasty and marched to Nanking city. Many scholars opposed the Manchurian because they were another tribe, not Han tribe. The Manchurian arrested anyone who was against them. In 1647 AD, Qian was arrested too. Next year, Liu went round to see all her friends or even just acquaintances to ask for help. At last Qian was released from the jail. He was so grateful to his wife.
        In 1664 AD, on the twenty-fourth day of the fifth moon, Qian died of some kind of disease. Liu became a widow. The kinsfolk wanted to divide the legacy of Qian. Liu could not endure it and hanged herself on the twenty-eighth day of the sixth moon, only thirty-four days after the death of her husband.

56. 馬湘蘭 Ma Xianglan (one of eight famous singsong girls)

Ma Xianglan (1548—1604 AD) was one of the eight well-known singsong girls in the Qinhuai river area, i.e., Nanking city and its vicinity. Although she was plain, she was especially talented in painting. She could plain orchid and bamboo very well. A painting of orchid in black ink by her is stored in Tokyo museum in Japan and looked upon as a precious curio of the country. She could sing and dance. She could write poems, besides painting. She also knew music. Once she wrote an opera. She herself conducted a group of troupers to perform it.
        Because of her talent and pleasant conversation manner, she was well-known and had lots of visitors. Almost all the visitors would bring her some gifts, and so she saved quite much money. She had a small cottage built at the riverside, named Orchid Cottage. Sometimes if some young learned men came to see her, and when she accidentally knew that they wanted to go to the capital for government tests, but did not have so much money for the traveling and food and board expenses in the capital, she would donate enough money to them out of her own pocket.
        When she grew old, she was looking for a man who could be her life mate. But none of her visitors became her favorite. At the age of twenty-four, she did meet one, Wang Zhideng (1535—1612 AD), a man of talent and learning. Though they were not married, they were best friends for more than thirty years. Things in the world always go against one's wishes. Once Wang had a chance to go to the capital for an official position. Ma was happy for him. He implied that if he could get promotion, he would come to marry her. When want left, Ma stopped receiving guests. She waited for the man to come back to marry her. But she was disappointed, because Wang was supplanted by his colleagues. When he returned he felt so ashamed of himself that he did not go to see Ma. On the contrary, he moved to live in Suzhou city. Marriage was out of the question.
        During these long years, they kept in touch as best friends. Since Wang lived in Suzhou city, and she lived in Hangzhou city, she often went to Suzhou city to visit him. When Wang was seventy years old, she went there to celebrate his birthday. She took tens of singsong girls for the feast and she herself sang for him in spite that she was also growing old. When she returned, she fell sick and died at the age of fifty-seven. Wang wrote a poem in memory of her.

57. 顧橫波 Gu Hengbo (one of eight famous singsong girls)

Gu Hengbo (1619—1664 AD) was one of the eight well-known singsong girls in the Qinhuai river area, i.e., Nanking city and its vicinity. Among all the eight singsong girls, her life experience was simple, but she got the highest social status among them. She was also talented in writing and painting. She also had a lot of visitors. Once a man called Gong Dingzi (1615—1673 AD) came to visit her. He fell in love with her at the first sight. In 1641 AD, she married him, who was a famous scholar. When the Manchurian came and established their Qing dynasty, he became a high-rank official. So many scholars of Han tribe called him traitor. But she got the title of First-Rank Ladyship because of her husband from Qing dynasty. She died of disease in their residence in Peking. She was the only one of the eight singsong girls that had an official title.

58. 卞玉京 Bian Yujing (one of eight famous singsong girls)

Bian Yujing (1623—1665 AD) was one of the eight well-known singsong girls in the Qinhuai river area, i.e., Nanking city and its vicinity. She was born in Nanking city and her father was an official, but died early. She had good education, and so she knew music and could play zither. She could also write poems and paint, and could practice calligraphy. After the death of her father, she had to become a singsong girl for a living. Her charm and ability attracted a lot of visitors.
        Once at the gathering of literary men, she met a man called Wu Meicun (1609—1671 AD), who  was a high-rank official. She was fond of him and hinted that she wanted to marry him. But at the time, a brother-in-law of the emperor wanted to take her as his concubine, and so Wu was afraid of getting into trouble and ran away from her. But Bian remained where she was. No one took her away. Two years afterwards, she would marry a man, but when she learned that the man was a good-for-nothing, and therefore, she married her maid to him instead of herself. She left the place, dressed like a female Taoist.
        In 1650 AD, she went to Changshu town, where Liu Rushi lived with her husband Qian. The couple knew Wu Meicun. When Wu came to see Qian, they told Wu that Bian stayed here now. Qian wanted to let Bian and Wu meet again. So he let his wife invited Bian to their house. Bian did come, but she said that she did not feel comfortable right then and asked Liu to lead her to a guest room upstairs. She came, but she did not see Wu. Maybe, she was still irritated with Wu for running away.
        Next year, she intentionally went to where Wu lived to see him. She said that she came just to say hello to him. She was dressed in a female Taoist costume. She played zither that night for Wu and some friends. In 1653 AD, an old good-hearted doctor let her stay with him as a friend. She began to believe in Buddhism and refused to see any former friends. She spent three years to copy a Buddhist sutra and gave it to the doctor in return for his good hospitality. She wrote it with her blood, not in ink. She died peacefully at an old age. When Wu learned her death he came to salute her tomb and wrote a poem in memory of her.

59. 董小宛 Dong Xiaowan (one of eight famous singsong girls)

Dong Xiaowan (1623—1651 AD) was one of the eight well-known singsong girls in the Qinhuai river area, i.e., Nanking city and its vicinity. She was born in an embroidery family in Suzhou city. Dong family was famous for its embroidery. They had a workshop to make and sell products of embroidery. This trade had lasted for more than two hundred years till her time. Her father was a scholar and so she had good education. When she was thirteen, her father died of diarrhea. She and her mother would not continue to live in this old house, because there were too many things to remind them of the diseased. Therefore, they had another house built at a riverside and moved to live there like a recluse. They entrusted the family business to some old employee to manage.
        Then chaos arose with the aggression of the Manchurian. When she and mother went to their workshop with the intention to sell it, they found that it was already bankrupt. They were penniless now. And her mother was seriously sick. She needed money to pay doctors and buy drugs. So she had to become a singsong girl in the famous Qinhuai river area. Owing to her great knowledge and ability, she was soon known to those merry-making young men, who flocked to her like bees to the flower. She could sing for them and accompany them on tours. She liked tours with any visitors that she could appreciate the beautiful scenes.
        There was a famous learned man by name of Mao Pijiang, who, having heard of her name, came to seek for her several times in her absence as she went out to accompany visitors on tours. Once he came late in the evening and she was already back from tours. They got acquainted with each other. As she already knew the name of the young scholar, they immediately liked each other. But Mao wanted to go back to his home town to take government tests. But he failed. After half a year, he came to seek Dong again.
        After the death of her mother, she wanted to marry Mao. Only Mao must redeem her from the whorehouse first. However, as she was so renowned in the area, the bawd would not let her go, no matter how much money Mao would pay. Just at that time, Liu and her husband Qian came to see Mao. As Qian had been an official, through his mediation, the bawd let her go at last. Then they got married. She began to practice calligraphy and continued to paint. Her painting of “Colorful Butterflies” is now stored in the museum of Wuxi city. This painting was painted when she was only fifteen. Their comfortable life lasted only for more than a year. Then Manchurian army came and their valuables were lost when they escaped south.
        After chaos, they went back to their homeland, and found that their house still stood. They lost all the valuables and had to live in hardship. Then Mao was taken ill and she had to wait on him hand and foot, day and night. Several months afterwards, Mao was gradually recovered, but she fell sick, severely. There was no curing for her and she died in peace in the first moon of 1651 AD.

