Proof that in ancient Chinese history, beauty is Serious Business.
The Four Beauties of Ancient China (shortened 'Four Beauties'), are a subset of women living in Ancient China and subjected with such great beauties that they end up shaking the history of China because of it, and earning them spots in Chinese culture and poetry. It's not to say that these women lived happy lives. In some interpretation, they did manage to get a happy ending, but for the most part, tragedy is involved, if it didn't just kill them because of their beauties. The poems involving them usually revolve on how they're so beautiful that either inanimate objects or non-sapient creatures gave their approval. They might not have the emancipation usually common for them (even if one of them was active after Wu Zetian promoted women rights in her time).
The beauties are as follows:
Timeline: Spring and Autumn Period
The first of the beauties was a peasant girl by the name of Xi Shi (alternatively known as Shi Yiguang) within the State of Yue. She is of peasant origin, but at least her house has two floors, which is where her idiom comes that she's sinking fish, when she looks at the pond from the balcony on at least the second floor of her house, her reflection was on display on the pond, fishes that notice suddenly forgot that they could swim and drown a bit, distracted by Xi Shi's beauty.
She was just minding her own business until she was approached by a certain minister of Yue named Fan Li. In her time, China was ravaged in a warring state of warlords conquering regions. Fan Li's liege, King Goujian of Yue, has been defeated by King Fuchai of Wu, and has been reduced to servitude. He did not like it, and wanted to rebel, but Fuchai was impregnable... except for his weak spot: Beautiful women. And that's where Xi Shi came in, according to the plan: Her job was to seduce him and weaken the state of Wu so the state of Yue can recover and reclaim freedom.
Depending on the sources, Xi Shi may be accompanied with a fellow beauty named Zheng Dan, usually her best friend. But regardless, due to her peasant origins, Xi Shi had to depart from her family. Fan Li trained her with noble etiquette from mannerisms or dancing skills, all to make the seduction tactic making more sense. Once Xi Shi's training was complete, she could finally execute her mission: Seduce King Fuchai while also leaking information for the State of Yue. Since she felt a little patriotic for her own State, Xi Shi had no qualms doing this mission to save her state.
The plan was a success. King Fuchai tended to Xi Shi's needs more and neglected military affairs. His advisor already smelled a rat and tried to warn the King, but he instead executed him. This weakened the military power of Wu, while Yue recovered. Once the time was right, King Goujian launched a successful coup. King Fuchai was regretful at this, he shouldn't have executed his advisor. Since he's in no position to get his revenge at his seductress, he instead committed suicide. And so, mission accomplished, the State of Yue stood once again, and Fan Li retired, restoring Yue was supposedly his last mission and no Retirony happening.
As of what happened to Xi Shi herself (no idea of what happened to Zheng Dan and her involvement in these outcomes)... she either had a bad ending, or a good ending:
- Bad Ending: Xi Shi decided to stay with her country and see how it flourished now that she saved it. What she failed to realize was that King Goujian was the type to even backstab his own benefactors 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.
- Good Ending: It turned out that both Xi Shi and Fan Li fell in love during the time he was preparing her for the mission to seduce King Fuchai. However, they agreed to put their love on hold until the mission was complete. Now that the mission was complete, the two reunited, fled together to a remote place in China, where they lived happily ever after, away from the attention of everyone; no one ever saw them again. Other interpretations was that Fan Li was Genre Savvy to know what would happen if he stayed too long in Goujian's services: he'd be killed eventually. So he retired to save his life, and brought in Xi Shi as well, thus saving her life toonote .
Timeline: Western Han Dynasty
The second of the beauties is Wang Zhaojun, living at the time 50 BCE, in the times of Western Han Dynasty. Aside of being generally beautiful, Wang Zhaojun is a skilled pipa player. The rumors goes that when she played her pipa serenely on open field, suddenly birds flying in the sky dropped down a bit, putting themselves near the ground before flying back up; apparently they looked at Wang Zhaojun, thought she's so utterly hot that they forgot how to flap their wings and fly.
