The Rise and Fall of Yang Guifei

Yang Guifei stands as one of China’s Four Great Beauties, a woman whose life became intertwined with the fate of the Tang Dynasty. Born Yang Yuhuan in 719 CE, she first married Prince Li Mao, son of Emperor Xuanzong, before catching the emperor’s eye herself. The emperor orchestrated her entry into a Daoist nunnery to dissolve her marriage, then brought her into his own harem as his favored consort.

Her time as imperial consort coincided with the Tang Dynasty’s golden age, when Chang’an (modern Xi’an) stood as the world’s most cosmopolitan city. Yang Guifei became renowned for her beauty, her patronage of the arts, and her legendary performances of the “Rainbow Skirt Feathered Dress Dance.” However, her family’s growing political influence through her cousin Yang Guozhong sowed seeds of discontent that would contribute to one of China’s most devastating rebellions.

The An Lushan Rebellion and the Mawei Incident

In 755 CE, general An Lushan launched his rebellion, plunging the empire into chaos. By summer 756, rebel forces approached the capital, forcing Emperor Xuanzong to flee westward with Yang Guifei, her family, and the imperial court. The exhausted procession reached Mawei Post Station (modern Maweipo, Shaanxi) when the imperial guard mutinied.

The soldiers blamed the Yang family for the empire’s troubles. They executed Yang Guozhong and demanded Yang Guifei’s life as well. According to official Tang histories, the 38-year-old consort was strangled with a silk cord on June 15, 756, wrapped in a purple blanket, and hastily buried beside the road. Emperor Xuanzong, heartbroken but powerless, continued his flight to Sichuan.

The Body That Disappeared

A year later, when Xuanzong returned as retired emperor, he ordered Yang Guifei’s reburial. Officials exhumed the site but reportedly found only a perfume pouch – no identifiable remains. This puzzling detail appears in the Old Book of Tang: “The flesh had decayed, only the perfume pouch at her breast remained.” The discrepancy between how quickly flesh versus fabric might decompose fueled centuries of speculation about whether Yang Guifei truly died at Mawei.

The mystery deepened through literary treatments like Bai Juyi’s epic poem “Song of Everlasting Sorrow,” which immortalized the tragedy while leaving room for interpretation. The poem’s ambiguous lines about searching “up to the azure heavens and down to the yellow springs” without finding her suggested to some readers that her fate remained unknown.

The Japanese Connection

In Japan’s Yamaguchi Prefecture, the coastal village of Yuchu claims an extraordinary tradition: that Yang Guifei survived and reached their shores. Local temples preserve 55th-generation abbot Hokugaku’s 18th-century records stating that in July 756 (just weeks after her supposed death), a woman identified as Tang emperor’s consort Yang arrived by “empty rudder boat” – a vessel set adrift – at the “Tang Landing” cove.

The village’s Murotoji Temple houses what locals believe is Yang Guifei’s grave, marked by a five-tiered stone pagoda facing China. Nearby stand smaller pagodas said to mark her attendants’ graves. Remarkably, ocean currents from China still deposit modern debris on this shore – plastic bottles, shoes – demonstrating how ancient vessels might have drifted there.

Historical Possibility or Romantic Legend?

Several factors lend plausibility to the survival theory:

1. The chaotic nature of the Mawei incident – executioners may have allowed her to revive after the imperial party departed
2. Potential rescuers including her former husband Prince Li Mao, eunuch Gao Lishi, or nephew Yang Xuan (the foreign minister with ties to Japanese envoys)
3. A plausible escape route via the treacherous but direct Tangluo Path through the Qinling Mountains to the Han River

Japanese scholars note that Yuchu’s “Tang Landing” had received Chinese refugees before – possibly Tang nobles fleeing Empress Wu Zetian’s persecutions centuries earlier. Nearby archaeological sites like the Doihama Museum have uncovered 300 ancient Chinese skeletons buried facing their homeland.

Cultural Legacy Across Borders

Whether historical fact or poetic fancy, Yang Guifei’s legend flourished in both cultures. In China, her story inspired countless poems, operas like “The Palace of Eternal Youth,” and the enduring image of tragic beauty. Her supposed grave at Maweipo became a site of pilgrimage, with local women reportedly using its perfumed earth as cosmetic powder.

In Japan, she became assimilated into local culture. The Yuchu villagers’ emotional connection to “their” Yang Guifei manifests in businesses using her name, annual festivals, and even claims of descendants among the Yagi clan. The slimmed-down statue at Murotoji (adjusted to Japanese beauty standards) contrasts with China’s fuller-figured depictions.

Why the Mystery Endures

Yang Guifei’s story persists because it encapsulates multiple timeless themes: the conflict between love and duty, the price of beauty and power, and the human desire to believe in second chances. The survival theory offers a psychologically satisfying alternative to the official tragedy – that the emperor who failed to protect her in life might have succeeded in helping her escape death.

As historian Ye Guangqin discovered during her research in Japan, the mystery ultimately transcends historical proof. The gaps in the record have allowed both cultures to claim Yang Guifei as their own – China as a cautionary tale about imperial excess, Japan as a symbol of cultural connection. Her elusive fate, like the ocean currents between their shores, continues to draw people into one of history’s most captivating might-have-beens.