Yang Yuhuan (719-756), known as Taizhen, was born in Yongle, Puzhou (now Yongji, Shanxi Province), and was the daughter of Yang Xuanyan, the Sihu of Shuzhou. She was the concubine of Tang Xuanzong Li Longji, a much-loved harem beauty.
Yang is naturally beautiful, has a plump and gorgeous appearance, is good at singing and dancing, and is proficient in music. In the twenty-second year of Kaiyuan (734), at the age of sixteen, she became the princess of Li Mao, the eighteenth son of Xuanzong. However, as fate would have it, the death of Concubine Wu Hui made Xuanzong feel lonely. At this time, in order to please Xuanzong, Gao Lishi recommended Yang Yuhuan, the princess of Shou. In 740, Xuanzong Xing Hot Spring Palace ordered Gao Lishi to go to Shouwang Palace to summon Yang, and made him a monk, gave him the name Taizhen, and lived in Taizhen Palace. Five years later, Xuanzong canonized Yang as a concubine, which caused an uproar in the palace at that time, and was known as the strange story of "father taking son and wife".
Xuanzong once personally composed the "Neon Clothes and Feather Clothes Song", and every time he summoned Yang Guifei, he would order the musicians to play this song, and gave Yang's golden hairpin to put it on her sideburns. He said to everyone in the harem: "I have Yang Guifei, like a treasure." "It shows the depth of love for him. At that time, there was no new queen in the palace, and everyone called Yang "Niangzi", but in fact, she was already at the top of the harem.
It is rumored that after Yang Yuhuan was promoted to a concubine, Lingnan once offered a white parrot, which could imitate human language, Xuanzong and Yang Guifei loved it very much, and gave it the name "Snow Girl", and the palace called it "Snow Girl". Xuanzong once ordered the ministers to teach it to recite poems, and after several times, the white parrot could chant it, which was quite popular with everyone. Whenever Xuanzong and Yang Guifei played against each other, if the situation was unfavorable to Xuanzong, the eunuchs would call with the name of "Snow Lady", and the white parrot would fly into the chessboard, disrupt the chess game, and relieve Xuanzong. However, this lovely white parrot was eventually killed by the eagle, and Xuanzong and Yang Guifei were deeply saddened and buried it in the Imperial Garden, called the "Parrot Tomb".
Yang Guifei's three sisters are all national beauty and fragrance, and they were also summoned to the palace, and were named Mrs. Han, Mrs. Qiuguo, and Mrs. Qin, and they were all given generous gifts every month. Among them, Mrs. Yu Guo is proud of her natural beauty and does not use powder. Du Fu once praised his beauty with a poem: "Mrs. Qiuguo inherited the main thoughts, and entered the Golden Gate in Pingming." But the fat powder is like a color, and the moth eyebrows are swept towards the supreme. ”
Because Yang Guifei is favored, her brothers are all high-ranking officials. Even his distant brother Yang Zhao, who was originally a scoundrel in the market, was entrusted with a heavy task by Xuanzong because he was good at calculation, gave him the name Guozhong, and held many positions to manipulate the government. When Xuanzong traveled to Xinghua Qingchi, he often took the five families of the Yang family as his followers, each family had a team, wearing a unified costume, the five families were in a team, colorful, and the jewelry dropped along the way was everywhere, and its luxury degree could be seen. The Yang family even married the royal family, and Xuanzong also personally wrote a family temple tablet for the Yang family.
However, although Yang Guifei was favored, she also offended Xuanzong because of her pampering and arrogance, and was condemned to her mother's family. But every time she left the palace, Xuanzong recalled her because of her thoughts. Once, the concubine was sent out of the palace for stealing the purple jade flute, but she cut a strand of green silk and asked someone to bring it to Xuanzong, who was shocked and ordered someone to recall it. Yang Guifei knew that Xuanzong couldn't do without her, so she was even more arrogant, no one dared to ask about the Yang family's entry and exit of the forbidden door, and the commanders of the Jingshi all looked at them sideways. At that time, there were even rumors among the people that "don't be sad if you give birth to a girl, don't like a man".
It is rumored that Yang Guifei was born in Shu and loves to eat lychees. The lychees produced in Lingnan are particularly delicious, so a large number of lychees are transported to Chang'an by fast horses every year. Du Mu once described this scene in a poem: "Chang'an looks back at the embroidered city, and the top of the mountain is opened one after another. As soon as the concubine laughed on the red dust, no one knew that it was a lychee. This poem not only depicts the pomp and circumstance of the delivery of lychees, but also shows the influence of Yang Guifei in the palace.
