From the perspective of literary history, almost every idiom has a historical origin. And each source also contains a story.
The idiom "Xu Niang is half old" is no exception.
Who is Xu Niang?
Xu Niang refers to Xu Zhaopei. Xu Zhaopei was born in the Qi Dynasty of the Southern Dynasty. She was the imperial concubine of Emperor Yuan of Liang in the Southern Dynasty.
Emperor Yuan's father was Xiao Yan, the famous bodhisattva emperor of Chinese history. Emperor Wu of Liang was originally a southern Qi emperor and a talented son. In the last year of Southern Qi, Emperor Wu of Liang took advantage of the unstable situation in Southern Qi and seized power from the Southern Qi Emperor through military means and established the Xiaoliang Dynasty.
At that time, China was in a state of confrontation between the North and the South. In the early years of Emperor Wu's reign, the liang dynasty's national strength was inferior to that of northern Wei. The Northern Wei court also had the idea of annexing Southern Liang. However, at the Battle of Zhongli, Southern Liang defeated the Northern Wei army, and soon after, the famous "Heyin Revolution" broke out in Northern Wei, followed by civil unrest in Northern Wei, which was eventually divided into two parts: Eastern Wei and Western Wei. As a result, the Northern Dynasty's power weakened. Emperor Wu of Liang took the opportunity to intervene in the affairs of the Northern Dynasty and took in the Northern Dynasty rebel general Hou Jing.
Soon after Hou Jing was taken in by Emperor Wu of Liang, he provoked civil unrest in the Liang Dynasty. Emperor Wu of Liang lost his life in civil unrest, and after this civil strife, Southern Liang's strength was seriously damaged, sowing the seeds for the later Sui Dynasty to annex Southern Chen.
It was in this turbulent background that Emperor Liang Yuan became emperor of the Liang Dynasty, and Xu Zhaopei became an imperial concubine.
Xu Niang is half old
When Emperor Yuan of Liang married Xu Zhaopei, he was only a prince of the Liang Dynasty. Although Emperor Liang Yuandi and Xu Zhaopei were husband and wife for many years, in general, the relationship was not good - some people believe that Xu Zhaopei was plain-looking and was not loved by Emperor Liang Yuan.
For the love of Emperor Liang Yuan, Xu Zhaopei also had his own way of fighting back. For example, When Emperor Liang Yuan was young, he had a disability and was blind in one eye. In order to humiliate Emperor Liang Yuandi, Xu Zhaopei only made half of his makeup.
Although Xu Zhaopei achieved the goal of humiliating Emperor Liang Yuan, the problem of a person's loneliness needed to be solved after all. Xu Zhaopei did not know when he learned to go out of the wall with red apricots -- among the objects of the derailment, there were monks, there were also readers, and even the attendants of Emperor Liang Yuan.
Inside Emperor Liang Yuan's attendants, there was a man named Ji Jijiang. This person can be called the beautiful man of the world, comparable to the contemporary Cai Xukun and Lu Han. When stealing affection, Ji Jijiang once sighed: Although Xu Niang is old, she is still affectionate.
At this time, Xu Zhaopei had already reached middle age, and he was old and yellow, but he still couldn't forget the handsome youth, and it was no wonder that Ji Jiang would sigh so much. The idiom "Xu Niang is half old" was also spread by Ji Jijiang's sentiment and continues to this day.
Xu Niang's last days
Xu Zhaopei's behavior is difficult for normal men to tolerate, not to mention that Emperor Liang Yuan is still a real power emperor after all. Therefore, Emperor Yuan of Liang committed suicide on the charge that Xu Zhaopei was unvirtuous and murdered other imperial concubines. Xu Zhaopei knew that he would not be able to escape the catastrophe, so he committed suicide by throwing himself into a well, ending his life.
For Xu Zhaopei's evaluation, most of the historians of later generations held a negative attitude. For example, Sima Guang commented on Xu Zhaopei in the "Zizhi Tongjian": ugly looks and likes to be jealous of others, and his character is not good.