60. 李香君 Li Xiangjun (one of eight famous singsong girls)
Li Xiangjun (1624—1653 AD) was also one of the eight well-known singsong girls in the Qinhuai river area, i.e., Nanking city and its vicinity. She was born in Suzhou city and her father was an officer. She had two elder brothers. When her father died, her family turned out destitute. Therefore, when she was only eight, she was adopted by a bawd. She was trained to sing, to play lute, to write poems and knew music. She had a good voice, but seldom sang, unless the visitor was the one she liked.
        When she reached the age of sixteen, she must have her maidenhood done away. She could find a visitor she liked. But the bawd would charge him highly. Then she met a man called Hou Fangyu (1618—1655 AD), a famous scholar at the time. As he did not have so much money to pay the fee, a friend Yuan Dacheng (1587—1646 AD) loaned him the amount. Yuan was a literary man and a dramatist, but he had a low character. He was always ambitious while Hou was not. Afterwards, they quarreled and were no longer friends. It was because Yuan made friends with anyone in hopes that that friend could help him to step up in his official career. However, Hou could not help him there. After their breach, Yuan wanted Hou to pay back the loan. Hou, with the help of the girl, repaid all his debt, by selling her jewels and his borrowing money from other friends and relatives.
        There was a little, but important detail I must mention. On the night when Hou did the girl, he gave her a precious gift, which was a round fan of white gauze with an ivory carved frame, which was his family heirloom.
        At that time when Manchurian occupied the capital of Ming dynasty, a Ming emperor fled to the south of the Yangtze river and made Ninking city as his temporary capital. Yuan then became a high official in the court of the emperor. As Yuan hated Hou, he wanted to frame Hou, who learned it and escaped to somewhere. And Li Xiangjun shut herself up and never received any visitors. But Yuan told the emperor about the famous girl. So the emperor ordered the girl to be fetched to his presence. The girl could not reject the order of the emperor directly. So she knocked her head against a pillar and her blood splashed on the fan. Another friend of Hou's, who could paint, got the fan and painted, based on the blood specks, some red peach blossoms. Hence, the fan was called Peach Fan.
        Yuan, as a dramatist, wrote a drama named Peach Fan. He urged the emperor to send for the girl by force. She had to enter the palace as a singsong girl. In 1644 AD, the Manchurian army approached Nanking city, the emperor ran away further south. The girl stole out of the palace. She did not know where she could go and sat down on a small bridge. Just then a master, who had taught her to sing, came across her by accident on the bridge. As he knew that the girl had nowhere to go, he took her to Suzhou city, where he lived.
         At this moment when the girl was on this bridge, Hou, her man, was not far from her. He came back to look for her. But fate made a joke on them. They missed each other. In 1645 AD, the girl Li went to see  Bian Yujing (one of eight singsong girls and they knew each other) in her temple and stayed there for a while. In the autumn this year, Hou found her in the temple and took to his hometown, where his parents and his wife lived. In introduction, he concealed her singsong status, just saying that she was his concubine. As she was nice to everyone in the family, she was welcome and treated well. Therefore, from 1645 to 1652 AD, she led a peaceful and comfortable life.
        Then her husband took a trip to somewhere. Somehow, unfortunately, her singsong status was found out by the family. Especially her father-in-law was furious and drove her out of the family to live in a bleak village fifteen li (half a kilometer) away. At the time, Li was pregnant. So the mother-in-law and the wife were sympathetic with her and with the ascent of the father-in-law, sent a maid there to look after her. When the husband returned, he took her back to live in the family house. But she was feeling unhappy for the discrimination. After she gave birth to the baby, she was suffering from TB—Tuberculosis, and died at the age of thirty.

61. 寇白門 Kou Baimen (one of eight famous singsong girls)

Kou Baimen (1624--? AD) was also one of the eight well-known singsong girls in the Qinhuai river area, i.e., Nanking city and its vicinity. She was born in a strange family, who ran the prostitute business. She was demure and beautiful. In the late spring of 1642 AD, at the age of seventeen, she married the powerful Duke Baoguo of Ming dynasty.
        In 1645 AD, the Manchurian army overthrew the Ming dynasty and Duke Baoguo surrendered. Not long after, his family was taken to Peking, which was then the capital of Qing dynasty, founded by the Manchurian (1644—1911 AD). The duke was confined. He wanted to sell all his dancers and maids and singsong girls, including Kou, who was his concubine. But a man could sell his concubine in the feudal China. Kou said to him that if he sold her, he would get at most some hundred taels of silver, but if he could let her go, she would go back to the south and make thousands of taels of silver for him. Therefore, he let her go. She went back to Nanking city. She married a scholar in Yangzhou city, but she felt unhappy with the marriage. So she returned to Nanking city again. Then she liked a scholar Han, who liked her at the first sight and supported her. Then she got sick. One day she still wanted to make love with him, though sick, but he would not allow and leave her room. Later she heard some merry noise next room. When she entered the next room, she found that Han was making love to her maid, who was younger, and beautiful, too, only without fame. She was enraged and her sickness got worse. She died soon.

62. 陳圓圓 Chen Yuanyuan (one of eight famous singsong girls)

