Speaker 1: Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of I Heart Radio
Speaker 1: and Grim and Mild from Aaron Minkie. Listener discretion is advised.
Speaker 1: In Chinese folklore, there exists the idea of four great beauties,
Speaker 1: four women from different eras, who all had beauty of
Speaker 1: mythic proportions. The first she she lived in the spring
Speaker 1: and Autumn period, and she was said to be so
Speaker 1: beautiful that when she went on a walk near a
Speaker 1: pond or stream, the fish who saw her would be
Speaker 1: so entranced by her appearance that the fish would forget
Speaker 1: how to swim and drown beneath the water. Next, there
Speaker 1: was Wang jau Jun in the first century b C.
Speaker 1: The Western Han dynasty. Wang Jauxun was so beautiful that
Speaker 1: birds would fall from the sky mid song when they saw,
Speaker 1: forgetting how to fly. In the Three Kingdoms period, there
Speaker 1: was dow Chan, whose face was so luminous and milky
Speaker 1: that the moon itself was said to shy away in
Speaker 1: embarrassment lest it be compared to her. Finally, there was
Speaker 1: Yanguif in the Tongue dynasty, who they say put flowers
Speaker 1: to shame. Of course, legend also notes that all four
Speaker 1: beauties had one single less conventionally perfect trait in order.
Speaker 1: Those flaws were big feet, a slipped shoulder, small ears,
Speaker 1: and body odor. But still, in spite of their singular flaws,
Speaker 1: the Four Beauties became objects of legends, characters in stories
Speaker 1: that were retold for centuries in poems, operas, songs, and novels.
Speaker 1: They were all so beautiful. The stories go that they
Speaker 1: brought men to their knees, and empires fell with them.
Speaker 1: That narrative is especially strong with Young Guife, the last
Speaker 1: of the Four Beauties. They say that she's so entranced
Speaker 1: at burr shen Zhong that he began neglecting his duties.
Speaker 1: He became forgetful and dilettante in his role as an emperor,
Speaker 1: and spent all of his energies instead on pleasing Young
Speaker 1: Guife and throwing honors onto her and her family. It
Speaker 1: was Young Guife's fault, then, that after shen Zhong, the
Speaker 1: Tongue dynasty would all but collapse. It was she who
Speaker 1: ushered in an era of political upheaval, the Five Dynasties
Speaker 1: and Ten Kingdoms period. The woman so beautiful that she
Speaker 1: destroyed a kingdom is a favorite narrative in history. Think
Speaker 1: for example, about the way people talk about a Boleyn,
Speaker 1: the witchy enchantress who seduced King Henry the Eighth away
Speaker 1: from the Catholic Church, or Marie Antoinette, the indulged and
Speaker 1: opulent queen who single handedly turned the peasants against the monarchy.
Speaker 1: Of course, these narratives conveniently overlooked that it was the
Speaker 1: king's with the real political power. The glamor or excitement
Speaker 1: of a queen's behind the scenes machinations make for lovely
Speaker 1: Lady Macbeth drama, but it really does condescend to our
Speaker 1: worst cultural instincts of boys will be boys. How can
Speaker 1: we ever expect a king to rule when there is
Speaker 1: a beautiful woman in his eye line. For centuries, men
Speaker 1: have wielded the vast majority of political power, with legal
Speaker 1: systems set up exclusively for their benefit, and yet it
Speaker 1: is queens and lovers who bring kingdoms down. So we
Speaker 1: say it makes me think of a quote from Alexander
Speaker 1: Chi's excellent novel The Queen of the Night. The protagonist
Speaker 1: narrates men often complain of the wickedness of women. Oh,
Speaker 1: how we delight in what power we have over their hearts,
Speaker 1: But they reign over everything else, So of course they
Speaker 1: grudge us this should we ever come to rule over
Speaker 1: this thing the size of their fist. I think it's
Speaker 1: worth pointing out that all of the women I mentioned,
Speaker 1: Marie Antoinette, Anne Boleyn, Yanguife, all four of the beauties
Speaker 1: of Imperial China, all met violent and tragic ends. In
Speaker 1: Yangoife's case, her lover would order her death and then
Speaker 1: spend the rest of his life mourning her. I'm Dani Schwartz,
Speaker 1: and this is noble blood. The woman that history most
Speaker 1: often refers to as Yangwife was actually born Yang Yuhuan.
