We all know that the status of princesses in ancient China was very noble, but most of their marriages were not free. Many times, they also have to marry a foreign country to maintain peace. What we are most familiar with is that Princess Wencheng of the Tang Dynasty married Songtsen Gampo and lived in Tibet for more than 30 years.
But in 1694, during the Kangxi Dynasty of the Qing Dynasty, a "Chinese princess" suddenly appeared in Paris, France. Some people will be curious, never heard of a Chinese princess marrying the West, who is this "Chinese princess" who appeared in the upper class of Paris? How did he get to Paris?
The woman, who claimed to be the daughter of Kangxi, was arranged by the emperor to marry a Japanese prince, but on the way to Japan, she was kidnapped by Dutch pirates and traveled to Europe. She also said that her mother, who had been traveling to Japan with her, fell into the sea and drowned because of the disaster.
The woman's experience soon caused a stir in European aristocratic circles, and she felt sympathy for her upheaval. People reached out to her, helped her financially, and even introduced her to Louis XIV.
We all know that from ancient times to the present, the Eastern Empire has been a prosperous and mysterious country in the eyes of Westerners. Especially after Marco Polo traveled to the East during the Ming Dynasty, the praise of the Orient in the travelogue triggered a "Chinese fever". Although many Westerners have never actually seen Chinese in their lives, they have heard that mysterious Chinese are black eyes and black hair.
The woman probably also had the idea of cheating because her eyes and hair were black. Although the woman had a distinctly Roman appearance, because the nobles had never been to China, they believed it when they saw her dark eyes and black hair.
It is said that "admiring the foreign world", in the course of history, most of the time it is Westerners who worship "Zhongyang". After Europe had encountered the darkness of the Middle Ages, they were very eager for the prosperity of China. The fake princess was also treated favorably, and even the nobles struggled to help him and offer her as a bodhisattva.
Although they had heard of China's strength, they did not know the history of China or the arrogance of Chinese. Although there have been princesses in Chinese history who have exchanged marriages for peace, they must be really strong enough to pose a threat. How could a small country like Japan at that time need to be married, let alone the emperor's concubines who went to Japan together, was simply ridiculous.
Although the nobles had never seen a real Chinese, not all of them had not been to China. At that time, there was a missionary who had been to China, who not only lived in China for twenty years, but also said that Chinese. The missionary heard about it when he returned to France, and met the fake princess through an introduction.
When the preacher saw that the fake princess was not a Chinese at all, and he could not understand a word of what he said Chinese. Seeing that it was about to be exposed, this fake princess actually said that what the missionary said was not Chinese at all. For this kind of upside-down rake behavior, the missionaries really can't say it clearly. But the missionary was not discouraged, and he took out Chinese book for the fake princess to read, thinking that she must not know Chinese. Unexpectedly, this female liar had excellent psychological quality, and she grunted out the book with her hand, but the missionary could not understand a word.
The fake princess died without admitting that she was a liar, and the preacher had no choice. But as more and more people familiar with China questioned, and even when people saw the real Chinese, the lie of the fake princess was slowly exposed. When asked why she did this, he said that she was a very poor French bottom, and when she became a Chinese woman, she would receive fervent attention and change her destiny.