Chen Yuanyuan (1624—1681 AD) was one of the eight well-known singsong girls in the Qinhuai river area, i.e., Nanking city and its vicinity, too. It was round the end of the Ming Dynasty (1368 AD—1644 AD). Emperor Chongzhen was on the throne. When he first became the emperor, he had the ambition to make his empire strong, but he was not a man of talent, and the empire remained weak. In the northeastern China, there was the Mandarin who got stronger and stronger, especially when they united the Mongolians in the west. Now they intended to invade and occupied the territory of the Ming Dynasty. The only blockade to them was the Great Wall. They must enter through Shanhai Pass at the eastern end of the Great Wall. The Ming Dynasty stationed great forces to defend it. But the stupid emperor often changed the commander, which was a disadvantage to the defending army. Supposing when a commander just got familiar with the situation and the move of the enemy, on which he would make his strategy, then he was removed and a new commander came. The new commander must get familiar with everything over again.
        First the emperor appointed the famous general Yuan Chonghuan (1584 AD—1630 AD) as the commander. He defeated Mandarin army a few times. They had to retreat. Then the mandarin sent some spies to the capital of the Ming Dynasty to spread rumor that Yuan Chonghuan was having a peace talk with the Mandarin. The desire of the emperor was to drive the Mandarin back to where they came. So peace negotiation was against the wish of the emperor. Therefore, the emperor summoned Yuan Chonghuan back and put him to death sentence as betrayal.
        Then he appointed Hong Chengchou (1593 AD—1665 AD) as the commander. He was a wise courtier and was the minister of the Military Ministry. When the Mandarin heard the removal of Yuan Chonghuan, they marched their army towards Shanhai Pass again. Hong Chengchou wanted to show that he was an able commander, but in the first battle, he was captured by the Mandarin army. He was brought to the presence of the Mandarin emperor Huangtaiji (1592 AD—1643 AD), who tried to persuade Hong to turn over to the Mandarin. However, at first, Hong Chengchou refused to betray his emperor. According to the history record, one night when Hong Chengchou was sleeping and woke up at midnight, he found a woman lying beside him. He sat up in astonishment and asked who she was. The woman said that she was the empress of Huangtaiji. The empress came to sleep with him. This was a great honor to him. He was moved and surrendered. It was said that he kowtowed only to the empress, not to the emperor, saying that he was the slave to her. The emperor did not care as long as he had surrendered to the Mandarin. Hong Chengchou offered then quite a few ideas how to conquer Ming Dynasty. After Hong Chengchou was captured, Emperor Chongzhen appointed Wu SanGui as the next commander.
        Chen Yuanyuan lived in Kunshan town in Jiangsu province to the south of the Yangtze river. She was very beautiful and could sing and dance. She was a famous prostitute in that area. Many patrons came to hear her sing and watch her dance.
        There at that time gathered large rebels, all of them were peasants, who were under the oppression of the corrupt officials. Their leader was Li Zicheng (1606 Ad—1645 AD). Li Zicheng led his huge army of rebels marching towards the capital Peking. Facing such situation of both threat from the Mandarin and from the rebels, the emperor felt so heavyhearted and melancholy that one of his imperial concubines Tian wanted to make him happy. She asked her father Tian Hong to find some beautiful girls. People thought at that time that all the beautiful girls were in the southern region to the Yangtze river. Tian Hong thereby traveled to the south. He visited brothel after brothel, and at last found Chen Yuanyuan in Kunshan town. He was struck by her beauty and took her back to the capital. He spent two hundred thousand taels of silver to get her. He presented the girl to the emperor, but the emperor was not in the mood to hear her sing and watch her dance. Tian Hong had to take the girl back to his own residence.
        Commander Wu SanGui went with his army to Shanhai Pass to resist the invasion of the Mandarin. He went through the capital and Tian Hong entertained him with the intention that Wu would specially protect his family and his fortune. He let the girl out to dance for Wu SanGui, who, at the first sight, loved the girl very much. He said to Tian Hong that he would try his best to protect him if he gave the girl to him. Of course, Tian Hong complied. Wu SanGui took the girl to his residence in the capital. When he left the capital for the frontier, he had to leave the girl in the capital.
        The rebellious army led by Li Zicheng approached the capital. The emperor did not have enough troops to defend the city, and soon the rebels entered it. The emperor had to hang himself. That was the end of the Ming Dynasty. Li Zicheng occupied the palace and declare himself the emperor of the Dashun empire. One of his generals Liu Zongming killed all the family members of Wu SanGui and took the girl with him.
        When Wu SanGui heard the news, he was greatly infuriated and vowed to revenge on the rebels. He knew that the forces he commanded was still no match to the great number of the rebellious army. So he wanted to ally with the Mandarin and used the allied force to fight the rebels. Thus, the Mandarin army entered the Shanhai Pass and then occupied the territory of Ming Dynasty. They founded their Qing Dynasty till overthrown by the Republic of China in 1911 AD.
        The rebels escaped from the capital Peking. Wu SanGui chased them till he wiped out all the rebels. In pursuit of the beaten rebels, Wu SanGui came across Chen Yuanyuan. When Wu got back his girl, he marched into Yunnan province, which is in the far southwest corner of China. He made it his own territory. He was given the title of king and Yunan province as his fief by the emperor of Qing Dynasty. He accepted the title.
        As time proceeded, Chen Yuanyuan grew old and Wu SanGui got some girls younger. Chen Yuanyuan went to live in a Buddhist nunnery for a quiet life.
        Although We SanGui let in the Mandarin army, He did that just for his own purpose. He really did not like the Mandarin. He wished to be independent. So he declared that his fief in Yunnan province was an independent empire and did not obey the Qing Dynasty any more. He set Kunming city as his capital. The Qing government dispatched troops into Yunnan province to attack Wu SanGui and took the Kunming city. Wu SanGui was killed. Chen Yuanyuan was afraid to be captured by the Qing army and insulted. She drowned herself in the lotus pond outside the nunnery. She was buried by the side of the pond. In the nunnery there displayed two pictures of Chen Yuanyuan.
        If Chen Yuanyuan never lived, or if Wu SanGui never knew her, Wu SanGui would not let in the Mandarin and Ming Dynasty might continue for longer time. Even if the rebels occupied the capital, the deceased emperor had some sons and one of the sons could gather troops from provinces and drove away the rebels from the capital and restore the Ming Dynasty. That's why people said that a whore changed the history of Ming Dynasty.

63. 香妃 Concubine Xiang (a girl who had scent on her body)

Concubine Xiang (09/15/1734—05/24/1788 AD) was a girl belonging to Uighur tribe in the present Xinjiang Autonomous District. In 1757 AD, some minorities in that area rebelled against Qing dynasty (1644—1911 AD.) At the time, Emperor Qianlong (09/25/1711—02/07/1799 AD) was on the throne and he sent army to quench the insurrection. Two brothers of concubine Xiang helped Qing army to subdue all rebels and the Qing emperor conferred duke titles to them. The brothers wanted to please the emperor and sent their sister to the emperor in return. The sister was twenty-seven at the time. Therefore, the sister became the concubine of the emperor. It was said that the body of the girl would radiate scent by birth. That was why she got the title of Concubine Xiang (literally meaning scent).
        When she came into the palace, a litchi tree, transplanted in the palace, produced more than two hundred litchi fruit. It was deemed as good fortune that the girl brought. So everyone in the palace liked her, from the empress dowager to the maids in common. Let alone the emperor. Emperor Qianlong liked to travel to the south in the region of the Yangtze River because the scenery there was very beautiful. Every time he traveled, he would bring her with him. She was his favorite concubine. When the empress died, the emperor never had an empress any more. And Concubine Xiang acted as the first concubine in the palace. She was then already forty-eight. She died at the age of fifty-five.
        A legend had a different anecdote for her. She was the wife of a muslin chieftain. When the chieftain rebelled and killed by Qing army, she was captured and sent to the emperor. But she refused to obey the emperor, and the empress dowager let her die. Her body was sent back to her homeland and was buried there. There is still her tomb in Xinjiang district, named Tomb of Concubine Xiang.

64. 慈西太后 Empress Dowager Cixi (a powerful woman causing Qing dynasty perish)

Empress Dowager Cixi (11/29/1835—11/15/1908 AD) was the last empress dowager in Qing dynasty, and also the last empress dowager in the Chinese history. After her death, Qing dynasty was soon overthrown by the first republic of China.
        Her father was an official. And in 1852, she was selected to be sent to the palace. Young girls, when selected into palace, had two choices. Mostly they would be palace maids to do all kinds of services and a few, if the emperor liked them, would be appointed concubines. She was lucky and got the title of Concubine Lan at the age of eighteen. The emperor of that time was Emperor Xianfeng (1831—1861 AD). The empress did not bear any children for him. But Lan bore him a son, who was duly the crown prince. When the emperor died, the crown prince became Emperor Tongzhi (04/27/1856—01/12/1875 AD). She became empress dowager Cixi, and as a rule, the empress became the empress dowager, too, though the new emperor was not her son. She was empress dowager CiAn. They were more easily distinguished from each other by their living quarters. The former empress dwelt in the east, and was thereby called East Empress dowager. The former concubine dwelt in the west, and was thereby called West  Empress Dowager. Since the new emperor was still a small boy and could not manage the state affairs, the two empress dowagers decided things for him.
        The west empress dowager was ambitious, but she could not make any decisions alone. She was not satisfied. One day she sent some snacks to the east empress dowager, who ate it and died. It was said that the west empress dowager poisoned her. Then the west empress dowager had all the power in her hands. Unfortunately, her son, the new emperor, died young from chicken pox. As a rule, she should choose a close relative's son as her adoptive son and succeeded the throne. She chose the son of one of her brothers-in-law. This son was still a small boy and could not administrate the government. So the west empress dowager still made decisions for him. That was why she did not choose a grown-up son of the brothers-in-law. This new emperor was called Emperor Guangxu (08/14/1871—11/14/1908 AD).
        Compared with sovereign empress Wu, who made the nation strong and prosperous, empress dowager Cixi ruled the nation badly. At the time Japan in the east always wanted to invade China. If she was a good ruler, she would strengthen the navy, but she used the funds for navy to build her summer palace. So in 1894, China's navy was defeated by that of Japan. In 1900 when the army of Eight-nation alliance occupied the capital Peking, she had to escape. Under her reign, Qing dynasty went to destruction.
        Seeing this, Emperor Guangxu wanted to have reform like Japan. She and some old courtiers opposed the reform and coup d'etat took place. The emperor was confined and reformers were killed. China's hope was strangled in the cradle. The emperor died one day earlier than the death of empress dowager Cixi. It was said that the emperor was poisoned lest after her death, the emperor would refresh the reform.