Speaker 1: Yang is her family name, and Guife is the rank
Speaker 1: she would be given later in life, the highest rank
Speaker 1: for an imperial consort. But for clarity's sake, I'll refer
Speaker 1: to her as Yangwife continuously throughout the episode, even though
Speaker 1: she's given several different names at several different points of
Speaker 1: her life. When she was born in seven hundred and nineteen,
Speaker 1: it was to a high status family, but not royals.
Speaker 1: They were wealthy enough to be within a royal inner
Speaker 1: circle without being royals themselves. But it wasn't a complete
Speaker 1: shock when at age fourteen, Yang Wife already considered beautiful
Speaker 1: married Lie Mau, the Prince of Shu, the son of
Speaker 1: the Emperor Sonzong and his favorite consort Consort Wu. It
Speaker 1: was a golden period in the Tongue dynasty, with the
Speaker 1: emperor already in middle age, having ushered in an era
Speaker 1: of creativity and art. If you listen to an earlier
Speaker 1: podcast episode about the Empress wou z Etienne, this was
Speaker 1: her grandson, and things were good for Sonzong. If there
Speaker 1: were murmurs of political descent at the edges of his
Speaker 1: kingdom after a few military losses, they were still just murmurs,
Speaker 1: easy for the Emperor and his family to allow to
Speaker 1: fade into the background while they enjoyed the bounty of
Speaker 1: what their rich empire had to offer. But then Consort
Speaker 1: Wu died. The Emperor, now fifty two, sunk into a
Speaker 1: deep depression, a depression that only lasted until he laid
Speaker 1: eyes on is beautiful now nineteen year old daughter in
Speaker 1: law Yang with a There was only one slight problem.
Speaker 1: Of course, she was already married, and she was already
Speaker 1: married to his son. The first hurdle was easy enough
Speaker 1: to deal with. Yanguife was forced to become a Taoist
Speaker 1: nun which meant that when she symbolically received the tonsure,
Speaker 1: her marriage officially dissolved. She was temporarily given a new name, Taijan,
Speaker 1: and for a short period of time she served as
Speaker 1: a nun in the Imperial Palace, keeping her head down
Speaker 1: and wearing modest clothing, living in the same palace where
Speaker 1: she had for the past five years lived as a princess.
Speaker 1: After whatever period seemed respectable enough to make overtures on
Speaker 1: his former daughter in law, John Zong made Yanguife an
Speaker 1: official consort, bestowing countless honors on her and her family.
Speaker 1: Her cousins were given important imperial positions. One of her
Speaker 1: uncles was married to one of the Emperor's daughters. The
Speaker 1: Yang family moved up into a position of prominence, and
Speaker 1: it was all thanks to the beautiful Yanguife. And this
Speaker 1: is when she received the official title Guife, a title
Speaker 1: that none of the emperor's other consorts had been designated,
Speaker 1: even Consort Wu, his dead favorite, had only been Quife.
