Su Xiaoxiao

Su Xiaoxiao (c.479 – c.501), sometimes by the appellation "Little Su" and "Su Xiao", was a famous Chinese Gējì and poet from Qiantang City (now Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province) in the Southern Qi Dynasty.

Life
Well known for her intellectual talent and great beauty, Su Xiaoxiao pursued the values of love, beauty and humanity, as reflected in her writing and in popular stories. There are many stories attached to the life of Su Xiaoxiao, with no way of knowing the historical accuracy of any single story.

Su Xiaoxiao was born into a well-to-do family in Qiantang. Her family's ancestors served as officials in the Eastern Jin Dynasty. After the fall of the Jin Dynasty, her family lived in Qiantang. The Su family used the gold, silver and jewelry they carried as capital to do business in Qiantang.Su Xiaoxiao is the only daughter of her parents, so she has been regarded as the apple of her eye since she was a child. Because she is petite, she is named Xiaoxiao. Although the Su family is a merchant family, they have inherited the tradition of reading from their ancestors. The smart and intelligent Su Xiaoxiao was deeply influenced by this and was able to read and write poetry since he was a child. However, the good times did not last long. Su Xiaoxiao's parents died when she was 15 years old. Su Xiaoxiao lives with her aunt in a house by the West Lake. Su Xiaoxiao was deeply attached to the mountains and rivers, and lived a leisurely life of visiting mountains and scenery, reciting poems and painting. Su Xiaoxiao makes a living by singing as a Geji, and she also uses poetry to make friends. One day, she went for a spring outing on an oil-walled cart. When she reached the broken bridge, she met a young man riding a Qingcong horse(青骢马). The qingcong horse was frightened by Su Xiaoxiao's oil-walled cart. It jolted and the boy fell off. The young man was Ruan Yu, the son of Prime Minister Ruan Dao(阮道). He was ordered to go to eastern Zhejiang for business and passed through Hangzhou to visit West Lake.

The two fell in love at first sight, so Ruan Yu(阮郁) came to Su Xiaoxiao's home and expressed his love to Su Xiaoxiao. Later, with the help of Aunt Su Xiaoxiao, the two got married. Su Xiaoxiao and Ruan Yu loved each other very much. After they got married, Ruan Yu informed his family about the marriage by writing letters. When Ruan Dao learned that his son had married a Geji, he was so angry that he almost fainted. However, due to the high mountains and far distances and the inconvenient transportation, Ruan Dao was unable to control his son's behavior. He could only swallow his anger temporarily and find another way. After careful consideration, the wily Ruan Dao came up with a plan. In order to stabilize and confuse his son, and in order to finally break up the pair of mandarin ducks who were extremely incompatible in his eyes, he first wrote a meaningful letter to Ruan Yu, hypocritically Tell his son: Xiaoxiao is a talented woman. Although she has a humble status, he has no objection. After receiving the letter, Ruan Yu and Xiaoxiao saw that Ruan Dao was reasonable and thought that their father had really agreed to the marriage, so they lived their lives with peace of mind. After some time, Ruan Dao wrote a second letter to his son, lying that he was seriously ill and bedridden. The knowledgeable Xiaoxiao hurriedly asked Ruan Yu to go back to visit his father. Ruan Yu was very worried when his father got sick. He traveled day and night, but when he rushed home, he saw his father's face was red and safe. Before he could figure out what was going on, he was scolded by Ruan Daoyitong and told He ordered his family to lock him in the study. Although Ruan Yu defended himself hoarsely and begged hard, it was too late. He still could not resist his father's wishes and remarried a well-matched woman as his wife, while the passionate Xiaoxiao could only live alone. Keeping the solitary lamp, I can only relieve my depression by reciting poems and drinking wine every day.

After Ruan Yu left, Su Xiaoxiao fell seriously ill. Soon, Meng Lang(孟浪), the observation envoy from Shangjiang, came to Qiantang on official business. He had long been moved by Su Xiaoxiao's reputation. He sent people to invite Su Xiaoxiao to visit the house several times, but she was always declined. Meng Lang was dissatisfied and wanted to send someone to arrest Su Xiaoxiao. The county magistrate had some friendship with Su Xiaoxiao, and secretly persuaded Su Xiaoxiao to apologize to he. After all, Su Xiaoxiao was just a girl, and she did not dare to have too deep grudges with the officials. So on this day, she took the initiative to come to Meng Lang's house. She is still wearing homely clothes and she looks pitiful. Meng Lang was stunned when he saw Su Xiaoxiao. But Meng Lang was not a generous person, and he wanted to embarrass Su Xiaoxiao. At this time, a red plum in the courtyard was blooming just right, so he ordered Su Xiaoxiao to write a poem with the theme of red plum. Su Xiaoxiao picked up a poem, this poem is neither humble nor arrogant. It not only writes about one's own pride, but also implies awe of Meng Lang. So Meng Lang laughed it off and stopped arguing with Su Xiaoxiao. A crisis was resolved with Su Xiaoxiao's talent and beauty.