65. 洪宣嬌 Hong Xuanjiao (a female general, later escaped to US)

Hong Xuanjiao (?--?) was a brave female fighter, commanding an army of all female soldiers, and was also the sister of Hong Xiuquan (1814—1864 AD), who was the Heavenly King of the Peace Kingdom (1851—1864 AD). At that time Qing dynasty was suffering a difficult time as Empress Dowager Cixi did not have the ability to administrate the country, but she held the power tightly in her hands.
        Hong Xiuquan lived in Guangdong province in the southwestern China, far from the capital, so that Qing dynasty had loose control over that area. In 1843 AD, Hong Xiuquan founded a religion called God-Worshiping Church. The believers developed and in 1851 AD, they held up arms against Qing dynasty. They formed Peace Army and took city after city. They established Peace Kingdom and then they marched to Nanking city and occupied it. They made it their capital. The Heavenly King was the head of the kingdom. There were other kings, such as East King, West King, South King, North King, Wing King, Loyalty King, etc. They were the other leaders of the Peace Army.
        The sister later married the West King. After they set Nanking city as their capital, the kings started to fight among themselves for more power and benefits. First the sister made a plot to kill the East King. Then North King killed the family of the Wing King, who escaped to Sichuan province. The Heavenly King killed the North King. Therefore, the Peace Kingdom grew weaker and was finally conquered by Qing Army and Nanking city was taken. The Heavenly King made suicide.
        The sister escaped in disguise of an ordinary woman among the refugees. She then went to Shanghai. Finally she followed a priest and went to the United States. She stayed in San Francisco and lived as a herb doctor in Chinatown there.

66. Fu Caiyun 傅彩雲(賽金花) (a whore having been in foreign states and speaking their languages)

Fu Caiyun (1872—1936 AD) was nicknamed Sai Jinhua (literally meaning surpassing golden flower). When a little girl, she was sold to a whorehouse in Suzhou city. In 1887 AD, she was taken by a high official Hong Jun (1839—1893 AD) as his concubine at the age of fifteen while Hong was forty-eight. Next year, Hong Jun was sent to Russia, Austria, Germany and Holland as an envoy of Qing dynasty. She went with him as his Ladyship because his wife did not like to live in foreign countries. She lived in Berlin for a few years. She had been to St. Petersburg and Geneva. So she had known some German officers.
        When her husband died, the family did not welcome her as she had been a whore. She had to leave and become a whore again for her living. At first she went to Shanghai, and later she went to live in Tianjin city, close to Peking. When she was a whore, she was known by her nickname, Sai Jinhua.
        In 1900 AD, when the allied forces came to Peking, she was living there and had some good relationship with some German officers. It was said that she was familiar with Alfred Graf von Waldersee, the commander of the German troops. She had even tried to dissuade him from burning the Yuanming Garden. In 1903 AD, a young whore was ill-treated to death by her, and so she was arrested. Then she was sent in custody to her hometown, Suzhou city, for the service. When she was released from jail, she went to live in Shanghai. Afterwards, she moved to Peking and led a poor life till she died of severe disease there in 1936 AD.

67. Qiu Jin 秋瑾 (a female martyr against Qing dynasty)

Qiu Jin (1875—1907 AD) was born in Amoy in Fujian province. She learned kungfu when a little girl and admired Hua Mulan and Qin Laingyu (see above). She liked to dress in man's apparel. She called herself “Swords Woman of  Mirror Lake,” which lake was in her homeland.
        In 1896 AD, she was married to Wang Tingjun (1879—1909 AD), who ran a pawn shop in Xiangtan town. Qiu Jin moved to live with her husband there. In 1900 AD, Wang was assigned an official position in Peking and the couple went to live in Peking. She bore two children for him.
        In 1903 AD, she went to Japan to learn Japanese language at first. During her stay in Japan, she took part in the revolutionary activities with Chinese students there. In July of 1905 AD, she joined Sun Yat-sen's alliance, a revolutionary league against Qing dynasty, and was assigned to be in charge of the revolutionary activities in Zhejiang province. When she returned next year, she became a teacher in Shanghai.
        She planned to publish a newspaper named “Chinese Women.” She needed financial aid. She went back to her husband's family and got a large sum of money for that purpose. She set her heart to wage the revolution, and so she asked to be divorced to her husband lest her action should affect her husband. Her desire of divorce was to protect her husband. If in the process of revolution, she was arrested, her husband had nothing to do with her action as they were openly divorced.
        In autumn of 1905, two members of the League founded a normal school  in Shaoxing town, really for military training. Qiu recruited six hundred members for the school. In January of 1907 AD, the first issue of the newspaper was published. She wrote articles for female rights and revolutionary ideas. She toured to towns not far from Shanghai for propaganda of revolution. In February that year, she became the school mistress. They planned to rise to arms on the sixth day of July, but the secret was leaked out. The uprising of her comrades in Anqing town of Anhui province failed. Someone betrayed her to Qing government while other comrades tried to persuade her to flee, but she rejected, saying that the victory of revolution must cost blood. She remained. On the fourteenth day of July, she was arrested in the school. In the prison she was tortured, but she confessed nothing. She only wrote, “Autumn wind and autumn rain saddens people.” It was because the first word in her name Qiu literally meant autumn. She was killed on the fifteenth day.  
        Her body was at first buried At Xiling Bridge on the West lake in Hangzhou city, but the local Qing government forced it to be moved. Therefore, in 1909 AD, her son moved her body to be buried at Mt. Zhao in Xiangtan town, where her husband's family lived. In 1912 AD, when the first republic was founded, her body was moved back to be interred again in the same place by the West Lake of Hangzhou city. She is admired by all Chinese people for her heroic deeds.

68. Xiao Fengxian 小鳳仙 (a whore who saved a general)
Xiao Fengxian (1900—1954 AD) was her nickname. Her real name was Zhu Xiaofeng. Her father was a business man and went bankrupt, and so she was sold to a brothel in Peking. She had an ability to know who was who. No disguise in her eyes.
        It was said that she had known Cai E (12/18/1882—11/08/1916 AD), who was a general and the governor of Yunnan province. He came to Peking to see doctors. But he would go to some brothels when he was free. That was why he knew the girl.
        At that time, Yuan Shikai (09/16/1895—06/06/1916 AD) wished to be the emperor and he detained Cai E, fearful of his opposition. Cai disagreed to Yuan's idea to restore China into an empire. Therefore, he wanted to be back to his domain so that he could take up arms against Yuan. He succeeded to steal out of Peking with the assistance of the girl. One night, the girl rode in her coach out to somewhere, and hid Cai in her coach in disguise. She sent Cai to Tianjing city, where Cai got on board a ship and escaped to Japan, then went back to his Yunnan province by way of Hong Kong.
        As for the girl, she later married a brigade commander and did not bear any children for him. In 1949 AD, she remarried to a factory worker, who had a daughter of fourteen year old by his ex-wife. When he died, Fengxian lived with her step-daughter. In the early 1951 AD, she went to see the famous  actor of Beijing opera, Mei Lanfang (10/22/1894—08/08/1961 AD), who admired Fengxian for her help of Cai E to escape. Under his influence, she was arranged to work in a nursery. In 1952, she suffered from Alzheimer's disease and died in 1954.