At the age of 13, Wang Zhaojun's beauty has become so renowned, 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.
Until suddenly, the Emperor had a visit from the Prince of Xiongnu tribe, Chanyu Huhanye. Both the Han state and the Xiongnu tribe has come into contact and an alliance was made. Prince Huhanye then made a request that he'd like to marry a beauty from the Han Dynasty, so they could get further linked together. It's still not clear which one was the stronger onenote , but clearly the Emperor saw the need to maintain the alliance, so he agreed to that. But of course, he wouldn't want to give up any of the beautiful girl of her harems so he decided to play dirty and just picked the plainest girl, which would be Wang Zhaojun. The other version of the story is that the Emperor actually asked for volunteers between the ladies in waiting, a prospect that terrified the ladies to move away from their homes and live in places unknown, especially outdoors. But Wang Zhaojun proved that she's also courageous, so she volunteered herself when no one would. And since she's also considered as 'the plainest' by the Emperor, he agreed even more.
And the day came when Wang Zhaojun presented herself for real. The Emperor then realized the mistake he just committed, 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.
All in all, however, Wang Zhaojun lived a content life within the Xiongnu plains. Despite being Chinese, the Xiongnu tribesmen welcomed her and she became quite the political figure between the tribes. She also bore children. When her husband and the previous Emperor died, Wang Zhaojun made a request to return to China, only to be denied by the current Emperor, who stated that her presence in Xiongnu was a crucial one for the alliance between Han and Xiongnu, regardless of the denial, she'd still be considered an important part of the Empire. And thus, Wang Zhaojun spent the remainder of her life, dying peacefully shortly after and was given a proper burial in the plains of Xiongnu.
By far, she would be the member of the Four Beauties that had the happiest ending of all. However, there are some interpretations which claimed that 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. She ended up tragically committing suicide rather than committing family-incest, but the Xiongnu tribe still fondly remembered her and gave her a proper burial regardless. For the most part, it was largely believed that Wang Zhaojun managed to find a loophole in said custom to avoid committing incest or she decided that her own morality can be sacrificed if it's 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.
Timeline: Three Kingdoms – Shu, Wei, Wu (actually Romance of the Three Kingdoms)
Diao Chan is actually the only fictional identity amongst the Four Beauties. All that was known from history was that she's most likely based on a handmaiden that caused the strife between the two figures in her life whose real name remained obscure in history. However, because Romance of the Three Kingdoms is one of the most mainstream great novels of China, she gets a lot of exposures, even more than the other beauties.
As the novel goes, Diao Chan was the daughter of Han minister Wang Yun. In her time, her father saw the warlord Dong Zhuo manipulate the Emperor and generally act like an utter tyrant to the people of China, nothing could stop him, and even more so when he had the mighty Lü Bu as his adopted son/bodyguard. Diao Chan grew uneasy at her father's distress and according to the legends, when she prayed to the heavens in the night asking for solution to help her father, the moon suddenly moved away to be hidden by clouds, apparently looking at Diao Chan and was so allured at her beauty it felt a little shy.
Regardless, Diao Chan got Wang Yun to tell her his problems, and on hearing this, she actually volunteered to help him and sacrifice her own happiness and freedom: She's going to pull a Xi Shi maneuver, but directed against both Dong Zhuo and Lu Bu. Wang Yun agreed to her plan and offered Diao Chan's marriage to both of them, all without the two knowing they've been had.
And the plan worked too. Lu Bu started getting angry against Dong Zhuo when the latter caught the former together with Diao Chan, who was crying Crocodile Tears that she was to be taken away from what she claimed to be her true love. And eventually, it culminated with Lu Bu killing Dong Zhuo, freeing China from one of the biggest tyrants from the land.
Historically, 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 Becoming the Mask; she recognized Lu Bu as her One True Love 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. Guan Yu 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, one might say that this could be what Diao Chan wanted, she could no longer look forward in life after her love and family died.