Speaker 1: Of course, we don't know how Yanguife felt about what
Speaker 1: happened to her. Maybe she was delighted by her new
Speaker 1: royal status and importance. It's possible maybe she adored the Emperor,
Speaker 1: or she could have been in love with the prince
Speaker 1: that she had married as a teenager, the boy she
Speaker 1: had slowly gotten to know and grown up with. Those
Speaker 1: five years of her life where she was married to
Speaker 1: the prince are usually just fast forwarded in any history
Speaker 1: of her. She would have seen the prince moren his
Speaker 1: beloved mother, the mother that had been fighting for him
Speaker 1: to be next in line for the throne. Young Boyfe
Speaker 1: was ready for a full life as a royal wife,
Speaker 1: and then out of nowhere, she was informed that that
Speaker 1: life was over. We don't know how she felt about that,
Speaker 1: Like a puppet on an assembly line. She had to
Speaker 1: make oaths as a Taoist nun, oaths that she knew
Speaker 1: would be meaningless eventually, and then she had to smile
Speaker 1: gracefully and accept the affection of the Emperor nearly three
Speaker 1: times her age. For Yangoife's ex husband's part, the Emperor
Speaker 1: made sure to give him a new wife right away,
Speaker 1: a daughter of an important general. Maybe he didn't mind
Speaker 1: the trade. The only feelings we get in the story
Speaker 1: are the feelings of the emperor, and the Emperor was
Speaker 1: delighted that he got what he wanted. Young guife's beauty
Speaker 1: was legendary even in her own lifetime. Her figure was
Speaker 1: famously round and full, though modern day historians tend to
Speaker 1: find very offensive ways of describing that the emperor was
Speaker 1: so besotted by her that he denied her nothing. The
Speaker 1: consort's favorite fruit was leechy, but they didn't grow in
Speaker 1: the region, not a problem. The emperor demanded that fresh
Speaker 1: leechy fruit be brought to her As soon as the
Speaker 1: leechies were plucked from the trees. In southern China, a
Speaker 1: man on horseback would begin his frantic ride towards the
Speaker 1: capital to the north. When the rider and his horse
Speaker 1: aim exhausted, another messenger would pick up there immediately and
Speaker 1: start riding through the night. Young wife got the freshest
Speaker 1: lee cheese that manpower and eighth century technology would allow.
Speaker 1: She was also afforded the special privilege of being allowed
Speaker 1: to bathe in the Hua King hot springs. Up until her,
Speaker 1: only emperors had been allowed there. Being an imperial consort
Speaker 1: may seem glamorous, but it was a bargain with the devil.
Speaker 1: On one hand, you live a life of leisure in
Speaker 1: a beautiful palace, having all of your material needs cared for,
Speaker 1: but you're also imprisoned, unable to leave the palace or
Speaker 1: see your family unless you get special permission. Once the
Speaker 1: emperor you served died, you lost all of your power.
Speaker 1: Emperor Schwanzong, especially later in his life, would have thousands
Speaker 1: of concubines at any given period, all jocking for attention,
Speaker 1: with the awareness that the entire course of their lives
Speaker 1: existed at the behest of a single man's whims. But
Speaker 1: if you're the favorite, things are pretty good. There were
Speaker 1: occasions when Young Guif and the Emperor fought. Once you
Speaker 1: said something that put the Emperor in such a rage
Speaker 1: that he sent a consort away from the palace and
Speaker 1: back to her family. With his favorite consort gone, the
Speaker 1: Emperor moped you refused to eat. You know you overreacted.
Speaker 1: One of the emperor's counselors, j Win said, the Emperor
Speaker 1: just grunted back. It had only been one day, but
Speaker 1: like a teenager after a breakup, the Emperor already wanted
Speaker 1: her back. As a gesture of generosity and goodwill, the
Speaker 1: Eper sent eunuchs to Young Guife's family home to deliver
Speaker 1: her royal meals from the palace. When she saw the deliveries,
Speaker 1: Young Guife wept. I deserved death, she moaned. The Emperor
Speaker 1: is too good for just sending me back to my household.
