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Dan: What's up, guys! Welcome to Off the Great Wall. I'm Dan.
Yi: And I'm Yi.
Now we know that there are a lot of beautiful Chinese women out there.
Dan: Checked! Everyone loves Chinese women. So many of my Western friends have Chinese wives and girlfriends.
Yi: Ah, off topic, Dan!
Uhh.. Anyways, did you know that there are four Chinese women throughout over 5,000 years of Chinese history
that were said to be the most beautiful of them all?
Dan: WHAT? And you think competing in Miss America was tough?
Y: Yeah, it's like... you know you have been chosen to represent yourself in the Miss China Pageant
but your competition is like every single girl more than span of 5,000 years.
See, if I win that I better gain more than a DR and a scholarship.
Dan: Yeah! If you win that you should at least get like... the Great Wall or something.
See what I did there?
Yi: Yeah. __ of 'em out!
But you know, the four great beauties of China did indeed wield a lot of power.
Three out of four of them are responsible for ruining entire kingdoms.
Dan: What?
Beauty is power!
Yi: Yeah. But you know that being a beautiful woman does have its downfalls.
There's a Chinese saying, 紅顔薄命
which means, beautiful women will have difficult lives.
Dan: In each of these beautiful women's cases, their lives have either ended prematurely
or they were used as a tool in political struggles.
Let's meet these women, shall we?
Yi: Number 1 - Xi *** (西施) is thought to have been the most beautiful of the four beauties.
There’s a popular saying, 西施沉魚
means that Xi *** was so entrancingly beautiful that fish would forget how to swim and sink away from the surface when she walks by.
Dan: Xi *** was born in 506 BC during the Spring and Autumn Period also known as the Warring States Period.
Basically back then China was in one country but made up of several states like many kingdoms
and all those states were constantly fighting with each other.
Yi: So Xi *** was from the State of Yue which is vanquished by the state of Wu.
The King of Yue, Gou Jian (勾踐) was forced to serve the prince of Wu, Fuchai (夫差), for three years.
Dan: According to legend, Gou Jian and his advisers thought up the way to beat the Wu state.
It was widely known that Fuchai who had become the king of the Wu state was a sucker for pretty women.
Gou Jian knew that if Fuchai was surrounded by beautiful beauties,
he’ll be so distracted that he would have no energy left to run the country.
Yi: But in order for the plan to succeed,
Gou Jian needed to enlist a loyal woman of stunning beauty who was willing to sacrifice herself for the good of the country.
Xi *** was the chosen.
Gou Jian ordered his minister, Fan Li (范蠡), to takes Xi *** to Fuchai as a tribute gift from Yue.
On the way to the Wu state, Xi *** felt deeply in love with the wise, kind minister, the tall dark and handsome Fan Li during the journey.
Wait! But this is ancient China so Fan Li was probably short and pale.
Anyways, before they parted, they made a secret pledge of undying love.
Dan: And as expected, Fuchai was enchanted by Xi *** and her beauty, and spend more and more time with her
and began to neglect his political duties.
When he eventually realize that he should not have been so bewitched with Xi ***, it was too late.
Gou Jian invaded Wu and Fuchai committed suicide and Xi ***'s mission was complete.
Yi: Now there’re two versions of what happened to Xi *** after this.
One is that she drowned in the river.
The other and the one that I choose to believe, is that she reunited with Fan Li and lived in relative obscurity happily ever after.
Dan: Number 2
Diao Chan (貂蟬), who is the second best looking of the four beauties
was described to be so luminously beautiful that the moon itself would shy away in embarrassment when compared to her face.
Yi: Hence a popular saying, 貂嬋閉月.
During the East Han Dynasty, there was a tyrannical warlord named *** Zhuo (董卓)
with an adopted son Lu Bu (呂布) who was the mightiest warrior in the land.
At the time, there was also an official called *** Yun (王允) and he was very concerned about the political state of the country.
Dan: In order to dethrone *** Zhuo, *** Yun hatched a plan to drive a wedge between *** Zhuo and Lu Bu.
The wedge would be Diao Chan, a beautiful girl who happen to live in *** Yun household.
She agreed to help *** Yun in order to repay his kindness for taking her in.
Yi: So, *** Yun first introduced Diao Chan to Lu Bu who was immediately mesmerized by her beauty.
Dan: Of course!
Yi: Then, *** Yun also present Diao Chan to *** Zhuo who immediately took her as his concubine.
One day when Lu Bu came to see *** Zhuo, Diao Chan grabbed him crying, saying that she feels ashamed to see him as she has being violated by *** Zhuo.