Bottom line, Diao Chan did NOT end well. At all.
Timeline: Tang Dynasty
The last of the beauties is Yang Guifei. For the most part, she's usually overshadowed by her ancestor/great grandmother-in-law Wu Zetian 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. 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.
Born as a noble with the first name Yuhuan, she first became a nun. But Emperor Xuanzong noticed her, and captivated by her beauty that he yanked her away from her lifestyle, made her his concubine and gave her the title "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 Xuanzong 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 be put to death.
Of course, Emperor Xuanzong 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, the Tang poet Bai Juyi 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. Japan loved it very much that Murasaki Shikibu used it as the basis of her epic, The Tale of Genji.
Timeline: Western Han Dynasty
The wife of Liu Shi's son, Liu Ao, Emperor Cheng of Han. Zhao Feiyan is the empress that held considerable power despite waging a rivalry with her sisters who often vilified her, continuing until the death of her husband, until she committed the mistake of promoting Wang Mang into power, who then demoted her and stripped her of her power, bringing her down from Empress to commoner and forced to guard her husband's tomb. At which she committed suicide.
Originally, she was considered an official member of the Four Beauties of Ancient China, with her slim figure being used as a Foil to Yang Guifei's chubbiness. But then the Ming scholars noted that she didn't have enough tragedy elements about her, while her downfall was sad, she did bring her downfall on her own (why did she promote Wang Mang again? It seemed like a good idea at first.) Not to mention, her actions did not cause great effects to the history of China itself. And so, Zhao Feiyan was dropped from the quartet in favor of Wang Zhaojun, who also lived in the same period (and actually changed the history of China by strengthening the relationship with the Xiongnu), but people will still remember as one of China's most beautiful.
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 supply 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 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 Arranged Marriage with the Prince of Xiongnu), also creating cautionary tales that 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
China would remember them and their kingdom-destroying beauty and their tragic lives. Many poems and stories would be made in their tribute, but a lot of them tended to not get exported to outside China, with the tiny exception of Diao Chan, owing to the popularity of Romance of the Three Kingdoms.
And if you're wondering, yes, China also has the gender-inverted version, the Four Most Handsome Men in China. Members include poet Song Yu, writer Pan An, physician Wei Jie and Warrior Prince of Lanling, Gao Changgong. And just like their female counterparts... their lives also end in tragedy.
In other words, being beautiful in Ancient China is a death sentence, of tragedy.
Associated tropes with these beauties
- Arranged Marriage: Wang Zhaojun was sent off to marry a foreign prince in order to secure the alliance between that nation and her own. Most stories, however, made it like a Perfectly Arranged Marriage.
- Big Beautiful Woman: Yang Guifei is noted to be kind of chubby, but back in her time, chubbiness was the beauty standard so it worked for her favor.
- Blessed with Suck: Born in China, blessed with great beauty... and feels more like doom and tragic death magnets anyway.
- Distracted by the Sexy: According to poems, both Xi Shi and Wang Zhaojun's beauties induce this to animals. Fishes forgot to swim and started to temporarily drown when seeing Xi Shi's reflection on water; birds dropped down several metres when they neglect flapping their wings to fly on looking at Wang Zhaojun playing pipa on the ground.
- Evil Counterpart: Only in the recent ages that several Chinese writers proposed a new group of four great beauties of Ancient China who became known as symbols of depravity and debauchery that brought down kingdoms for their own selfish reasons (and in one case, just almost), as opposed to the current four beauties who were considered tragic. These include: Mo Xi of Xia Dynasty
, Su Daji, Bao Si of Zhou Dynasty and Li Ji of State of Jin. Half of them predated the oldest one, Xi Shi, while the rest lived around her era. - Foil:
- A Chinese idiom touches on how the 'Xi' in Xi Shi means 'West' and created her own fictional inversion, the ugliest woman known as Dong Shi (Dong means 'East'). The idiom went to portray Xi Shi as Delicate and Sickly (but no history records ever mentioned that Xi Shi was ever sickly) and often winced and frowned in pain, but it instead made her look even more beautiful. Dong Shi tried to imitate such wincing and frowning, but it instead further pronounced her ugliness, thus the idiom "Dong Shi imitates a frown" becomes equal to 'imitating others will just further emphasize your own weakness, so Be Yourself'.