69. Pan Yuliang 潘玉良 ( a famous paintress and sculptress)

Pan Yuliang (06/14/1895—06/13/1977 AD) was a famous paintress and sculptress. In 1917, she went to Shanghai to learn how to paint. Next year, she was enrolled in Shanghai Fine Arts School. In 1921, she went to France and was enrolled in Ecole Nationale Superieure des Beaux-Arts – ENSBA in Lyon. In 1923, she entered Ecole Nationale Superieure des Beaux-Arts de Paris. In 1925, she went to Academy of Beaux-Arts of Rome in Italy. She finished an oil painting titled “White Mums,” which was later displayed in the gallery of Education Bureau in Nanking city.
        In 1926, she began to learn sculpture. Meantime, she completed two oil paintings. They were “Fruits” and “Ruins of Rome.” Her art works were always chosen to be shown in the international exhibition in Italy. Her oil painting “Nude” had won the gold medal in the above exhibition.
        In 1928, she returned to China and at the end of this year, she held her personal art gallery. Next year, she was appointed the director of the Western Painting Department of  Shanghai Fine Arts School. In 1930, she became a professor in Central University (the present Nanking University), and at the same time, she founded the graduate arts school in Shanghai. Then she opened an exhibition in Tokyo in Japan. In 1931, she helped to organize the Chinese Arts Society.
        In 1934, Shanghai Zhonghua Book Company published the “Collection of Oil Paintings of Pan Yuliang.” In 1937, she went to Paris again for the International Art Exposition. In 1940, when Paris was occupied by Germany, she moved to dwell in the suburb and sold paintings for a living. She resided in France ever since till her death in 1977.

70. Soong Qingling 宋慶齡 (the wife of Sun Yat-sen, a revolutionary)

Soong Qingling (01/27/1893—05/29/1981 AD) was the second wife of Sun Yat-sen (11/12/1866—03/12/1925 AD), who founded a revolutionary league. Her father was a priest as well as a business man, and also a friend and comrade of Sun Yat-sen. Hers was a rich family. She had two sisters and three brothers. Her younger sister was well-known to the world. (see next episode.)
        She got her education at McTyeire School in Shanghai. After graduation, in 1907, at the age of fourteen, she went to USA to study at Wellesley College in Massachusetts. Her English name was Rosamond. She got bachelor's degree of literature. In 1913, she returned to China. However, in 1915, she went to Japan and met Sun Yat-sen there. She became his assistant in his revolutionary career. On the twenty-fifth of October, that year, she married him in spite of her father's opposition. She followed his footsteps ever since until he died of cancer in 1925.
In August of 1927, she went to Soviet Union and then to Europe for four years. She read works of Karl Marx and studied the core problems of the first socialist country and some big capitalist countries. In the Sino-Japanese was, she tended to the Communist Party of China. Therefore, in 1949 when CPC established their republic, she was appointed the vice chairman of the republic. In 1950, she was elected the member of World Council of Peace. In 1952, she was selected the chairwoman of Liaison Commission for Asia and the Pacific.
        In September of 1954, she was made the vice chairwoman of the Standing Committee of the First National People's Congress. On the seventh of April in 1959, in the first session of the National People's Congress, she was chosen to be the vice chairwoman of the People's Republic of China. In January of 1965, she was once more made the vice chairwoman of the People's Republic of China. In January of 1975, she was again made the vice chairwoman of the Standing Committee of the First National People's Congress. In February of 1978, she was given that position again. On the thirtieth of August in 1980, she was the executive chairman on the third session of the Fifth National People's Congress. On the fourteenth of May in 1981, her liver cancer and other disease worsened. On the fifteenth, the central political bureau declared that she was the member of CPC. And on the sixteenth, she was given the title of honorary chairwoman of the People's Republic of China. She died on the twenty-ninth in Beijing.
        It was said that besides English, she knew French, German, Russian, Italian and Greek. She could play piano well. She liked classical music of Europe. She could cook good dishes and could paint and embroider. She was all talented.

71. Soong May-ling 宋美齡 (the wife of Chiang Kai-shek)

Soong May-ling (03/05/1897—10/24/2003 AD) was born in Shanghai and was the third wife of Chiang Kai-shek (10/31/1887—04/05/1975 AD), who was the chairman of the Republic of China. She was then the first lady of the Republic of China.
        In 1903, she was educated in McTyeire School in Shanghai. In 1908, at the age of eleven, she went with her sister Rosamond to USA to study in South Piedmont Community College and in 1912, she went to study in Wellesley College, MA. In 1917, she returned to Shanghai to work for a church and took part in all sorts of social activities. It was said that she had a secret engagement with a friend of her elder brother.
        In 1922, she met Chiang Kai-shek in Shanghai. Chiang started to suit her. But her family opposed it, because Chiang was married and believed in Buddhism. If he wanted to marry the girl, he must first divorce his wife and commence to change his belief in church. So he agreed to the conditions. Therefore, on the first of December in 1927, they got married. In 1930, Chiang had the ceremony in a Baptist Church in Shanghai.
        In 1928, she became the mistress of the school for the young family members of dead soldiers of the National Revolutionary Army. In 1932, she was the general secretary of Aviation Committee of China. In 1934, Soong and Chiang waged the New Life Movement, to promote drinking boiled water instead tea and coffee, learning to read and write instead of illiteracy, having habit of hygiene instead of spitting phlegm everywhere.
        On the twelfth of December in 1936, Chiang was detained in XiAn city by two generals he sent to attack the army of CPC. At the same time, Soong was in Shanghai, being not well. When the news came, she immediately went to Nanking city, the capital of Chiang's government. She talked to other government leaders and emphasized on the importance of solving the dispute peacefully. On the fifteenth of December, she flew to XiAn city to negotiate with the two generals and Zhou Enlai, the representative of CPC. Finally they reached an agreement and Chiang was released and came back to Nanking city in company of Soong on the twenty-fifth.
        In 1937, the Sino-Japanese war broke out. Chiang appointed Soong in charge of the air force. She then invited American general Claire Lee Chennault (09/06/1893—07/27/1958 AD) to China to form the  “Flying tigers,” the nickname of Chinese air force. Soong was thereby nicknamed “Mother of the Air force of China.” In 1938, Times magazine published in USA put Chiang and Soong as cover figures. In February of 1943, to gain the help of America, Soong went to USA as Chinag's envoy and was received by the first lady of President Roosevelt and stayed in the White House for eleven days. On the twenty-eighth of February, she made a speech in US Congress. It was the first Chinese woman speaking in the US Congress. Then she toured to other cities to speak to American people for support. Statistics showed that almost 250,000 Americans had listened to her speeches. It was just after the Japanese attack of Pearl Harbor.
        In November of 1934, when Roosevelt, Churchill and Chiang had a conference in Cairo, she went with Chiang as his interpreter since Chinag could not understand and speak English. In 1945, she lived in Chongqing city, which was the temporary capital of China at the war time since the real capital was then occupied by the Japanese army. She squeezed out time to write a novel titled Past Events Have Vanished Like Smoke.
        In October of 1946, Soong and Chiang first visited Taiwan. Then they moved to Taiwan when CPC occupied the mainland. In the sixties, she developed hospitals in Taibei city. In 1975, when Chinag died, she went to live in USA. On the twenty-ninth of May in 1981, when her second sister, Rosamond, died in Beijing, the embassy of China in Washington DC told her the sad news and hoped that she could go to Beijing to attend the funeral, but after the second thought, she declined.
        In 1986, she went back to Taiwan to attend the 100 anniversary of Chiang's birthday and made a speech, “I wish that the light of the Three People's Principles will shine over the mainland.” In 1991, she left Taiwan for the United States again, and never returned to Taiwan ever since. In 1994, she moved to live in New York city. In 1995, it was fiftieth anniversary of the end of the second world war. She was invited to attend the ceremony held for her in Congress for her great tributes in the second world war. She died on the twenty-third of  October in 2003 at the age of one hundred and six in New YorkCity.

