History UsefulNotes / FourBeautiesOfAncientChina

Overall, as you may have noticed it, the Four Beauties was known as such not because they're just plain hot. Ancient China had an endless supplies of beauties throughout the time (Such as Empress Bao Si, Consort Yu (consort of Qin general Xiang Yu) or the Two Qiaos (two sisters that became the wives of [[UsefulNotes/ThreeKingdomsShuWeiWu Sun Ce and Zhou Yu]]), amongst others), but these four stood out for one thing: Their beauties shook the foundation of China and destroyed kingdoms and empires (except Wang Zhaojun, who instead stabilized China by going around her ArrangedMarriage with the Prince of Xiongnu), also creating cautionary tales that [[WomanlinessAsPathos women tend to be the weakness of great men]] (with side effect of villifying women back in those days, considering how patriarchal the system is).[[note]]This is also why Zhao Feiyan was demoted from her position. Whatever change Wang Mang made, it was swiftly reverted once he's out of the picture.[[/note]]

In other words, [[SoBeautifulItsACurse being beautiful in Ancient China is a death sentence]], [[BlessedWithSuck with a tragic death to go.]]

The last of the beauties is Yang Guifei. For the most part, she's usually overshadowed by her ancestor/great grandmother UsefulNotes/WuZetian as an influential woman in Ancient China, but in terms of beauty, she's got her beat. It's interesting to note that the standard of beauty have shifted in that time, and by her time of living, Yang Guifei would be considered chubby. [[BigBeautifulWoman But when a chubby lady is said to make flowers turn away in shame when she dared approach them]], that should be saying something about her beauty as the legends go.\\\

At the age of 13, Wang Zhaojun's beauty has become so reknown, Emperor Liu Shi (Emperor Yuan of Han) chose her to join his harem. It's the Emperor's order, so she couldn't complain. Her initial position was 'lady in waiting'. However, there was a way for ladies in waiting to get promoted into concubine and get better lives: The Emperor didn't have time to personally visit these ladies in waiting, so his only cue on how they looked were just the paintings as painted by sanctioned artists. The ladies usually try increasing their success chances by bribing the artist to make their portrait look more appealing, in modern times, it would be comparable to asking an editor to photoshop your portrait so you look prettier. Wang Zhaojun, on the other hand, was ''so'' confident to her natural beauty that she refused to bribe her artist. Unfortunately, her artist, Mao Yanshou, was bitter at her because of that and took revenge: He put a mole in her picture, so to the Emperor, Wang Zhaojun would look like the ugliest of the ladies in waiting. So, she's doomed to be an eternal lady-in-waiting.\\\

* Bad Ending: Xi Shi decided to stay with her country and see how it flourished now that she saved him. What she failed to realize was that King Goujian was [[ChronicBackstabbingDisorder the type to even backstab his own benefactors]] [[UngratefulBastard to the merits of his own survival.]] After analyzing the fall of King Fuchai, he deduced that Xi Shi was so beautiful that she might mesmerize him next and bring him down. To prevent that, he arrested Xi Shi and sentenced her to death, drowning her in a river.

By far, she would be the member of the Four Beauties that had the happiest ending of all. However, there are some interpretation that decided to make her life ended not too well either: Wang Zhaojun was told to stick with the Xiongnu's customs there, but said custom would force her to marry one of her sons after Huhanye passed away. [[DrivenToSuicide She ended up tragically committing suicide]] rather than committing family-incest, but the Xiongnu tribe still fondly remembered her and gave her proper burial regardless. For the most part, it was largely believed that Wang Zhaojun managed to find a [[LoopholeAbuse loophole]] in said custom to avoid committing incest or [[HeroicSacrifice she decided that her own morality can be sacrificed]] if it's [[PatrioticFervor for the peace and stability she could bring to her country]] so she went ahead with the family-incest (and it actually worked, China and Xiongnu enjoyed a long time of peace due to her actions even if it would look immoral these days), and then she died by natural causes.

By history, the original identity of Diao Chan was never heard of again, already finishing her mission. But since Wang Yun eventually was slain by remnants of Dong Zhuo, it didn't seem that she would survive that. The novel extended her life that Diao Chan started BecomingTheMask; she recognized Lu Bu as her OneTrueLove after all, and thus followed him as he became a wandering warlord... until shortly after, he got beaten and executed by Cao Cao. Diao Chan then either committed suicide after being separated from her true love for real, or Cao Cao surrendered her to Liu Bei and his brothers, on the purpose of breaking up the three brothers using Diao Chan's beauty, while Diao Chan herself wasn't too interested with the brothers as she was interested with Lu Bu. UsefulNotes/GuanYu read on the situation correctly and was savvy enough to learn the fates of whoever pinned too much on beautiful women. So one night, he took Diao Chan away and slew her in private, thus ending the quarrel between his siblings, [[AlternativeCharacterInterpretation one might say that]] this could be [[DeathSeeker what Diao Chan wanted, she could no longer look forward in life after her love and family died.]]\\\

Born as a noble with the first name Yuhuan, she first became a nun. But Emperor Tanzhong noticed her, and captivated by her beauty that he yanked her away from her lifestyle, made her his concubine and gave her the name title Yang Guifei, and gave her such great attention and affection. For the most part, he avoided the more common pitfalls of others who fell for that kind of beauty. However, it was still these decisions that contributed to his downfall. Thanks to the favors for Yang Guifei, the Emperor promoted many people that was close to her.\\\

One such person was An Lushan, whom at first seemed like a promising and okay person. But he's got issues with Yang Guozhong, a cousin of Yang Guifei that also got promoted the same way as he was, because of Yang Guifei's influence. An Lushan eventually amassed enough influence that he could launch his own rebellion (the An Lushan Rebellion), which saw the Imperial city sacked, many people dying and the royal family on the run, away from the capital. During an argument, the people spoke: This was all Yang Guifei's fault, she was a bad influence to the Emperor, and if it wasn't for her, An Lushan wouldn't have enough power to launch this bloody rebellion. She destroyed Emperor Tanzhong the same way Xi Shi brought down King Fuchai, and how Diao Chan brought down Dong Zhuo. And for that, the people demanded that she's to be put to death. \\\

Of course, Emperor Tanzhong was reluctant because he did love her genuinely, and Yang Guifei didn't want to die either. But to appease his own people, he had no choice but to strangle Yang Guifei to death and was separated with her corpse. Only after coming back to his home that he could give Yang Guifei a proper burial. And at least, someone took pity on Yang Guifei that she became the subject of poem called ''The Song of Everlasting Sorrow'', portraying her as a tragic figure instead of an Empire-wrecker. [[GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff Japan loved it very much]] that Creator/MurasakiShikibu used it as the basis of her epic, ''Literature/TheTaleOfGenji''.

And the day came when Wang Zhaojun presented herself for real. [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone The Emperor then realized the mistake he just committed]], [[WhatAnIdiot he just surrendered the most beautiful lady in waiting that he should have kept as a concubine if it wasn't for that unflattering picture!]] Prince Huhanye, however, was so happy that he was given the most beautiful girl of all that he offered extra bonuses aside of keeping their alliance, but the Emperor declined; this was enough, he couldn't take any further. And so, Wang Zhaojun left her home to live in a place away from home, and the Emperor let her go... and in return, confronted Mao Yanshou and executed him for his greed-based trickery.\\\