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A beauty who changed history
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CHEN Yuanyuan, deemed as one of the eight beauties in ancient China along the Qinhuai River in today’s Nanjing City, was many men’s fantasy. Her romance with the controversial general Wu Sangui (1612-78), one of the most widespread stories about her, changed the history of China.
Blamed as a dangerous beauty by the public, Chen indirectly led to the downfall of a dynasty, but she also pushed the rise of another.
Beautiful, talented and well-behaved, Chen became Tian’s tool to cement his social position. She was given as a gift to Wu Sangui, a general guarding the Shanhai Pass in the late Ming Dynasty.
With the joint effort of both forces, the rebel army was defeated. Wu was honored as Pingxiwang, or literally “King Who Pacifies the West,” and awarded with a fief in Yunnan Province. With Chen’s support, Wu made a great contribution to the unification of the Qing Dynasty although he later rebelled.
Today, Wu has since been labeled as a traitor while Chen was “Helen of Troy.”
There are many versions concerning the death of Chen. The most common is that she changed her name and became a nun in Kunming after Wu’s rebellion against the Qing army failed. Another suggests that she drowned herself in the lotus pond of Huaguo Temple on Wuhua Mountain the day Kunming was seized by the Qing forces.
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