Chen Yuanyuan

According to legend, after Li Zicheng captured Beijing,him and his subordinates Liu Zongmin kidnapped Chen Yuanyuan, and Wu Sangui led the Qing army into the pass.She became known as one of the Eight Beauties of Qinhuai, along with the other seven Gējìs, Ma Xianglan, Bian Yujing [zh], Li Xiangjun, Dong Xiaowan, Gu Mei, Kou Baimen [zh], and Liu Rushi.

Chen Yuanyuan
A 17th-century portrait of Chen Yuanyuan
Born	Xing Yuan 1623 (1623) Jiangsu, Ming Empire
Died	1689 or 1695 Qing Empire
Spouse	Wu Sangui
Occupation	Gējì,drama actress

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. 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 and music.Chen Yuanyuan was an drama actress and Gējì in Liyuan,she later became a well-known entertainer in Wuzhong.The dramatist You Xitang also praised her.

Chen Yuanyuan studied Kunqu(昆曲) and was good at performing Yiyang opera.She liked to wear her hair in a aiduo bun(倭堕髻).For the first time on the singing stage, Yuanyuan played the Hongniang in "The Romance of the West Chamber", and all the spectators in the audience held their breath and were mesmerized. Chen Yuanyuan was both talented and beautiful,had the demeanor of a famous scholar. Every time she performs on stage, she is brilliant and outstanding, and the audience applauds her.Chen Yuanyuan initially liked the literati Zou Shu. She often acted at Zou Shu's house and was unwilling to leave.Official Gong Ruofu met Chen Yuanyuan and paid to marry her as a concubine. After returning home, Gong Ruofu's father said: "Chen Yuanyuan is a distinguished person. Let her leave and give her a free identity. Don't worry about the money spent on her".After Chen Yuanyuan left the Gong family, she still made a living by performing arts.In 1641,scholar Maoxiang saw Chen Yuanyuan acting at a banquet.Maoxiang was amazed by her Yiyangqiang drama and planned to marry her as a concubine.Maoxiang returned home and told his mother about the incident.Later, he decided to marry Chen Yuanyuan as his concubine, but learned that Chen Yuanyuan had been snatched away by Tian Hongyu ten days ago.

Chen Yuanyuan was kidnapped and taken into Beijing by the powerful minister Tian Hongyu.There are three theories about the time when she entered Beijing: 1641, 1642 and 1643.According to Maoxiang's own article "Reminiscences of Yingmei'an", he mentioned that the marriage promise to Chen Yuanyuan was made in the autumn of 1641.He planned to marry Chen Yuanyuan the next year. When he finished handling family affairs, he went to see Chen Yuanyuan again in the spring of 1642. At this time, Chen Yuanyuan had just been kidnapped by Tian Hongyu. It is generally believed that Chen Yuanyuan entered Beijing in 1642.Tian Hongyu was the father of Tian Xiuying, the concubine of Emperor Chongzhen of the Ming Dynasty. He was worried that his daughter would fall out of favor with the emperor, so he went to the south of the Yangtze River to look for beautiful women to win over the emperor. When Tian Hongyu met Chen Yuanyuan, who was both talented and beautiful, he took her to Beijing and adopted her as an adopted daughter. Tian Xiuying introduced her to the palace. At this time, the Ming Empire was on the verge of collapse, and Emperor Chongzhen, who was physically and mentally exhausted, had no intention of paying attention to this. Three months after Chen Yuanyuan entered the palace, she still failed to gain the emperor's favor, so she had to return to the Tian family.