One time, Su Xiaoxiao was burning incense in the temple and met Bao Ren(鲍仁), a poor scholar, and gave him some money to help him rush for the exam. Bao Ren passed the examination and was appointed governor of Huazhou. He made a special trip to express his gratitude to Su Xiaoxiao, but Su Xiaoxiao had passed away. According to her last wish, "Born in Xiling, died in Xiling, buried in Xiling, worthy of the good landscape", Bao Ren buried her beside the Xiling Bridge.

Commemorate
Su Xiaoxiao developed a terminal illness, leaving a legacy of beauty by her death at a young age. For more than a thousand years, her tomb was situated at the Xilin Bridge beside her beloved West Lake.

Su Xiaoxiao's life and poetry provided much inspiration for later Chinese writers and artists. She was the romantic heroine of Tang dynasty poets Bai Juyi, Li He, Wen Tingyun, and Ming dynasty writer Zhang Dai, also the heroine of the story "Romantic Trails of Xilin" in Fine Stories of the West Lake. A woodcut of unknown provenance was used to illustrate porcelain objects during the Ming dynasty and early Qing dynasty. The woodcut was based on the short story "Dreaming of Qiantang", which told of the scholar Sima Yu, who, while visiting Hangzhou, wrote a poem about a dream he had in which Su Xiaoxiao was brought by three gusts of wind to come and sing at his window. Su was also a frequent figure for portrayal in Chinese theater.

In 1780, Emperor Qianlong asked about Su Xiaoxiao's tomb during his southern tour of Hangzhou. In 1784, Emperor Qianlong visited Su Xiaoxiao's tomb during his southern tour again. At this time, his tomb had been built into an octagonal stone tomb. Emperor Qianlong's divine favor elevated the ordinary visitation activity into a "ritual" with exemplary significance. As a result, Su Xiao's tomb in West Lake has become more stable in collective memory.

The Qing Dynasty scholar Yuan Mei admired the famous Geji Su Xiaoxiao and carved a seal saying "Qiantang Su Xiaoxiao is a fellow villager". One day, a minister came to Yuan Mei to ask for a poem. Yuan Mei immediately took out his poetry collection as a gift, and accidentally printed this seal on the booklet given to the minister. But when the minister saw it, his face changed drastically, and he criticized Yuan Mei, thinking that he claimed to be a fellow Geji, and carved a seal and stamped it on the poetry collection. This was extremely unserious and disrespectful to himself. At first, Yuan Mei apologized repeatedly, but Master Shangshu refused to forgive. So Yuan Mei said sternly: "Do you think this private seal is nondescript? From today's point of view, of course you are a high-ranking official, and Su Xiaoxiao's status is much humbler. I'm afraid that a hundred years from now, people will only know that Su Xiaoxiao exists, but not know you." After hearing these remarks, the Minister's face changed with anger, but everyone in the audience burst into laughter.



Su Xiaoxiao's tomb was destroyed during the Cultural Revolution, but it was rebuilt in 2004, complete with a brand new pavilion decorated with twelve poetry posts handwritten by famous calligraphers. The current tomb is empty. Su Xiaoxiao's tomb is now again a major tourist site in Hangzhou. Since the pavilion the tomb is hosted under is named Mucaiting, which could be misread phonetically as Mocaiting (touch for wealth), many tourist walk by would purposefully touch or throw coins on the tomb for hope of wealth and prosperity.

Poem by Su Xiaoxiao
This poem is variously known as "Song of the West Tomb", "Song of Xiling Lake", "Song of Su Xiaoxiao" (in a collection of Music Bureau poems) and "Song of the Same Heartbeat". It became very well known and inspired many future poets including those named above. In the original text, the poem is a quatrain composed of four lines of five words each.




 * I ride in a decorated carriage,
 * My darling rides a blue-white horse.
 * Where should we tie the knot for our heart?
 * Under the Xiling pine and cypress.

In media
In 1962, Chinese director, Lee Sun-fung, directed a film about Su Xiaoxiao called Su Xiaoxiao, or Miss Su in some areas. Malaysian born actress Yan Pak played the title role.

 A Su Xiaoxiao , poem dedicated by the Italian writer Sabrina Gatti, in the collection  La pioggia sui vetri  (2011)