72. Kawashima Yoshiko 川島芳子 (金璧輝) (a Chinese woman becoming a Japanese spy)

Kawashima Yoshiko (05/23/1907—03/25/1948 AD) was the fourteenth daughter of a Mandarin prince.Her Chinese name was 金璧輝. When the Qing dynasty was overthrown, the father gave this daughter to his friend, a Japanese called Kawashima Naniwa in the hope that this Japanese friend could train her as a best spy for the restoration of his collapsed dynasty. Therefore, in 1912, at the age of seven, the girl went to Japan with the Japanese man as her adoptive father for strict training. She was then changed her Chinese name Jin Bihui to a Japanese name: Kawashima Yoshiko.
        Several years later, Kawashima Yoshiko was all Japanese. Then she was sent to Stella Jogakuin Koutouka C3-bu—a female high school. When she grew up, she cut her hair short like a boy and liked male sports such as horse-riding, fencing, shooting and judo. She began to wear boy's clothes.
        She started her spy career in 1927 at the age of twenty-one. She returned to the Northeastern China, and in Port Arthur, she married a Mongolian, but in 1931, she eloped with the Japanese secret service chief to Shanghai. Then she secretly took part in the September 18th Incidents, which was that the Japanese army in northeastern China first framed Chinese army for the destroy of Japanese railroad there and then attacked and occupied Shengyang city, and afterwards, took all the region of the northeastern China, including all three provinces.
        She also participated in January 28th Incidents, which was that in 1931 right after the September 18th Incidents, Japanese army started to attack Shanghai and drove the Chinese guarding army out of the area. In 1932, she helped to established the so-called Manchukuo, a puppet government in the  northeastern China and put on the throne a puppet emperor Peter, who had been the last emperor of Qing dynasty.
        Her purpose was to restore the Qing dynasty, but now as she understood that the Manchukuo was only a puppet government of Japan, not the restoration the Qing dynasty, she was disappointed and used the power in her hands to release some Chinese people arrested by Japanese army. So she was deemed by the Japanese army as a dangerous person. In 1934, she was sent back to Japan in confinement. Anyway, she escaped back to China and opened a restaurant in Tianjin city.
        In October of 1945 when Japan surrendered, she was arrested by the Chinese government and had the death verdict on twenty-second of October in 1945, and was executed on the twenty-fifth of March in 1948 in the First Prison in Peking at the age of forth-two.

73. Zhao Yidi 趙一荻(趙四小姐) (a woman having a long time love)

Zhao Yidi (05/28/1912—06/22/2000) was born in Hong Kong. She was at first the mistress of general Zhang Xueliang (06/03/1901—10/15/2001 AD), commanding the army in the northeastern China, and then became his wife.
        In 1928, she went to Tianjin city to attend the Northeast University and got acquainted with general Zhang. Thus she became his secretary as well as his mistress. As Zhang had wife, she could not become his wife. But she followed him everywhere ever since.
        After the XiAn Incident on the twelfth of December in 1936, when he and another general were  detained by Chiang Kai-shek, he was confined ever since and the girl accompanied him in his confinement for as long as seventy-two years. When Chiang escaped to Taiwan, he sent Zhang there too. And the girl ensued.
        In 1940, Zhang's wife was diagnosed to have breast cancer and went to USA for treatment. In 1964, Zhang divorced her and married the girl as his second wife. She had a son with Zhang.

74. Jiang Zhujun 江竹筠(江姐) (a CPC member killed by KMD)

Jiang Zhujun (08/20/1920—11/14/1949) was nicknamed Sister Jiang. She was born in Zigong town of Sichuan province. When she was eight years old, her mother left her idle father, taking her and her brother to Chongqing city, where her uncle lived. At the age of ten, she entered a sock factory and worked as child labor. Since her stature was shorter than the machine, the owner of the factory specially had a  high stool made for her. Next year, she was sent to an orphanage run by a church. She then worked part time and studied part time.
        In 1939, she joined the Communist Party of China. In 1945, she was married to Peng Yongwu (1915—1948), who was a local party secretary. After the marriage, she worked for the newspaper published by CPC. In the winter of 1947, she was sent to Xiachuandong area to help Peng to organize the armed force. She was a liaison person. In 1948, her husband Peng died in a riot against the KMD government. She then succeeded his position and continued the revolution. On the fourteenth day of June in the same year, she was arrested owing to the betrayal of a comrade. She was imprisoned in a concentration camp in Chongqing city. She was of course tormented, but she refused to give any information of the Party's work. On the fourteenth day of November, 1949, she was executed at the age of twenty-eight. She had a son with Peng, and his name is Peng Yun, who now lives in USA.

75. Liu Hulan 劉胡蘭 (youngest CPC member, killed by KMD)

Liu Hulan (10/08/1932—01/12/1947) was born in a peasant's family in Yunzhouxi Village in the district of Wenshui town in Shanxi province. The village was now renamed as Liu Hulan Village. At that time that village was under the control of CPC. At eight years old, she went to a primary school there and accepted the Party's education. At ten, she joined scouts. In October of 1945, she took part in the “Female Cadre Training Class” for a month. When she was back, she became the secretary of the women's national salvation society. In May of 1946, she was promoted to be a female cadre in the fifth district. In June, she joined the Party.
        In the autumn of 1946, KMD army came to Wenshui town, and all the  party's cadres escaped to the military base in Luuliang Mountains. The Party leaders thought that she was too young to cause the attention of the enemy, and so she stayed. On the twenty-first day of December of the same year, the communist militia came to kill the village leader, who had rejected to cooperate with CPC. Liu Hulan participated in the action. At the time, places often changed hands between CPC and KMD. Then KMD army came to arrest local militiamen, CPC soldiers and family members of CPC caders, six in all. Then Liu Hulan was betrayed and arrested, too, making the number seven. On the twelfth day of January, 1947, KMD army called all the villagers gathering on a square before a temple there. As Liu Hulan was the youngest, the MKD company leading officer said to her that if she could declare openly to betray CPC, she could be spared. She said never. Then the other six adult prisoners were killed one by one on a hand hay cutter. At last the girl was brought forward and asked the question again. As she would not yield, she was also killed in the same way at the age of fourteen. She was the youngest Party member.

76. Yan Shanshan 嚴珊珊 (the first female movie star in China)

Yan Shanshan (1896—1952 ) was the first female movie star in China and also a member of the female bomb squadron during the revolution against Qing dynasty in 1911.
        When she was in Hong Kong Yide Normal School, she got acquainted with Li Minwei (1893—1953) and on 1931 she was  married to him. Then she and her husband founded the Hong Kong Meihua film Company, and in 1914, they made the movie called Zhuang Zi Tests his Wife. Zhuang Zi (369—286 BD) was an ancient scholar, who had a book collecting his articles. There was a story about how he tested the faithfulness of his wife to him. Once he feigned to be dead ad buried in a grave. Before his death, he told his wife that she could remarry if the earth on his grave was dry. Then his wife stayed by the side of his grave and fanned the earth in the hope that the earth would be dry faster than normally.
        In this movie she played the role of a maid of the wife, and her husband acted the wife. All the female roles in the movie before were played by males in disguise. That was why she was deemed the first female movie star. Afterwards, she joined Shanghai Xinmin Film Company and starred in Goddess of Peace (1926), Five Revengeful Girls in 1928, and Reviving Romance in the same year. She gave up acting in that year.
        Yan Shanshan was never a jealous woman. On the contrary, when in 1919, she met Lin Chuchu (1904—1979), another actress, she voluntarily introduced her to her husband and let her be another wife of Li Minwei. Li and Lin had formal wedding ceremony on the seventh of January in 1919. In old China it was lawful to have two wives at the same time. Both wives had the equal status in the family. In 1924, Li and Lin starred the movie Rouge as the male and female main characters. So Lin became a movie star, too. Yan died in 1952 at the age of fifty-six.