During the Tianbao period, Fan Yang Jie Du made An Lushan deeply favored by Xuanzong because of his side work. In the name of entering the palace to meet his godmother, he openly molested Yang Guifei. Although this incident caused an uproar, Yang Guifei's position was not shaken. She is still the favorite of Xuanzong and an indispensable beautiful scenery in the palace of the Tang Dynasty.
Yang Guifei celebrated her last birthday in Chang'an at the Huaqing Palace on June 1, 755. Emperor Xuanzong specially ordered the pear garden to play music and play a new song in the Hall of Eternal Life, which did not have a title at that time. At this time, the lychees paid tribute by the South China Sea in Guangdong were delivered, and Xuanzong named it after the song "Lychee Incense". In November of the same year, An Lushan launched a rebellion, and Xuanzong fled into Sichuan in a hurry. The following year, passing through Maweiyi (now the western part of Xingping County, Shaanxi Province), the army mutinied, forcing Xuanzong to kill Yang Guozhong, and even demanding that Yang Guifei commit suicide, when she was only 38 years old. Bai Juyi's "Song of Long Hatred" is an affectionate narration of the tragic story of Xuanzong and the concubine.
Yang Guifei is not only outstanding, but also has a poetic talent, her work "Gift Zhang Yunrong Dance" was included in the "All Tang Poems", the poem reads:
Luo sleeves danced, and the fragrance was overflowing, as if the red fern was swaying in the autumn smoke.
Light clouds sweep over the mountains, like the first swing in the wind, and the tender willows blow through the pond, like the first water waves.
This poem depicts a woman's dancing posture from a woman's perspective, compared to a hibiscus in the autumn smoke, looming, compared to the wind and clouds on the ridge, fluctuating, and more likened to willow silk brushing water, graceful and graceful, and lined with the fragrance of Luo sleeves, which is really expressive. There are many stories depicting Yang Guifei in the poems, and Du Mu's "Quatrain of the Qing Palace" is one of them, which reads:
Yellow dust rose among the green trees of Xinfeng, and several horsemen and horses returned from Yuyang.
The neon clothes and feathers danced on the top of the thousand peaks, and the dance broke through the Central Plains before stopping.
This poem is the story of the aria concubine. In the three poems of Li Bai's "Qingping Tunes", the sentence "Clouds want clothes, flowers want to look, and the spring breeze blows Revlon" has become a famous sentence that has been praised through the ages. After the death of the concubine, Xuanzong entered Shu, heard the bell on the way, and because he missed the concubine, he took his voice to create the "Yulin Bell Song", which is the origin of the later Song "Yulin Bell" word plate.
In the drama, the stories of Yang Guifei are endless. In the Yuan Dynasty, Bai Pu created the miscellaneous drama "Wutong Rain in the Autumn Night of Emperor Tang Ming", the Ming Dynasty had the legend of Tu Longlong's "Caihao Ji", Wu Shimei's "Amazing Hongji", and the legend of Anonymous's "Mo Chenjian", and the Qing Dynasty had the legend of Hong Sheng's "Palace of Eternal Life". Peking Opera includes "Hundred Flower Pavilion", "Guifei Drunk", "Taizhen Gaiden", "Ma Weipo" and other plays, and there are also many other local dramas that interpret the story of Yang Guifei, which is really countless. In particular, the Peking Opera "The Drunken Concubine" starring Mei Lanfang is well-known at home and abroad for its original interpretation and excellent acting skills. In terms of novels, there are works such as "The Biography of Yang Taizhen", Chen Hong's "The Song of Long Hatred", "Romance of the Sui and Tang Dynasties" and so on.
Today, there is the tomb of Yang Guifei in Xingping County, Shaanxi, covering an area of 3,000 square meters, and there are poems of poets such as Li Shangyin, Bai Juyi, Lin Zexu and other poets next to the tomb. The Huaqing Pond at the northern foot of Lintong Lishan Mountain is said to be the place where Yang Guifei "bathes in Huaqing Pool in the spring cold, and the hot spring water is slippery and washes the condensate", among which the "Guifei Pool" is particularly famous, and it is said that this is the special bath of Yang Guifei, so it is also called "Concubine Soup". Next to the pond is the "Hair Pavilion", which is said to be the place where the concubine combed her hair after bathing. These places of interest have a close relationship with the ancient beauty Yang Guifei, attracting a large number of Chinese and foreign tourists and becoming famous tourist attractions.