Speaker 1: I can't give him any of my gold or jade,
Speaker 1: because it was all gifted by him. I must have
Speaker 1: something to give him to show my remorse. And so,
Speaker 1: while the few eunuchs watched, Young Bofe cut off a
Speaker 1: lock of her hair and told one of the men
Speaker 1: to bring it back to the emperor. As soon as
Speaker 1: the Emperor got it, he sent back a guard to
Speaker 1: personally escort his consort back to the palace, and from
Speaker 1: that point on he loved her even more than he
Speaker 1: had before. In nine hundred and forty seven, a general
Speaker 1: named An Lucian visited the palace at chung'm On. Lushan
Speaker 1: was of Turkish descent, and he was one of the
Speaker 1: Empire's top military leaders, the governor of one of its
Speaker 1: military republics, and he had earned a reputation for taking
Speaker 1: decisive action. He was a big man in every sense
Speaker 1: of the word, a man who took up space in
Speaker 1: a room. When he arrived at the palace, Yang Guife
Speaker 1: liked him right away. He said what he was thinking,
Speaker 1: so few people in the palace seemed to do that.
Speaker 1: The Emperor liked on Lushan too. As a sign of
Speaker 1: respect to his consort, the Emperor had on Lushan formally
Speaker 1: honored Young Guife as a mother. Some people misinterpret that
Speaker 1: and say Young Guife legally adopted the adult man, but
Speaker 1: that is not the case. The general just honored her
Speaker 1: and the two became friendly people who might have been outsiders,
Speaker 1: but through a strange twist of providence, had reached the
Speaker 1: royal inner circle. A few years later, on Lushan returned
Speaker 1: to the palace where Yangue honored him for his birthday.
Speaker 1: She presented him with the customary treasures and gifts before
Speaker 1: she brought out her final offering, the eighth century equivalent
Speaker 1: of a gag gift. Reading history is strange sometimes because
Speaker 1: just as often as some things get lost in translation
Speaker 1: or cultural differences, it's also important to remember that people
Speaker 1: in these seven hundreds had a sense of humor, and
Speaker 1: sometimes what might have been uproarious live at the Apollo
Speaker 1: comedy to them might just come across as bizarre to us.
Speaker 1: So as it happened, one of the gifts that Jangue
Speaker 1: presented to the General on Lushan was a giant baby swaddling,
Speaker 1: the joke being I assume that on Lushan was such
Speaker 1: a large man that he would look very silly wearing it,
Speaker 1: and he put it on, and turns out they were right.
Speaker 1: It was hilarious. Everyone laughed until the Emperor walked in,
Speaker 1: as confused as anyone might be upon coming across the
Speaker 1: scene of your favorite consort and one of your top
Speaker 1: generals wearing what was basically a large diaper. One of
Speaker 1: Yanguifs ladies broke the silence by laughing hysterically. Young boy
Speaker 1: Fay just gave birth three days ago. She said, look
Speaker 1: at how big the baby has gotten. There was a pause,
Speaker 1: and then the Emperor laughed. The entire scene became silliness again,
Speaker 1: the type of meaningless tomfoolery that happened sometimes among people
Speaker 1: with too much free time and unlimited money. But On
Speaker 1: Lushan's relationship with the rest of the Young family wasn't
Speaker 1: nearly as care free. When Yanguife was thrust into her
Speaker 1: position as favorite consort, one of her cousins, a man
Speaker 1: named Young guas Hong, was made a chancellor. Over the
Speaker 1: years that she was a favorite consort, yanguife protected her
Speaker 1: cousin from going into battles, working behind the scenes, using
Speaker 1: her influence and the king's ear to keep her cousin safe.
Speaker 1: And so while his colleagues fell off one by one,
Speaker 1: Young guas Hong just rose in the rank subtly until
Speaker 1: through no real accomplishments of his own, he was one
Speaker 1: of the most powerful men in the empire. And Young
Speaker 1: GUIs Hoong did not like An Lushan. Their grievances with
Speaker 1: each other. There were nothing more than petty sniping to
Speaker 1: begin with, but the grudge was there, and the grudge grew.
