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The Songs Song 11 (Part 1) Lamenting the Ill-fated Man is lonely; the moon shines brighter than ever. 69 I have not yet fully paid my lust-debt for wallowing in desire and passion. Meetings and partings, sorrows and joys - these are decreed by fate. Why must fate blight famous flowers [i.e. beautiful women], leaving them to wither and die? Yeung Gwai-fei's jade-like bones are buried under a mountain track;21 Over Jiu Gwan's grave the grass is ever green;22 21 Yeung Gwai-fei (t~.f,zc ), whose personal name was Yeung Yuk-waan (t~.:li.fl), one of China's four most celebrated beauties, was the all-powerful, idolized favourite of Emperor Yuen Jung (J&-~* 713-56), the sixth emperor of the Tong dynasty (618-907). In 735 she became one of the concubines of Prince Shau (a3:. ), the emperor's eighteenth son. In 738 when the emperor's favourite concubine died, Yeung Yuk-waan was chosen to replace her. She was surpassingly beautiful, and is noted as being the only one of China's historical beauties who was plump. In 745 she was raised to the rank of gwai-fei ( .f,zc ), that is, the highest ranking imperial concubine (a title second only in dignity to that of the empress) and it is as Yeung Gwai-fei that she is most commonly known. In 755, On Luk-saan (~t~LlJ ) the adopted son of Yeung Gwai-fei, took advantage of the emperor to acquire power and influence, and mounted a successful rebellion against the throne. The following year, the now ageing emperor, together with Yeung Gwai-fei and his court, fled to Sei Chuen (1Z.9J1 [). However, at Ma Ngai C~~), the troops revolted demanding vengeance on the Yeung family, and refusing to go any further unless the emperor put Yeung Gwai-fei and her second cousin Yeung Gwok-jung (t~[~L%', ) to death. The emperor was forced to order a eunuch to strangle his beloved Yeung Gwai-fei before his very eyes. However, some accounts suggest she was hanged on a pear tree and buried by the roadside. Mayers, # 525,887; Giles, # 11, 2394. 22 Wong jiu-gwan (3:.BB~) was said to have been taken into the concubinate of the Hon emperor Yuen Dai (~lJC*), in 48 Be. Although from a poor family, she was surpassingly beautiful. Mo Yin-sau (=€J~a) was commissioned to paint her portrait. But because her father refused to pay him a sum of money by way of bribery, Mo Yin-sau painted her far less beautiful than she was, with the result that the emperor had no wish to see her, and she languished in oblivion for years. One day the emperor chanced to see her and was immediately captivated by her beauty. When Mo Yin-sau's plot was discovered, he fled the imperial court and sought asylum with the Khan of the Huns ({&Jf,zJZ.) to whom he showed a painting of the 'real' Jiu-gwan. Smitten by her incomparable beauty and to win her for himself, the Khan invaded China. Only when Jiu-gwan was surrendered to him did he agree to retire beyond the Great Wall. Jiu-gwan went with her captor as far as the banks of the Amur (~13~rI, Hak Lung Gong), where she plunged into the river and drowned herself. Her body was interred on the banks of the river, and it is said that the mound above her grave remains covered with green grass. Another version of the same story has it that she was buried alongside the Chinese boundary, close to the Great Wall. The grass on the Hun side of the Great Wall is yellow, whereas on the Chinese side it is green. Mayers, # 45; Giles, # 2148. The Songs Song 11 (Part 1) Lamenting the Ill-fated 69 Man is lonely; the moon shines brighter than ever. I have not yet fully paid my lust-debt for wallowing in desire and passion. Meetings and partings, sorrows and joys - these are decreed by fate. Why must fate blight famous flowers [i.e. beautiful women], leaving them to wither and die? Yeung Gwai-fei's jade-like bones are buried under a mountain track;21 Over Jiu Gwan's grave the grass is ever green;22 21 Yeung Gwai-fei (t~.i,zc), whose personal name was Yeung Yuk-waan (t~'::EJI), one of China's four most celebrated beauties, was the all-powerful, idolized favourite of...

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