Story 48: Riding on the Red Dust Concubine Laughs

Riding on the Red Dust Concubine Laughs

Author: Anonymous

There was no one in the clear breeze and bright moon in the middle of the night, and the eternal vows of friendship in front of the Palace of Eternal Life were dead. Although they were whispered in front of the flowers and under the moon, the birds in the sky heard it, and even the branches on the ground knew about it. Therefore, a love became an eternal song.

History has gone by for thousands of years, and that swan song of love has passed away with the wind, but people really remember Yang Yuhuan, who was beautiful because of her fatness.
Yang Yuhuan (719-756), named Taizhen, was born in Yongle, Puzhou (now Yongji, Shanxi Province), and the daughter of Yang Xuanyan, Sihu of Shuzhou. The noble concubine of Li Longji, Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty.

Yang’s appearance is gorgeous, good at singing and dancing, and good at music. In 734 (the 22nd year of Kaiyuan of Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty), she was adopted as the princess of Li Hao, the eighteenth son of Emperor Xuanzong.

At that time, Yang was 16 years old and Li Hao was also about 16 years old. In 737, Xuanzong’s favorite concubine Wu Hui died. There were thousands of concubines in the harem, but none of them could satisfy Xuanzong. In order to please Xuanzong, Gao Lishi recommended Yang Yuhuan, Princess Shou, to Xuanzong. In 740, Emperor Xuanzong visited the Hot Spring Palace and sent Gao Lishi to the Shou Palace to summon the Yang family and ordered her to become a monk, named Taizhen, and live in Taizhen Palace.

In 745, the daughter of Wei Zhaoxun, the general of Zuowei Zhonglang, was appointed as Princess Shou, and Xuanzong named Yang as a noble concubine. “Father seizes his son’s wife”, which became strange news in the Tang Dynasty palace.

Concubine Yang had three sisters, all of whom were of national beauty. They were also summoned to the palace and were given the title of Lady of Korea, Lady of Guo State, and Lady of Qin State. Each of them was given cosmetics and paid 100,000 yuan every month. Mrs. Guo Guo ranked third. She was beautiful with her natural beauty, without fake makeup.

Du Fu’s poem “The Lady of the State of Guo” says: “The Lady of the State of Guo accepted the Lord’s thoughts and mounted her horse to enter the Golden Gate at dawn. However, she disliked the color of the makeup and powder, so she lightly swept her eyebrows towards the Supreme Being.” (Volume 2 of “Detailed Notes on Du Poems”) is a portrayal of the fact.

Beauty, three thousand favors gathered in a lifetime, her clothes are fluttering, the shadows are floating, the melody of “Neon Palm Feather Clothes Song” drowns the bells and drums of history.
Yang Guifei won great favor with her appearance. Her brothers were all given high-ranking officials, and even her distant brother Yang Zhao was a rogue in the market. Because of his good scheming, Xuanzong gambled with the Yang sisters and ordered Yang Zhao to calculate the gambling bill and bestow the name on the country.

Zhong, who holds more than ten positions as a branch doctor and Zhongzhong, controls government affairs. Xuanzong visited Huaqing Pool and took five families of the Yang family as his retinue. Each family formed a team and wore the same color.

The five families formed a colorful team. Jewelry dropped everywhere along the way, sparkling and extravagant. The Yang family married two princesses and two princesses. Xuanzong personally wrote and wrote the family temple monument for the Yang family.

It is true that when one person attains enlightenment, chickens and dogs ascend to heaven.

Once, Concubine Yang offended Xuanzong because of her pampering and indulgence and was condemned by Xuanzong to return to her natal family. However, after the imperial concubine left the palace, Xuanzong could not eat well, so Gao Litu had to call her back. In 750, the imperial concubine stole the purple jade flute of the twenty-fifth man and played it alone for her own entertainment. When the incident happened, he was sent out of the palace again for disobeying the decree.

After the imperial concubine left the palace, she cut a lock of green silk and asked Zhang Taoguang to bring it to Xuanzong. Xuanzong was horrified and ordered Gao Lishi to recall her. Zhang Hu’s poem “Fengwang Xiaoguan” says: “Jinyu was fortunate enough to be unseen, so he secretly blew Fenwang Xiaoguan.” (Volume 5 of “Mid and Late Tang Poems Knocking Collection”) is about this incident. Concubine Yang knew that Xuanzong was without her, so she became restless and even more arrogant.

