Chen Yuanyuan

Chen Yuanyuan (1623–1689 or 1695) 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 Qing armies enter China proper through Shanhai Pass, thereby sealing the fate of the Ming dynasty. Chen Yuanyuan also wrote poetry, but only three works were left behind.

Biography
Chen Yuanyuan was born in Jiangnan to a poor family with the original surname Xing (邢). After her parents died when she was young, she was adopted by her aunt and took her uncle's surname, Chen. At ten, her uncle sold her to become a Gējì. She became renowned as one of the Eight Beauties of Qinhuai, along with Ma Xianglan, Bian Yujing, Li Xiangjun, Dong Xiaowan, Gu Mei, Kou Baimen, and Liu Rushi.

Chen studied Kunqu and excelled in Yiyang opera, often wearing her hair in a wo duo ji (high bun, 倭堕髻). She was especially praised for her role as Hongniang in The Romance of the West Chamber by poet Zou Shu (邹枢). Government official Gong Ruofu (贡若甫) bought her freedom and intended to take her as a concubine, but she was released due to disagreements with other women in his household. In 1641, Chen had a brief relationship with the poet and calligrapher Mao Xiang (冒襄), who also intended to take her as a concubine, but before that she was “acquired” – kidnapped or bought – by the powerful courtier Tian Hongyu (田弘遇), father-in-law of the Chongzhen Emperor.

Accounts of Chen's arrival in Beijing vary, citing 1641, 1642, or 1643. Mao claimed he proposed to Chen in 1641, with plans for marriage the following year. However, by spring 1642 when he went to visit her again, she had been taken away, leading to the belief that she arrived in Beijing in 1642. At that time, Tian, concerned that his daughter Tian Xiuying (田秀英) might fall out of favor, sought beautiful women in Jiangnan to win over the emperor in the interests of the Tian family. However, amid the Ming dynasty's struggles against Li Zicheng and the Manchu, the Chongzhen Emperor had little time for Chen. Three months after entering the Forbidden City, she was sent back to Tian. She then performed in his family opera troupe until she was either bought for Ming general Wu Sangui by his father or given to Wu as a gift by Tian.

In April 1644, when Beijing fell to Li Zicheng's peasant army, Wu's household in the city were captured by Li and his subordinate Liu Zongmin (刘宗敏). By various accounts, Chen was either taken as a hostage, made a concubine, or raped by them. Wu eventually allied with the Qing regent, Dorgon, allowing the Qing armies to enter China proper through Shanhai Pass. The combined forces of Wu and the Qing ousted Li's peasant army from Beijing, where the Qing dynasty then established its rule over China.

After Chen reunited with her husband, she followed him on various campaigns, ending up in Yunnan, which was awarded to Wu by the Qing rulers as part of his fiefdom. One account claims that Chen became a nun in Kunming after she fell out of Wu's favor due to her age and disagreements with his harem. In the 1980s, Chen's final whereabouts was uncovered by the historian Huang Tousong (黄透松), 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 and her stepson Wu Qihua (吴启华) aka Wu Yingqi (吴应麒) were escorted by General Ma Bao (马宝) 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. 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.

In fiction


In Chinese folklore, Chen Yuanyuan plays a dramatic and romanticized role in the rise and fall of dynasties. According to stories that emerged during the Kangxi era, Wu Sangui's motivation for joining forces with the Qing to attack Li Zicheng was to save Chen from Li's capture. This earned Chen the notoriety of a femme fatale and Wu the label of a traitor. Although such stories proved popular, some historians regard them as products of fiction.

The story of Chen and Wu was immortalized in 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."