77. Wang Hanlun 王漢倫 (from a movie star to a business woman)

Wang Hanlun (1903—08/17/1978) was one of the earliest female movie stars in China. She was born in  a big official family in Suzhou city. Then they moved to live in Shanghai. She was early educated in St. Mary's Hall, a female school run by the church in Shanghai. After the death of her father, at the age of sixteen, her brother forced to discontinue her schooling and arranged for her to marry an official, who had the adultery with a Japanese woman not long afterwards and deserted her. She had to teach in a primary school in Hongkou district of Shanghai for her living. Then she worked as a clerk in British-American Tobacco Co. (hk) Ltd., and then as a typist in Siming Foreign Firm, where she knew a female colleague, who was also a shareholder of Mingxing film company. As the colleague knew that she liked filming, the colleague took her one day to see the conductor, who was just looking for a female star for his movie. He told her to perform some actions and make some expressions on the face like smiling, angry, sad and happy. He thought that she was okay to be a star and signed a contract with her. Thus, she began her acting career.
        Therefore, she resigned from her typist job. When her brother learned it, he was angry and wanted to send her back to their hometown Suzhou to punish her by family rules. In old families in that time, there were family rules to punish their sons and daughters who had done something against the rules or even the will of elders. But it was republic now. So Wang Hanlun declared to stop her relationship with the family so that they could not punish her by the family rules.
        Her original name was Peng Jianqing. Now as she severed herself from her family, she changed her name to Wang Hanlun. The self-given name was really taken from Helen by sound, but in Chinese characters. So you can pronounce Hanlun as Helen.
        The Mingxing Film Company was founded in 1922. The movie Wang had a role in it was called An Orphan Rescues His Grandpa. The movie was on in 1924 to the warm applause of the public. She then acted in other three successive movies. She became so well-known to the public that another film company, Changcheng Film Company, came to ask her to work for them and pay her more. She then transferred to that company. For this company, she filmed Deserted Woman and others. But this company did not pay her more, and her complaints came of no avail. She went to work for another company, Tianyi Film Company. As all the film companies paid her not to her satisfaction, she founded a film company of her own called “Hanlun Film Company.” She acted in a movie named Blind Love. All her movies had a tragic end. So she was nicknamed “first tragic star on the screen.” During the recess, she would go on the stage to greet her audience, which got her a lot of fans.
        In 1931, she gave up filming and changed her aim to business. She opened a beauty shop in Shanghai. She was one of the first women who studied the beauty culture in China. When Shanghai was occupied by Japanese army, she had to close the shop. When the Japanese wanted her to work for them, she refused on the pretense that she was sick. So she lived in a poor condition by selling her belongings. In 1945 when Japan surrendered, she wanted to resume her acting. But as she went to a filming company, the owner rejected her, implying that she was too old. She was then in her forties.
        In 1950 when CPC took reign over the mainland, the Kunlun Movie Company invited her to the role of Empress Dowager Cixi in the movie Legend of Wuxun. When Shanghai Film Factory was founded, she was given a job there and got salary as a clerk of something. But she was still assigned some side roles. When the Cultural Revolution began, though she was retired, the red guards came to her home and took away all the old films she kept for so long. She died of disease on the seventeenth of August in 1978 in the hospital.

78. Zhang Zhiyun 章芝芸 (the first movie queen in China)

Zhang Zhiyun (1904—1975) was the first movie queen in China. She was born in Fanyu town of Guangdong province and in childhood, moved to Shanghai with her family. When her father died, her family fell into financial difficulties. Therefore, she had to cease her education in the middle school.
        At the beginning of 1924, Dazhonghua Film Company was founded and they put an advertisement on the newspaper, “Actresses wanted.” The application letters with a photo must be sent to the newspaper's mail box. Ten days later, they received about ten thousand female photos, but none of them were suitable. Then they found that a reporter working there secretly opened all letters and hid whatever photos he liked. After negotiation, he returned ten photos. Zhang's photo was one of them.
        She was chosen and acted in two silent films, successfully. In 1925 she went to work for Mingxing Film Company. In 1926, the newspaper held an activity to vote for movie queen. Twelve actresses joined in it. Zhang was the first by getting 2146 votes. So she was the first movie queen in China.
        She then participated in parties of the upper social circle and became to know Tang Jishan, a tea salesman. In 1927, she gave up her filming and went with him to America to sell tea. Tang just wanted to use her title of movie queen as his spokeswoman to advertise his products. But he did not know that American people never heard of the movie queen in China. So he failed and had to take her back to China. In 1931, he deserted Zhang and lived together with another movie star.
        Then came the ages of sound film. As she could not speak mandarin, she had seldom any contracts. In 1933, she tried to act in a sound film and in 1935, in another sound film called New Peach Fan. But the audience did not acknowledge her success. She had to retire from filming circle again. In forties she got married and in fifties, she moved to live in Hong Kong till she died there.

79. Xuan Jinglin 宣景琳 (first actress with a private car and showing her bare legs to the public in China)

Xuan Jinglin (1904—01/22/1992) was born in Shanghai. Her father was a newspaper vendor. She went to the school run by Moore Memorial Church in Shanghai for free. As she could not stand the bully of the students coming from rich families, she gave up the schooling and went to learn Peking opera, because her uncle was the accountant in a theater, where Peking operas were performed. When her parents and elder brother fell sick, she was sold to a brothel for money for her family when she was still young. In the brothel she met a young man, who loved her, but his parents would not let him marry a prostitute.  
        Therefore, she started to save money her patrons gave her as gifts to redeem herself from the brothel. The bawd found it and took all her saved money away. She could do nothing about it. A poor young girl. By chance, she was found by the conductor of Mingxing Film Company. They had a new screenplay called Last Consciousness. The girl was fit for the role. They could not find other girls fit for it. Therefore, the company paid the money to the bawd for her redemption. She became a movie actress. That was in 1923. This movie was on in 1925.
        Then she acted for the role of a whore in another movie called A Woman in Shanghai, which won her a great fame, as she acted from her won experience. She earned a lot of money and bought a car for herself. She was the first woman that had a car for her own use only. And she was also the first woman actress in China that showed her bare legs to the public.
        The young man still loved the girl, especially she was now a famous movie star. Yet his parents rejected their marriage owing to the girl's whore background. Therefore, the conductor of the film company went to see the parents and persuaded them to accept the girl. Although the parents agreed to their marriage, they had some conditions. Firstly, there was no wedding ceremony. Secondly, the girl could not live in the house of the parents. The new couple had to rent a separate house. But there were always rumors about movie stars. And the husband often suspected her of something. Finally they divorced.
        She filmed thirty-five movies. Another movie was The lady's Fan in 1928. Then when she grew old and there appeared more younger female actresses, she gradually faded from the screen. When CPC ruled over the mainland, Shanghai Film Factory was founded, and she was invited to act in the movie Family in 1956. She died in 1992 at the age of eighty-eight.

