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
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 who later became the concubine of military leader Wu Sangui. In Chinese folklore, the Shun army's capture of her in 1644 prompted Wu's fateful decision to let the Manchu armies enter China proper through Shanhai Pass, thereby sealing the fate of the Ming dynasty.

Biography[edit]

Chen Yuanyuan was born into a poor family in Changzhou, Jiangsu, with the original surname Xing (邢). Her parents died when she was young and she was adopted by a relative surnamed Chen in Suzhou, so she changed her surname to Chen. She was later sold to be a Geji and studied kunqu. An account praised her performance as the character Hongniang in Romance of the Western Chamber.[3] She became known as one of the Eight Beauties of Qinhuai, along with the other seven, Ma Xianglan, Bian Yujing [zh], Li Xiangjun, Dong Xiaowan, Gu Mei, Kou Baimen [zh], and Liu Rushi.[4]

In 1641, she became the lover of the scholar and poet Mao Xiang,[5] who was infatuated with her after watching her in The Story of the Red Plum, sung in the yiyangqiang style.[6] Various accounts told about Chen's move to Beijing: she was forcibly acquired in 1642 either by Zhou Quan, father of Empress Zhou, or Tian Hongyu, father of imperial concubine Tian Xiuying. Some accounts suggest that Chen Yuanyuan was sent to the palace to become a concubine of Emperor Chongzhen, who, worried about the state of affairs, soon sent her back. She then stayed with either Zhou's or Tian's family troupe as a performer, until she was either purchased for Wu Sangui by Wu's father [7] or given to Wu as a gift by Zhou or Tian.[8]

In April 1644, the peasant army of Li Zicheng captured the Ming capital of Beijing and the Chongzhen Emperor committed suicide. Knowing that Wu, garrisoning Shanhai Pass, posed a serious threat, Li held hostage Wu's family in Beijing, including Wu's father Wu Xiang and Chen. In some accounts, Li's subordinate Liu Zongmin captured Chen and raped her. Wu Sangui eventually decided to side with the Manchus by allowing the Manchu armies through Shanhai Pass to chase Li from Beijing, where the Manchus then established the Qing dynasty.

By some accounts, Chen was killed in the fall of Beijing. By other accounts, she was subsequently reunited with Wu. One account claims that later in life, she became a nun in Kunming after Wu Sangui's failed rebellion against the Qing.[9][10] In the 1980s, Chen's final whereabouts was uncovered by the historian Huang Tousong, who was exiled to Guizhou in the 1970s during the Cultural Revolution. According to his research, by the end of Wu's failed rebellion against the Qing, Chen was escorted by General Ma Bao to what is now Majia Zhai village in Guizhou, where they lived until their deaths among the ethnic minorities hostile to Qing rule. The knowledge of Chen's whereabouts was passed down only by oral history in the village until Huang published the discovery.[5] The inscription on Chen's tombstones in the village was intentionally cryptic to deter detection throughout the years but has been confirmed by government historians in 2005.[5]

In culture[edit]

Statue of Chen Yuanyuan in Gold Hall Park in Kunming

In Chinese folklore, Chen Yuanyuan played a dramatic and romanticized role in the fall of the Ming and the founding of the Qing. The capture of her by Li's army enraged Wu Sangui that he decided to let the Manchus enter China proper through Shanhai Pass to expel Li's army from Beijing and rescue her. Chen's role in Wu's surrender to the Manchu was immortalized by Wu Weiye's qu, the Song of Yuanyuan:[11]

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[12]

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.[13][14][15][16]

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. ^ 《十美词纪》(清)吴江邹枢贯衡：“陈圆者，女优也。少聪慧，色娟秀，好梳倭堕髻，纤柔婉转，就之如啼。演《西厢》，扮贴旦红娘脚色，体态倾靡，说白便巧，曲尽萧寺当年情绪。”
  4. ^ Xie & Shi (2014), p. 181.
  5. ^ a b c "The Chinese village that kept a courtesan's secret for centuries". South China Morning Post. 2019-05-10. Retrieved 2019-12-14.
  6. ^ Lee & Stephanowska 1998
  7. ^ Lee & Stephanowska 1998
  8. ^ Peterson 2000
  9. ^ Peterson 2000
  10. ^ Wakeman 2009, p. 123
  11. ^ Wakeman 1986, pp. 292–294
  12. ^ Chang & Owen 2010, p. 179
  13. ^ Wakeman 1986, pp. 292–294
  14. ^ Spence 1990, p. 33
  15. ^ Huang 1997, p. 205
  16. ^ Lovell 2006, p. 252

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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