Dan: At this time, *** Zhuo walked in and saw Lu Bu holding Diao Chan
and from that point on, the battle was born, between *** Zhuo and Lu Bu
and they became crazy jealous each other over Diao Chan.
In the end, *** Yun was able to enlist Lu Bu in helping him killed *** Zhuo.
Yi: Yes, so the son killed his adoptive father over a woman.
There’re various versions of Diao Chan's fate and none of them was good.
Some say she was executed by *** Zhuo followers along with *** Yun
and some say that she wandered the world with Lu Bu who became a warlord, but was executed with him when he was defeated in a battle.
Dan: Some say Diao Chan never existed as her name only appeared in legends and not historical texts.
Yi: Others says, Diao Chan was not her real name and her actual name was Ren Hongchang (任紅昌)
But, who never know.
Number 3 - *** Zhao Jun (王昭君) is the third most beautiful woman in Chinese history
and is said to be so beautiful that her appearance would entice birds in flight to fall from the sky!
hence the saying, 昭君落雁.
*** Zhao Jun was born in the Western Han Dynasty in 52 BC.
Dan: She entered the Imperial Palace during the reign of Emperor Yuan of the Western Han.
The Emperor chose companions from his vast group of maidens only by looking at the portraits.
You know, because he didn't have time to meet them in person. Kind of like OK Cupid for ancient China.
Yi: Not the same thing.
D: Okay. As a result of this practice, it had become the custom for palace ladies to offer large bribes to court artists to ensure that they painted a flattering likeness.
Yi: It's like bribing a photographer to Photoshop your photo to make you look the best they can. Got it?
Dan: Yep!
*** Zhao Jun, however, was so confident in her natural beauty and refused to pay the court painter, his customary bribe.
As a result, the painter painted an ugly picture over and from her finish portrait she seemed to be the ugliest of all the palace ladies and thus never received the Emperor’s favor.
Yi: When the chieftain of Xiongnu which is the country that included Mongolia and China at the time became a subject of the Han Empire,
he told Emperor Yuan: "I wish to take a Han beauty as my empress."
Dan: To cement relations with this barbarous nation, Emperor Yuan agreed to the request.
but of course, he didn't want to give away any of his pretty maidens and so he actually decided to picked up lamest girl for marriage.
So *** Zhao Jun was picked.
Yi: Only when she was on the point of departure did Emperor Yuan see her in person and of course he's like...
"What did i do? I give away the most beautiful maiden!"
But it was too late! So, the groom to be of course was delighted.
The Emperor had the court artist that painted *** Zhao Jun portrait be put to death.
Dan: *** Zhao Jun traveled beyond the Great Wall and never returned to the homeland. She died at the tender young age of 33.
Yi: And finally, we have the last of the four beauty, Yang Gui Fei (楊貴妃)
Dan: My favorite! She was a curvy.
Yi: Ah ha! It was said that she had a face that puts all flowers to shame
the term 貴妃羞花.
Dan: Yang Gui Fei's real name was actually Yang Yu Huan (杨玉环) and she was born in the year of 719 during the Tang Dynasty.
Yi: Yang Gui Fei as she more commonly known entered the royal palace and immediately won the favor of the Tang Emperor Xuanzong (玄宗).
He had over 3,000 concubines but he only had eyes for her
to the degree where he stop caring about running a country and spent every waking moment with her.
He also promoted all Yang Gui Fei's family members to become high-ranking officials which turned out to be a mistake.
Dan: Yes! Because Emperor Xuanzong eventually fled towards the south west because of internal rebellion.
He took Yang Gui Fei with him.
They had gone far from the capital when his own soldiers refused to go on and demanded the death of Yang Gui Fei as they blamed her for the rebellion.
Emperor Xuanzong had no choice but to have his favorite concubine put to death.
Yi: There's a popular Chinese saying, 英雄难过美人关 or it’s hard for heroes to pass the test of beautiful women.
Basically all guys are weak when it comes to dealing with a beautiful woman.
Dan: Shh! Yeah, right!
Yi: Oh yeah? The battle of Troy was fought over Helen. She was said to be the most beautiful woman on Earth.
Dan: Alright, maybe that one.
Hey guys, thanks again for watching and let us know if your job or life has ever been ruined because of a girl
or friendship.
Yi: Oh my God! There's a sidekick episode of Sex and the City where the guy's modelizer and he realizes that his life was like destroyed by model. That is not relevant.
Dan: That's totally not what I was asking!
and I don't remember seeing that episode! What episode was that?
Just kidding! I don't watch Sex and the City.
Yi: Thanks for watching guys.
See you next time.
Dan: Be sure to share this video and tweet us, all that stuffs, like us on Facebook. Bye guys.