The Yang family “did not ask when entering or leaving the forbidden gate, and the senior officials in the capital looked at her with suspicion.” At that time, people had a saying: “Don’t be sad when you have a girl, don’t be happy when you have a boy.” (“Yang Taizhen’s Biography”))

Li Zhao said: “Concubine Yang was born in Shu and likes lychees. Born in the South China Sea, she is especially better than those in Shu, so she gallops forward every year.” The quatrains of Du Mu’s “Passing the Huaqing Palace” are proved:

Looking back at Xiuchengdui in Chang’an, thousands of gates are opened one after another on the top of the mountain.
Riding on the red dust concubine smiled, no one knew it was lychee.

A generation of emperors was fascinated by a few “concubine smiles”. That is the real tragedy of history!

The drumbeat of Yuyang awakened a night of spring dreams. Maweipo had already filled in a desolate rest for “Song of Everlasting Sorrow”. Ancient vines, old trees and dim crows are lucky enough to be tied to a once-in-a-lifetime poignant beauty.

When Tianbao was middle-aged, Fan Yang Jiedushi made An Lushan an outstanding figure and won Xuanzong’s favor, so that the Yang sisters and Lushan became brothers and sisters, and Concubine Yang recognized Lushan as her godson. In the name of going to the palace to see his godmother, Lushan blatantly flirted with Concubine Yang. These laid the foundation for An Lushan’s later rebellion. Du Mu’s poem “Passing the Huaqing Palace”:

The green trees in Xinfeng are covered with yellow mosaics, and several emissaries riding on the fishing sun are returning. A song of neon clothes floats on thousands of peaks, and the original dance breaks down.

The music and songs of all nations are intoxicating and peaceful, and the moon in the Yitian Tower is clear. The Lushan dance is shot randomly in the clouds, and laughter is heard under the heavy mountains as the wind blows.

In November 755, Anlu Mountain rebelled, and Xuanzong entered Sichuan in a hurry. The following year, when passing through Maweiyi (today’s west of Xingping County, Shaanxi Province), the army mutinied, forcing Xuanzong to kill Yang Guozhong, and gave Yang Guifei to commit suicide at the age of 38. Bai Juyi’s “Song of Everlasting Sorrow” tells the tragic story of Xuanzong and his imperial concubine.

Yang Guifei was good at poetry. The Complete Poems of the Tang Dynasty includes a poem by her titled “Dance to Zhang Yunrong” which reads:

The fragrant fragrance lingers on the sleeves, and the red owl is in the autumn smoke. The wind is blowing on Qingyun Mountain, and the water is blowing by the tender willow pond.

The dancing posture of a woman written by Yang Guifei is compared to the looming beauty of the autumn mist; compared to the wind and clouds on the mountain, erratic and unpredictable, and even more compared to the willow silk brushing the water, graceful and gentle, lined with the flowing fragrance of the sleeves, it can be said to be superb.

There are three poems from Li Bai’s “Qing Ping Diao Ci”, among which the famous line: “Clouds think of clothes, flowers think of face, spring breeze blows on the threshold and reveals the beauty of the journey” (Volume 5 of “The Complete Works of Li Taibai”) has become an eternal quatrain. After the death of the imperial concubine, Xuanzong came to Shu, “walked to Fufeng Road,… and then to the entrance of the Xiegu.

It was the tenth day of Linyu. He heard the ringing of bells in the rain on the plank road and heard them from across the mountain. In order to commemorate the imperial concubine, his voice was collected into “Yulin Ring Song” “.” (“Yang Taizhen’s Biography”) This is the origin of the later Song poem “Yulin Ling”.

How can a silk scarf hang the weight of life?

A generation of emperors! Aren’t you above ten thousand people? But you can’t protect your weak beloved concubine; aren’t you true to your word? But he watched helplessly as Luo Yu and Chen Yan closed their eyes and looked at Bai Ling, the god of death.

It is a great tragedy for men to put the sin of war on a charming woman.

The roots of troubles? The emperor sitting on the dragon throne, do you say so?

King! The emperor who loved his country and his beauty also had his country lost and his beauty withered.

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