Speaker 1: On Lushan didn't like a pampered, nepotistic nobody with so
Speaker 1: much power, and Yang guas Hong didn't like this upstart
Speaker 1: military man who didn't reign in his staff properly. Young
Speaker 1: guas Hong would lash out at On Lushan, flaunting his
Speaker 1: power by arresting various staffers at on Lushan's mansion and
Speaker 1: executing them. That wasn't the reason On Lushan launched a
Speaker 1: rebellion against the emperor in seven hundred and fifty five,
Speaker 1: but it didn't help. Young Guashan represented everything that On
Speaker 1: Lushan had come to resent about the emperor, a man
Speaker 1: who made it very clear that he would rather lounge
Speaker 1: in his palace of worldly pleasures and spend time with
Speaker 1: his consort and do anything that even looked like ruling.
Speaker 1: He was spoiled, and he promoted family members to high
Speaker 1: positions instead of people who were actually worthy. A few
Speaker 1: embarrassing military defeats meant that he had lost the respect
Speaker 1: of his army, and the Emperor didn't even pretend as
Speaker 1: though he wanted to earn it back. The time for
Speaker 1: the Tongue dynasty was passed, and On Lushan would make
Speaker 1: sure that China knew it. So in seven hundred and
Speaker 1: fifty five, On Lushan launched a rebellion against a bur Schwanzong,
Speaker 1: and it was so successful early on that the imperial
Speaker 1: household was forced to flee the capital and moved to
Speaker 1: the Mawai district for their own safety. Maybe I should
Speaker 1: step down, the emperor thought out loud. I've ruled for
Speaker 1: long enough. Clearly I'm unpopular. Maybe my son should become emperor, said.
Speaker 1: When young guas Hong heard that the emperor was considering
Speaker 1: stepping down, he panicked, It's not like the rebellion was
Speaker 1: his fault. But it's not like it was not his
Speaker 1: fault either. He did do that thing of executing all
Speaker 1: the staff members working at a Lushan's house. Jan guas
Speaker 1: Hangs political position was all thanks to the goodwill of
Speaker 1: the emperor, and if the Emperor stepped down, all of
Speaker 1: that good will immediately disappeared. Please, cousin, Young Guashng begged
Speaker 1: Young Gefe, please put in a good word with the emperor,
Speaker 1: tell him not to step down. Not yet, Young Guife
Speaker 1: sighed and agreed. She spoke to the emperor behind closed doors,
Speaker 1: and whatever she said worked. The Emperor decided to continue
Speaker 1: to rule as he put the rebellion to bed, but
Speaker 1: that was proving more difficult than it first appeared. An
Speaker 1: Lushan had the support of large military factions, and the
Speaker 1: emperor was heavily in debt. The battle over the capital
Speaker 1: was becoming long and drawn out. The emperor's own soldiers
Speaker 1: were becoming disheartened. Back in my way, the emperor's guards
Speaker 1: were growing disgruntled. They were underfed and overworked, and annoyed
Speaker 1: that they were protecting young wife and her family when
Speaker 1: everyone knew they were the ones who basically started this
Speaker 1: whole mess. Angry soldiers who supported the emperor went to
Speaker 1: Young guas Hong's home and killed him, along with two
Speaker 1: of Young Gwiffe's sisters, and then they came for the
Speaker 1: consort herself. It was General Chen of the Imperial Guards
Speaker 1: who are pro the emperor, and said that if the
Speaker 1: military was going to continue to support the emperor, they
Speaker 1: needed blood. They wanted Young Guife. Nobody thought she was
Speaker 1: guilty of treason. She wasn't actually a criminal, hadn't committed
Speaker 1: any crimes. It wasn't punishment for doing anything wrong. She
Speaker 1: was a blood sacrifice. The Emperor at first refused outright
Speaker 1: in disgust, but then he saw the steely look in
Speaker 1: his general's eyes, and he realized that they weren't going
Speaker 1: to be willing to back down. The soldiers stationed in
Speaker 1: his palace to protect him suddenly looked like an invasion.