- For a time when she's in the roster, Zhao Feiyan was considered a Foil to Yang Guifei, she's beautiful because of her slim figure, as opposed to Yang Guifei being beautiful because chubbiness was the standard of beauty of her time.
- Four Is Death: Four beauties. Four tragic fates and deaths to go as well.
- Head-Turning Beauty: In general, each of the beauties tend to be this as a rule, usually making men swoon over their beauties (and the inverse as well, women swoon over the beautiful men.) Both Xi Shi and Wang Zhaojun combine this with Distracted by the Sexy... on animals (At least Diao Chan and Yang Guifei did not distract the moon or flowers).
- Heroic Seductress: Two of them, Xi Shi and Diao Chan, made their name known for seducing men while thinking that doing so will save their state/country. They had some amount of success in that, but Xi Shi either got repaid with death by Goujian or just buzzed off to obscurity afterwards while eventually the state of Yue would crumble later anyway; while Diao Chan only caused a temporary shift of management, after Dong Zhuo and his tyranny died, what awaited China wasn't peace, but the Three Kingdoms conflict.
- Honey Trap: At least two of them (Xi Shi and Diao Chan) do this kind of thing as their claim of fame. Yang Guifei was accused as such, but she's not really doing it on purpose.
- Obscure Popularity: The Four Beauties is a popular subject when it comes to Chinese culture. But chances are, none of them are getting coverage within the international fandom, considering each nation has their own set of 'Most Beautiful' and despite Ancient China itself is pretty rich with culture, whatever work that referred to them would be mostly be obscure to the outer world. The most you can get tend to be just Diao Chan riding the popularity of Romance of the Three Kingdoms and she still had to compete with the other impressive men there as characters.
- Older Is Better: Chronologically, Xi Shi came first. She's also the one considered the most beautiful out of the four.
- Sliding Scale of Beauty: They go between Level II and Level III; they're not exactly divine level because they're normal humans. However, poems exaggerate it that even non-sapient creatures or inanimate objects admire their beauties, something more common to Level II beauties.
- Serious Business: Beauty was such a big thing that Chinese people felt the need to select candidates for what would be an equivalent of 'Miss Universe' for their own country and these four are the candidates. And that's still when limiting to Ancient China, one could wonder how this would spiral out if modern day China gets involved.
- Spotlight-Stealing Squad: Diao Chan tends to be the only representative that most people knows, because she's part of the cast of the epic Romance of the Three Kingdoms
- So Beautiful, It's a Curse: In China, there's an idiom "hóng yán bó mìng" (红颜薄命) which means "beautiful women suffer unhappy fates". Nobody else encapsulated this idiom better than these four:
- Yang Guifei was strangled to death because someone else put too much attention to her and she's accused as the kingdom-wrecker.
- Diao Chan never ends well in regards of her fate and in the long run her mission wasn't that successful (sure, Dong Zhuo died, but afterwards, came the conflict of the Three Kingdoms instead of unified China).
- If the story goes for bad end, Xi Shi was betrayed and put to death by the King she dedicated her mission for because she's too beautiful and he's afraid she'll mesmerize him next.
- Wang Zhaojun was the only one who came out a little happier than most, but she still left her home, was not allowed to come home and was buried in a land that was not her home.
- And all the handsome men? They die too with their own tragic fates. (Wei Jie couldn't take the pressure of being showered with affection, Song Yu and Pan An were slandered and executed, Gao Changgong was betrayed and poisoned to death by the jealous liege he faithfully served)
- World's Most Beautiful Woman: Well, four of them and within the context of Ancient China.
