Chen Yuanyuan

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Chen Yuanyuan
A 17th-century portrait of Chen Yuanyuan
BornXing Yuan
1623 (1623)
Jiangsu, Ming Empire
Died1689 or 1695
Qing Empire
SpouseWu Sangui
OccupationGējì,actress
Chen Yuanyuan
Traditional Chinese陳圓圓
Simplified Chinese陈圆圆
Xing Yuan
(birth name)
Chinese邢沅
Wanfen
(courtesy name)
Chinese畹芬
In this Chinese name, the family name is Chen.

Chen Yuanyuan (1623–1689 or 1695)[1][2]was a Chinese Gējì and actress who later became the concubine of military leader Wu Sangui.In the last years of Chongzhen in the Ming Dynasty, Chen Yuanyuan was captured by Tian Wan and transferred to Wu Sangui as his concubine. According to legend, after Li Zicheng captured Beijing, his subordinate Liu Zongmin kidnapped Chen Yuanyuan, and Wu Sangui led the Qing army into the pass.[3]

Biography[edit]

Chen Yuanyuan's original surname was Xing(邢) and she was born in Jiangnan. She was born into a family of a salesman and her family was poor. Her parents died when she was young and she was adopted by her aunt. Her uncle's surname was Chen, so she changed her surname to Chen and lived in Taohuawu, Suzhou. Life at her aunt's family was also very difficult. When Chen Yuanyuan was ten years old, her uncle sent her to Liyuan to learn singing, dancing, opera, music, chess, calligraphy and painting. Chen Yuanyuan was originally from Liyuan. She was an actress and singer in Liyuan. She later became a well-known actress and Gējì in Wuzhong. The dramatist You Xitang also praised her.[4][5][6]

An account praised her performance as the maid Hongniang in Romance of the Western Chamber.[7] In 1642, she became the lover of the scholar and poet Mao Xiang,[8] who became infatuated with her after watching her in The Story of the Red Plum, sung in the yiyangqiang style.[9] Subsequently, Chen was bought by the family of Tian Hongyu, father of one of the Chongzhen Emperor's favorite concubine Tian Xiuying. She was then either purchased for Wu Sangui by his father,[10] or given to Wu as a gift by Tian.[11]

She is one of the Eight Beauties of Qinhuai described by late Qing officials. The other famed Yijis of this group are Ma Xianglan, Bian Yujing [zh], Li Xiangjun, Dong Xiaowan, Gu Mei, Kou Baimen [zh], and Liu Rushi.[12]

After failing to deter Wu Sangui's rebellion, Chen asked General Ma Bao to escort her and her son with Wu Sangui, Wu Qihua, to what is now known as the Majia Zhai village in Guizhou, where they would hide amongst the ethnic minorities who were hostile to Qing rule.[8] Seen as a connection to a failed uprising, this knowledge was subsequently only passed down by oral history until the 20th century, when it was published by historian Huang Tousong.[8] The inscription on the tombstones were intentionally cryptic to deter detection throughout the years but has been confirmed by government historians in 2005.[8] Locals believe that she retired as a nun later in life.[8]

In fiction[edit]

Statue of Chen Yuanyuan in Gold Hall Park in Kunming

In April 1644, the rebel army of Li Zicheng captured the Ming capital of Beijing, and the Chongzhen Emperor Zhu Youjian committed suicide. Knowing that Wu Sangui's formidable army at Ningyuan posed a serious threat, Li immediately made overtures to gain Wu's allegiance. Li sent two letters to Wu, including one in the name of Wu's father, then held captive in Beijing. Before Wu Sangui could respond, he received word that his entire household had been slaughtered.[13] Wu then wrote to the Qing regent, Dorgon, indicating his willingness to combine forces to oust the rebels from Beijing, thus setting the stage for the Qing conquest of Ming.[14]