80. Hu Die 胡蝶 (first actress in China attending international film festival and getting award)

Hu Die (03/23/1908—04/23/1989) was born in Shanghai and when she was nine, the family moved to  Canton. She went to Pooi To Middle School. In 1924, when she was sixteen, the family moved back to Shanghai. That year, the movie An Orphan Rescues His Grandpa was on. It touched audience, including the young Hu Die. So she set her heart on being an actress. She signed up as a candidate in Shanghai China Film School, which was the first such a school in China. She learned drama, film theory, and performing. She liked performing, and next year she was given a role in Exploits, which was her first movie.
        She acted in more than twenty movies with different film companies. Her master piece was Twin sisters. She acted both sisters with different life experience, characters, and social status. It was so successful that it got the highest seat occupancy rate at the time.
        When September 18th Incidents took place, a misfortune befell Hu Die. At the time she went with the filming crew to Peking. Coincidentally, the general Zhang Xueliang (see above) was also in Peking. That time, people in northeastern China were furious against the Japanese invaders. To transfer the anger of the Chinese people from Japanese to someone else, Japanese news agency spread a rumor that on the night of the incidents, Zhang was dancing with Hu Die. According to logic, Zhang should be fighting the invaders right on the night as northeastern China was his defending area. The rumor meant that Zhang neglected his duties. So people turned against Zhang and against Hu Die, too. Although she made a declaration openly on newspapers, there were still doubts.
        On the New Year's Day of 1933, for the development of the filming business, the Daily Star of Shanghai proposed an activity to vote for female star queen again. Hu Die won the title by getting 21334 votes. She won another star queen title in 1934. In 1935, Russia held an international film festival in Moscow, Hu die was invited to attend. She was the only female movie star that was invited.
        In November of 1937, when Shanghai was occupied by the Japanese army, they took over the film company. So no film was made anymore. As the husband of Hu Die was in Hong Kong, she went there to join her husband. On the twenty-fifth of December in 1941, Japanese army occupied Hong Kong. In order to gain the support of Hong Kong people, especially of some famous people there, the Japanese asked Hu Die to act in the film Hu Die travels in Tokyo. However, Hu Die declined on the pretense that she was pregnant. On the twenty-fourth of November in 1942, Hu Die stole out of Hong Kong and went to Chongqing city, the temporary capital of the Chinese government at the time.
        Soon she was under the control of Dai Li (05/28/1897—03/17/1946), the chief of the bureau of investigation and statistics of the military council of KMD. Dai always adored the beautiful movie star and wanted her to be his mistress. He even wanted to marry her. But he had an air crash in 1946. So she was free from him and went back to Hong Kong. She began to act in several films. In 1949, her husband died. Then she stopped filming for ten long years. In 1959, she recommenced to act in several films in Hong Kong or Taiwan. In 1960, on the Seventh Asian Film Festival held in Japan, she won the award of the best actress in the movie called Back door. She got the title of Asian star queen at the age of fifty-two. In 1966, she retired from the screen and lived in Taiwan. In 1975, she immigrated to Vancouver in Canada, and died there in 1989. Her last words were, “The butterfly will fly away.” The pronunciation of her name Hu Die literally meant Butterfly.

81. Li Minghui 黎明晖(an actress in movie and on stage)

Li Minghui (06/1909—12/09/2003) was born in Shanghai. Her father was a famous composer and founded a Song & Dance Ensemble. So as a  child, she could sing and dance. At the age of twelve, she began to step up on the stage to sing and she had more than fifty gramophone records as a singer. Her master piece of songs was called Drizzle.
At the age of thirteen, she got her first role, a supporting role, in a film. In 1925, she got another supporting role. From 1925 to 1928, she acted main roles in Little Factory Owner, Transparent Shanghai, and Women, etc. Nine movies in all during that period of time. She also acted some children's plays such as Grape Fairy, and Sparrow and Kids, etc. As she often acted the role of a young girl, she got he nickname “Little sister.”
In 1934, she married the famous football player at the time, who later went to Hong Kong to become a businessman. In 1937, she founded a nursery in Shanghai. When her husband died of liver cancer, she stopped acting career. In 1971, she was assigned the work of the secretary to take care of the daily life of the old curator of history museum. She died in a nursing home in Shanghai on the ninth of December in 2003.

82. Xu Lai 徐来 (an actress nicknamed Oriental Beauty)

Xu Lai (1909—04/1973) was born in Shanghai in a poor family. Therefore, she had to work in an egg factory run by a British businessman at the age of thirteen. Later as her family became better financially, she was able to attend school. At school, she was only a mediocre student , but began to like dancing. In 1927 when she was eighteen, she entered  the China Song & Dance college. After graduation, she joined the China Song & Dance Ensemble, and married the founder of the ensemble, a Mr. Li. Then she headed the troupe to perform in Canton and Hong Kong. In 1928, the troupe went on the preforming tour abroad to Thailand, Singapore and Java, etc. Her great beauty and wisdom attracted large audience. She got the nickname “Oriental Beauty.”
        In 1933, she was invited to act in a silent film Late Spring. She acted the role of a romantic girl from a wealthy family. The girl was known as a campus belle in the college. So many rich boys came to court her, but at last she made sacrifice for true love. There was even a scene of her in the bath. At that time, such a scene caused severe criticism from old prigs. Anyway, she became welcome and well-known. She received so many letters from her fans that she had hired a female secretary to help her to handle the letters. She was the first movie star in China that had a secretary. In 1935, she acted in the film called Boat Girl. That year, another famous movie star committed suicide. She was so shocked that she gave up filming for ever.
        Then she got acquainted with a man Tang. She divorced Li and married Tang. She and Tang lived in Shanghai till 1949. During their stay, Shanghai was controlled by Japan. Tang came from a family of big landlord and spent money freely. He moved among those Chinese pro to the Japanese. So Tang was deemed as a traitor to Chinese people. But after the surrender of Japan, he revealed his true identity as a secret agent from KMD. So he was a patriot instead of a traitor. In 1949, they moved to Hong Kong. In 1950, Tang went to join the CPC's army and became a general. Tang and the army went south to fight with KMD's army. In 1956, he went to Beijing to work there. So Xu Lai went to live there. In the so-called great cultural revolution, she and her husband were put in jail. It was because when she was in Shanghai as an actress, she knew a lot of the scandals of Jiang Qing, Mao's wife. Almost all actors and actresses who had been in Shanghai at the time were persecuted. Xu was tormented in prison and  she died in April of 1973 at the age of sixty-four.

83. Yuan Lingyu 阮玲玉 (died early and had largest funeral internationally)

Yuan Lingyu (04/26/1910—03/08/1935) was born in Shanghai. She reached the highest level of acting arts in the time of silent films. Her father died when she was only six years old. She lived with her mother. At the age of eight, she entered Shanghai Shung Tak Female School. She was clever and studied hard. She was one of the best students so that she was often chosen to attend singing and dancing performances. She thus developed her interest in acting.
        In 1926 when she was sixteen, she was admitted to Shanghai Mingxing Film Company and began her filming career. Her maiden movie was Couples Only in Name, and others. In 1928, she went to work with another film company and acted in six movies. In 1930, she worked for still another film company. She had the main role in Three Modern Females. She acted in twenty-nine movies all her short life.
        On the eighth of March in 1935, at the age of twenty-five, she made suicide by taking too much sleeping pills. The reason for it was that her husband often ill-treated, even beat her. She could not endure it any more. When the husband found her taking too much sleeping pills, he did not send her to the nearest hospital for treatment immediately, he was first considering whether her suicide would harm his reputation. So he took her to a Japanese hospital far from home. But this hospital did not have emergency room. He then took her to a private clinic of his friend's. But this clinic could not do it. Finally he took her to a big hospital at eleven in the next morning after so many hours. Her life was not saved.
        Her early sad death shocked Shanghai and her fans when newspapers reported it. At the funeral ceremony, even three of her fans made suicide on spot. They left their will, saying that when Yuan was gone, there was no reason for the trio to live in this world. Three hundred thousand people attended her funeral and the procession lasted three li (half a kilometer). Next day, the New York Times had the headline like this “The recent largest funeral internationally.”