Speaker 1: This was the fate of his kingdom at stake, and
Speaker 1: so he gave a nod, and he instructed the Young
Speaker 1: Gife be brought to a nearby Buddhist trine and kill
Speaker 1: soldiers strangled her there, and her body was brought back
Speaker 1: before General Chen, who gave the orders for the soldiers
Speaker 1: to disperse. Young was buried at Maui without a coffin,
Speaker 1: but the emperor did give orders for her to be
Speaker 1: buried with bags of fragrance wrapped in purple blankets. The
Speaker 1: rebellion ended eventually one of the emperor's sons retook the capital.
Speaker 1: Shuanzong made it back to the palace, but Young was
Speaker 1: still dead. As he and his party were leaving ma Way,
Speaker 1: he asked to bring young face body back with them
Speaker 1: to give her a proper burial, but his advisers all
Speaker 1: told him that that would be impossible. It was still
Speaker 1: a sore subject amongst his supporters, Honoring her in any
Speaker 1: public way could lead to mutiny. By the time the
Speaker 1: Emperor was back in his palace with his power secure
Speaker 1: enough to send for her body, it was too late.
Speaker 1: The eunuchs the Emperor sent to disinenter the body of
Speaker 1: his favorite consort returned with word that her body had decomposed.
Speaker 1: All they could bring back instead were the purple bags
Speaker 1: of fragrance. The emperor held them to his face and
Speaker 1: he wept. He had given the order to kill her,
Speaker 1: but he had no choice. He had no choice, right,
Speaker 1: he had no choice. That's the story of Young Guife,
Speaker 1: But keep listening after a brief sponsor break to hear
Speaker 1: a little bit more about her legacy. The tragic story
Speaker 1: of Young Guefe, the favorite consort who was killed to
Speaker 1: save off mutiny, became a favorite of Chinese literature and art.
Speaker 1: Most famously, it inspired the epic poem Song of Everlasting
Speaker 1: Sorrow from the year eight hundred and nine. Her story
Speaker 1: also made it to Japan, where elements of it went
Speaker 1: on to inspire the Japanese classic novel The Tale of Genji,
Speaker 1: sometimes considered the world's first novel and certainly the first
Speaker 1: published novel written by a woman. There are rumors, similar
Speaker 1: perhaps to stories of Anastasia escaping Bolshevik Bayonets, that Yanguefe
Speaker 1: was actually never killed, that instead she was able to
Speaker 1: sneak away with the help of a guard and make
Speaker 1: her way to Japan. It seems that when someone is
Speaker 1: young and beautiful, it's romantic to imagine that their story
Speaker 1: has a happy or at least mysterious ending. The countless
Speaker 1: sculptures and paintings of Young Wife exist, they say, there's
Speaker 1: also a physical reminder of her existence, a carved outline
Speaker 1: of her hand on a stone at the palace in Changnan.
Speaker 1: Now she on, but unfortunately I've never been there to
Speaker 1: verify for myself, and the only source I could find
Speaker 1: saying that the outline of the hand actually belonged to
Speaker 1: the legendary Young fe comes from Rip Please believe it
Speaker 1: or not, So it's up to you believe it or not.
Speaker 1: Noble Blood is a production of I Heart Radio and
Speaker 1: Grim and Mild from Aaron Minky. The show was written
Speaker 1: and hosted by Danis Schwartz and produced by Aaron Manky,
Speaker 1: Matt Frederick, Alex Williams, and Trevor Young. Noble Blood is
Speaker 1: on social media at Noble Blood Tales and you can
Speaker 1: learn more about the show over at Noble blood Tales
Speaker 1: dot com. For more podcasts from I Heart Radio, visit
Speaker 1: the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you
Speaker 1: listen to your favorite shows.