Beauty and the barbarians
Known as one of the four beauties of ancient China, Wang Zhaojun helped prevent a war - and might do so again
Though IT is more than 2,000 years since any man has laid eyes on her face, the beauty of Wang Zhaojun still burns strong in Chinese minds. Known as one of the four beauties of ancient China, her lasting resting place is a dense green forest in Hohhot, about 400 kilometres west of Beijing. In front of her tomb is a statue of Wang and her husband, who stares lovingly at his bride on horseback.
Long ruled by the Xiongnu people, Hohhot has a large Mongolian population and offers a very different atmosphere from the rest of China.
Walk down the main street and Mongolian culture assaults the senses from all sides - not least in the mouth-watering aroma of grilled lamb. Wang's tomb is 30 minutes' drive from the city centre, but locals say no Chinese visitor ever leaves without making a visit to this myth-soaked place.
The tragic tale of Wang Zhaojun has been told down the ages. About 2,000 years ago, the Xiongnu demanded that Emperor Yuan of the Han Dynasty deliver a bride for Kokanya Zenu, the king of the horsemen on China's northern frontier, as a peace offering to end the long-running conflict between the two.
Reluctant to see a woman of the royal court fall into the hands of Xiongnu "barbarians", the emperor pored over paintings of concubines in his court and selected Wang, whose portrait was the least beautiful.
When she visited the emperor to bid him farewell, however, he was stunned by her looks. Unlike the other women of the harem, Wang had refused to bribe the royal painter to exaggerate her beauty. Realising his mistake, the emperor sent her off with heavy heart.
While this popular version of the tale is known to millions of Chinese, it bears little relation to the facts, say historians.
Scholars Hao Cunzhu, 69, and Hao Chengzhi, 71, chairman and vice chairman respectively of the Association of Chinese Ethnology, call it a fiction cooked up in poems, plays and paintings of later eras. History, they say, tells a completely different story.
Both cite the "Book of the Later Han", which states: "Zhaojun had lived a life of disappointment in the harem with few opportunities to meet the emperor after she was sent to live there. Consequently, she was eager to take up the offer from the Xiongnu when it arose."
The book describes the farewell visit Wang paid to the emperor.
"When Zhaojun made her entrance, her dazzling beauty lit up the whole court. Worried by the onlookers' reaction of amazement, she wondered if she looked strange and checked her makeup in a mirror. Seeing her doing so, people followed suit."
The two experts argue that if her departure had been against her will, her actions would not have been described so vividly.
She subsequently married two kings of the "barbarian" Xiongnu, a fate deemed so tragic by the Han that their stories created a myth of heart-breaking self-sacrifice and melancholy.
As times changed, Wang came to be admired in modern Communist-ruled China as an emissary of peace who ended the old enmity between two ethnic groups.
In Hohhot, Wang is honoured every August with a festival, and cultural exchanges to promote solidarity among ethnic groups are also carried out in her name.
The place where she was born and raised near Yichang City, Hubei Province, is known today as Zhaojun Village.
"She had great inner, as well as outer, beauty, and that was what helped forge peace and solidarity among ethnic groups," says 67-year-old Wang Zuoquan, who claims to be a 72nd-generation descendant of Wang Zhaojun's older brother,
The story of a beauty with the power to tame the beast of tribalism seems like a fairy tale.
But few believe it can charm the tensions that exist among the 56 ethnic groups and several independence movements of today's China. With such divisions, Wang's memory may serve as little more than a political pawn.
Seeking to pay a more fitting tribute to her historical role, I linger at the tomb known locally as the Emerald Mound, and soak up the silent, sun-dappled beauty of her last resting place.
Conqueror of hearts
According to the "Book of the Later Han", Wang Zhaojun was born to a prominent family in a village in present-day Yichang city, Xingshan County, Hubei Province. She was a concubine during the reign of Emperor Yuan in the Later Han Dynasty. However, in 33 BC, the emperor sent her to marry Kokanya Zenu, king of the Xiongnu people, with whom she had a son. After the death of her husband, she was ordered to follow Xiongnu custom and become the wife of a new king, a son born to Kokanya Zenu and another wife. In the new marriage, she had two daughters. She was loved by the people. Famous poets such as Li Po and Tu Fu left more than 1,300 poems about her, and many novels and plays were written based on her life.