In popular lore, however, Chen Yuanyuan takes a more dramatic and romanticized role in these pivotal events. According to stories that emerged in the Kangxi era, Wu Sangui's motivation for joining forces with the Qing to attack Li Zicheng was that Li had abducted and (by some accounts) raped Chen, Wu's beloved concubine. This version of the tale was made famous by Wu Weiye's qu, the Song of Yuanyuan:[15]

In that time when the emperor abandoned the human world,
Wu crushed the enemy and captured the capital, bearing down from Jade Pass.
The six armies, wailing and grieving, were uniformly clad in the white of mourning,
One wave of headgear-lifting anger propelled him, all for the sake of the fair-faced one.
The fair-faced one, drifting, and fallen, was not what I longed for.
The offending bandits, smote by heaven, wallowed in wanton pleasures.
Lightning swept the Yellow Turbans, the Black Mountain troops were quelled.
Having wailed for ruler and kin, I met her again.

— Wu Weiye, excerpt from Song of Yuanyuan[16]

Although such stories tying the downfall of the dynasty to the relationship between Wu and Chen proved popular, some historians regard them as products of popular fiction.[17][18][19][20] By some accounts, Chen Yuanyuan was raped and killed in the fall of Beijing. But, by other accounts, it is believed that she was subsequently reunited with Wu Sangui. One story claims that later in life, she changed her name and became a nun in Kunming after Wu Sangui's failed rebellion against the Qing.[21] This story may also be a later fabrication, or popular folklore.[22][23]

References[edit]

  1. ^ "秘传人口述:陈圆圆生前思念吴三桂形神交瘁".
  2. ^ "明朝灭亡后，陈圆圆怎样度过后半生？被吴三桂嫌弃，在深山中终老".
  3. ^ "声甲天下之声，色甲天下之色：秦淮八艳之陈圆圆".
  4. ^ Lee & Stephanowska 1998
  5. ^ "如何客观看待一代歌伎陈圆圆".
  6. ^ 《乾隆武进县志·卷十四·摭遗》:圆圆，金牛里人。姓陈氏，父曰惊闺，俗呼陈货郎。崇正初为田戚畹歌妓，后以赠吴逆三桂。甲申之变，圆圆留京师，贼遣人招三桂。三桂意犹与。既而知圆圆为贼所得，遂决意请讨。梅村圆圆曲谓“冲冠一怒为红颜者”，此也。
  7. ^ Lee, Wai-yee. "Women as Emblems of Dynastic Fall in Qing Literature". In Wang, David Der-wei; Wei, Shang (eds.). Dynastic Crisis and Cultural Innovation: From the Late Ming to the Late Qing and Beyond. Brill. p. 95.
  8. ^ a b c d e "The Chinese village that kept a courtesan's secret for centuries". South China Morning Post. 2019-05-10. Retrieved 2019-12-14.
  9. ^ Lee & Stephanowska 1998
  10. ^ Lee & Stephanowska 1998
  11. ^ Peterson 2000
  12. ^ Xie & Shi (2014), p. 181.
  13. ^ Wakeman 1986, pp. 291, 295
  14. ^ Wakeman 1986, p. 300
  15. ^ Wakeman 1986, pp. 292–294
  16. ^ Chang & Owen 2010, p. 179
  17. ^ Wakeman 1986, pp. 292–294
  18. ^ Spence 1990, p. 33
  19. ^ Huang 1997, p. 205
  20. ^ Lovell 2006, p. 252
  21. ^ Peterson 2000
  22. ^ Lee & Stephanowska 1998, p. 25
  23. ^ Wakeman 2009, p. 123

Bibliography[edit]

  • Xie 谢, Yongfang 永芳; Shi 施, Qin 琴 (2014). "像传题咏与经典重构———以《秦淮八艳图咏》为中心" [Acclaim for portraits and classical reconstruction: 'Qinhuai bayan tuyong' as the centre]. Zhongguo Wenhua Yanjiu (2): 180–188.

See also[edit]

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