Chen Yuanyuan continues to work as a Geji in the Tian family,Wu Weiye(吴伟业) described Chen Yuanyuan as a Geji who played the konghou. Tian Hongyu was losing power day by day. In order to consolidate his position and find a backer, he deliberately made friends with Wu Sangui, who had a high reputation at the time and had a lot of troops. Tian Hongyu invited Wu Sangui to a family banquet, and Chen Yuanyuan sang at the banquet. Wu Sangui was surprised by Chen Yuanyuan's beauty and liked her very much.Tian Hongyu married Chen Yuanyuan to Wu Sangui as his concubine. The two bid farewell to Tian Hongyu and returned to the Wu family.After Li Zicheng's peasant army captured Beijing, Chen Yuanyuan was captured by Li Zicheng and Liu Zongmin. It is said that Li Zicheng and Liu Zongmin occupied Chen Yuanyuan, and Chen Yuanyuan was taken as a concubine. Wu Sangui wanted to surrender to the peasant army, but when he learned that Chen Yuanyuan was captured, he became furious and surrendered to the Qing Dynasty.Under the attack of Wu Sangui's army and the Qing army, Li Zicheng's peasant army suffered heavy losses and fled Beijing in a hurry, abandoning all the looted items and women on the road. Wu Sangui found Chen Yuanyuan in the fire of war, and the military camp was reunited. After that, Chen Yuanyuan followed Wu Sangui on various campaigns. After Wu Sangui pacified Yunnan, Chen Yuanyuan entered Wu Sangui's Pingxi Palace and was favored by Wu Sangui.Chen Yuanyuan lost her beauty due to her old age, and she was not in harmony with Wu Sangui's first wife. Wu Sangui had several other concubines that he loved, so Chen Yuanyuan began to lose favor. Chen Yuanyuan had the idea of ​​quitting. She proposed to Wu Sangui to build a nunnery in a secluded part of the palace so that she could eat fast and chant Buddha,Wu Sangui readily agreed. Chen Yuanyuan left the palace to pay homage to the Buddha, and from then on lived in the nunnery living in civilian clothes and eating vegetarian food. She no longer interfered with the affairs of the palace, but paid attention to the changes in the current situation.

One of Wu Sangui's sons, Wu Qihua, also named Wu Yingqi, was raised by Wu Sangui's brother Wu Sanfeng since he was a child. Wu Yingqi has called Wu Sanfeng his father since he was a child, so he has never been in the sight of the Qing court. When Wu Yingqi was nine years old, he was taken to Wu Sangui's palace and raised by Chen Yuanyuan. The two were like mother and son and had a very good relationship.Wu Sangui's rebellion attempt had made Chen Yuanyuan very disgusted, and the issue of Chen Yuanyuan's hiding place had been raised before Wu Sangui launched his army. Chen Yuanyuan said that her own safety did not matter, but she would definitely protect the safety of Wu Sangui's son Wu Yingqi. After Wu Sangui's death, Chen Yuanyuan was very disappointed with the small court, so she discussed with Wu Yingqi and General Ma Bao to find a safe place to protect Wu Yingqi.Chen Yuanyuan and others secretly left Yunnan and sneaked into a dense forest cave in Cengong County. Before Chen Yuanyuan left, she secretly confided in her confidants. When the Qing soldiers came to attack, they threw her clothes and headdress into the lotus pond and announced her suicide.Chen Yuanyuan was escorted by Ma Bao, and first went to Long'ao River to build a cave, where the terrain was dangerous. Later, due to the large number of wild animals on the mountain, food could not be harvested. Chen Yuanyuan and his family lived in Qianwuchangtian, Laowuchang and other places. During her lifetime, Chen Yuanyuan missed Wu Sangui to the point of physical and mental exhaustion, and she often worried about the safety of her family. As a result, she suffered from a headache. When the pain was severe, she would faint and become unconscious. As the illness progressed, attacks became more frequent. Finally, Chen Yuanyuan fell to the ground while reciting Buddhist scriptures and never woke up.

 

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. 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.

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) occupied Chen, Wu's beloved concubine. This version of the tale was made famous by Wu Weiye's qu, the Song of Yuanyuan:

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

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. 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. This story may also be a later fabrication, or popular folklore.

See also