Though IT is more than 2,000 years since any man has laid eyes on her face, the beauty of Wang Zhaojun still burns strong in Chinese minds. Known as one of the four beauties of ancient China, her lasting resting place is a dense green forest in Hohhot, about 400 kilometres west of Beijing. In front of her tomb is a statue of Wang and her husband, who stares lovingly at his bride on horseback.
Long ruled by the Xiongnu people, Hohhot has a large Mongolian population and offers a very different atmosphere from the rest of China.
Walk down the main street and Mongolian culture assaults the senses from all sides - not least in the mouth-watering aroma of grilled lamb. Wang's tomb is 30 minutes' drive from the city centre, but locals say no Chinese visitor ever leaves without making a visit to this myth-soaked place.
The tragic tale of Wang Zhaojun has been told down the ages. About 2,000 years ago, the Xiongnu demanded that Emperor Yuan of the Han Dynasty deliver a bride for Kokanya Zenu, the king of the horsemen on China's northern frontier, as a peace offering to end the long-running conflict between the two.
Reluctant to see a woman of the royal court fall into the hands of Xiongnu "barbarians", the emperor pored over paintings of concubines in his court and selected Wang, whose portrait was the least beautiful.
When she visited the emperor to bid him farewell, however, he was stunned by her looks. Unlike the other women of the harem, Wang had refused to bribe the royal painter to exaggerate her beauty. Realising his mistake, the emperor sent her off with heavy heart.
While this popular version of the tale is known to millions of Chinese, it bears little relation to the facts, say historians.
Scholars Hao Cunzhu, 69, and Hao Chengzhi, 71, chairman and vice chairman respectively of the Association of Chinese Ethnology, call it a fiction cooked up in poems, plays and paintings of later eras. History, they say, tells a completely different story.
Both cite the "Book of the Later Han", which states: "Zhaojun had lived a life of disappointment in the harem with few opportunities to meet the emperor after she was sent to live there. Consequently, she was eager to take up the offer from the Xiongnu when it arose."
The book describes the farewell visit Wang paid to the emperor.
"When Zhaojun made her entrance, her dazzling beauty lit up the whole court. Worried by the onlookers' reaction of amazement, she wondered if she looked strange and checked her makeup in a mirror. Seeing her doing so, people followed suit."
The two experts argue that if her departure had been against her will, her actions would not have been described so vividly.
She subsequently married two kings of the "barbarian" Xiongnu, a fate deemed so tragic by the Han that their stories created a myth of heart-breaking self-sacrifice and melancholy.
As times changed, Wang came to be admired in modern Communist-ruled China as an emissary of peace who ended the old enmity between two ethnic groups.
In Hohhot, Wang is honoured every August with a festival, and cultural exchanges to promote solidarity among ethnic groups are also carried out in her name.
The place where she was born and raised near Yichang City, Hubei Province, is known today as Zhaojun Village.
"She had great inner, as well as outer, beauty, and that was what helped forge peace and solidarity among ethnic groups," says 67-year-old Wang Zuoquan, who claims to be a 72nd-generation descendant of Wang Zhaojun's older brother,
The story of a beauty with the power to tame the beast of tribalism seems like a fairy tale.
But few believe it can charm the tensions that exist among the 56 ethnic groups and several independence movements of today's China. With such divisions, Wang's memory may serve as little more than a political pawn.
Seeking to pay a more fitting tribute to her historical role, I linger at the tomb known locally as the Emerald Mound, and soak up the silent, sun-dappled beauty of her last resting place.
Conqueror of hearts
According to the "Book of the Later Han", Wang Zhaojun was born to a prominent family in a village in present-day Yichang city, Xingshan County, Hubei Province. She was a concubine during the reign of Emperor Yuan in the Later Han Dynasty. However, in 33 BC, the emperor sent her to marry Kokanya Zenu, king of the Xiongnu people, with whom she had a son. After the death of her husband, she was ordered to follow Xiongnu custom and become the wife of a new king, a son born to Kokanya Zenu and another wife. In the new marriage, she had two daughters. She was loved by the people. Famous poets such as Li Po and Tu Fu left more than 1,300 poems about her, and many novels and plays were written based on her life.
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