Tomb of Wang Zhaojun
2008-03-14
The story of the concubine Wang Zhaojun, one of China's four historical beauties (along with Diao Chan, Xi Shi and Concubine Yang) is a Chinese morality tale of political alliance and sacrifice, a tale that, like much of Chinese past, has been obfuscated over time into numerous versions. The most interesting story runs like this:Wang Zhaojun was selected at an early age to be a concubine for the Han Dynasty (206 BC-220 AD) Emperor, Yuandi, one of his imperial majesty's many. Apparently Yuandi used to select his bed partner from pictures that the court painter created. The painter, a clever entrepreneur, castrated his art for monetary gains by charging the concubines for his artistic skills, and these women obliged by competing courageously, all but Wang Zhaojun. The result was that the emperor, semi-satisfied by love at home, but troubled by war in the north, had never set eyes on the heroine when he came to decide which of his ladies would be sent to the north to appease the tribal chief of a southern Hun tribe, the Xiongnu. He chose the ugliest of his concubine pictures, Wang Zhaojun.
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