Died: 756, Mawei, Sichuan province, China
Yang Guifei was famous concubine of Xuanzong, emperor of China’s Tang (T’ang) dynasty from 712 to 756. Daughter of a high official, Yang Guifei was originally the concubine of one of Xuanzong’s sons, but the emperor, who favoured large women, found her so attractive that in 745 he took her for himself. Despite Yang Guifei’s obesity, her beauty was proverbial, and she consolidated her position by introducing her sisters into the imperial harem and sharing a passion for music with the emperor. Through her patronage, both the half-Turkish general An Lushan and Guifei’s cousin Yang Guozhong rose to the positions of power. After rivalry between the two led to the devastating An Lushan rebellion in 755, Yang Guifei fled with the emperor towards Sichuan. Xuanzong’s angry troops stopped at the post station of Mawei and forced him to agree to Guifei’s execution, whereupon she was strangled by a monk. Her story was subsequently retold in numerous works of literature throughout East Asia.
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