Yang Guifei: her beauty brought down a dynasty

Po Chu-i (772-846), was one of the greatest poets of the Tang Dynasty. He wrote over 2,800 poems and was known for the simplicity of his language. One of his most famous works is the long narrative poem, "Song of Unending Sorrow," which tells of the romance between Yang Guifei and the Emperor Xuanzong.

He was besotted from the first instant he saw her. Falling under her spell, Emperor Xuanzong would do anything to have Yang Yuhuan, even if it meant breaking up her marriage to his own son. The Emperor was obsessed with her. And why not? She was said to have “a face that would shame any flower.” Her loveliness was such that she is known up to the present day as one of the Four Beauties, women from ancient China legendary for their looks and the influence they exerted over emperors and kings who have fallen for their charms.

And the Emperor, from that time forth, forsook his early hearings
And lavished all his time on her with feasts and revelry,
His mistress of the spring, his despot of the night.
There were other ladies in his court, three thousand of rare beauty,
But his favors to three thousand were concentered in one body.

Emperor Xuanzong renamed her Yang Guifei, naming her “secondary consort” and establishing her importance in his court. He started neglecting affairs of state, preferring instead to spend his time in her company. To please her, he had the palace at Huaqing Hot Springs enlarged and she is said to have spent countless hours bathing there to keep her skin soft and supple. The Emperor also had fresh lychees, her favorite fruit, brought daily by horseback from the south where they were cultivated.

Her influence in court grew. Many of her relatives received appointments and were made officials in the court. Her eldest sister became Lady of Han; her third eldest sister became Lady of Guo; her eighth oldest sister became Lady of Qin; and a distant gambler cousin became a high ranking official. Even her adopted son, An Lushan, a general of Turkic origin, was given command of three adjacent areas northeast of Chang'an.

In 755, An Lushan staged a rebellion and marched into the capital. He led a force of about 200,000 men, inspiring their loyalty because he had been their leader for many years. Emperor Xuanzong fled towards the southwest, intending to escape with Yang Guifei.

The soldiers accompanying them, however, had other ideas. At Mawei Relay Stop, where they were to change horses, they demanded the execution of Yang Guifei, blaming her and her cousin for the rebellion and the decline of the dynasty. Yang Guifei, rather than turn herself over to the soldiers, hanged herself in the courtyard of a small Buddhist temple in Mawei village.

But thirty miles from the capital, beyond the western gate,
The men of the army stopped, not one of them would stir
Till under their horses' hoofs they might trample those moth-eyebrows...
Flowery hairpins fell to the ground, no one picked them up,
And a green and white jade hair-tassel and a yellow gold hair-bird.
The Emperor could not save her, he could only cover his face.

The Emperor eventually escaped to Sichuan. He tried to have Yang Guifei's body retrieved from Mawei Relay, but it was never found. A memorial tomb was erected in her honor in Xi. The Anshi Rebellion dragged on for several years before it finally crushed during the reign of Emperor Daizong, but it was the beginning of the end for the Tang Dynasty.

According to legend, Emperor Xuanzong tried to contact Yang Guifei in the afterlife via a Taoist priest able to summon and communicate with spirits. The priest found her in an enchanted isle on the sea where she was called “The Ever True.” She repeated vows of love known only to herself and the Emperor.

Emperor Xuanzong never got over the loss of Yang Guifei. He died a broken man some years later. The Tang Dynasty survived in name, but it had started a steady decline and would never regain its former glory. Ironically, it was Emperor Xuanzong who was credited with bringing the Tang Dynasty to its height of prosperity and grandeur and it was his infatuation with Yang Guifei that caused it to slowly crumble.

Poetry from "A Song of Unending Sorrow" by Po Chu-i