Yang Gui Fe

The emperor Ming Huang of the Tang dynasty had a favorite wife, the famous Yang Gui Fe. He was devoted to her and granted her wishes. The legend connects unrest at court with her cousin, whom it describes as a gambler and drinker. In the end a rebellion broke out, and the emperor had to run for his life. With his whole court he fled toward the land of the four rivers.

When they came to a mountain pass, the emperor’s own soldiers rose up against him. They shouted that Yang Gui Fe’s cousin was the cause of all their troubles, and that they would not march another step unless he died. The emperor was at a loss. At last he handed the cousin over to the soldiers, and they killed him. But even that did not satisfy them.

“As long as Yang Gui Fe lives, she will try every way she can to punish us for her cousin’s death,” they cried. “She must die too!”

Weeping, she ran to the emperor. He wept bitterly as well and tried to shield her, but the soldiers only grew wilder and angrier. In the end a palace servant put her to death beneath a pear tree.

After that the emperor missed Yang Gui Fe so terribly that he could not eat and could not sleep. Then one of his servants told him about a man called Yang Shi Wu, who knew how to summon the spirits of the dead. The emperor sent for him, and Yang Shi Wu came.

That same night the magician chanted his spells, and his soul left his body and went off to look for Yang Gui Fe. First he traveled down to the Underworld, where the shadows of the dead live, but however hard he searched and however many he questioned, he found no sign of her. Next he rose to the highest heaven, where the sun, the moon and the stars travel on their paths, and he looked for her through all that empty space. She was not there either.

So he came back and told the emperor what had happened. The emperor was not content. “Yang Gui Fe was as lovely as a goddess,” he said. “How can it be that she had no soul?”

“The blessed spirits live among the hills and valleys, in the quiet gorges,” the magician answered. “I will go out once more and look for her there.”

So he roamed over the five sacred mountains, along the four great rivers and among the islands of the sea. He went everywhere, until at last he reached the land of the fairies.

A fairy there told him, “Yang Gui Fe has become a blessed spirit. She lives in the great palace of the south.”

The magician went to the palace and knocked. A young maid opened the door and asked what he wanted, and when he said the emperor had sent him to find her mistress, she let him in. She led him through wide gardens where the flowers were made of jade and the trees of coral, and the air was full of the sweetest scents. At last they came to a tall tower. The maid lifted the curtain that hung across a doorway. The magician knelt and raised his eyes, and there sat Yang Gui Fe on a throne. She wore a headdress of emeralds and a cloak of soft yellow swan’s down. Her cheeks were rosy, but her brow was lined with sorrow.

“I know very well how the emperor longs for me,” she said. “But there is no road that leads me back to the world of people. Before I was born on earth, I was a blessed fairy of the sky, and the emperor was a blessed spirit too, and even then we loved each other deeply. When the Lord of the Heavens sent him down to earth, I followed and found him there among mortals. In twelve years we shall be together again.

“One evening, on the seventh day of the seventh month, we stood gazing up at the stars of the Weaving Maiden and the Herd Boy, and we promised to love each other forever. The emperor broke a ring in two. He gave one half to me and kept the other. Take my half to him. Tell him not to forget the secret words we spoke to each other that night, and tell him not to grieve too much for me.”

Then she handed him the ring, struggling to hold back her tears. The magician carried it home, and when the emperor saw it, his sorrow welled up afresh.

“No one else on earth ever learned what we said to each other that night,” he said. “And now you bring me her ring! By this sign I know you speak the truth and that my beloved truly lives on as a blessed spirit.”

The emperor kept the half ring, and he rewarded the magician with rich gifts.

About this story

“Yang Gui Fe” is chapter LXVIII of Richard Wilhelm’s The Chinese Fairy Book, translated by Frederick H. Martens (New York: Frederick A. Stokes, 1921), among his historic legends. Wilhelm calls the opening historical and identifies the ‘land of the four rivers’ as Setchuan. This page presents the account as a legend about imperial figures; the note alone does not verify its simplified explanation of political unrest or every event. The retelling states her killing without describing its method.

The vow under the stars links this legend to the tale of the Weaving Maiden and the Herd Boy, the two star-lovers who meet once a year on the seventh evening of the seventh month.

Read the original: The Chinese Fairy Book (Project Gutenberg)

Reading guidance: older children with adult discussion. Includes a mutiny, two killings, grief and a supernatural search for a dead loved one. The soldiers’ fear of possible revenge does not justify killing Yang Gui Fe.

Reading the story closely

The search moves from vast realms to a small personal object. Neither the underworld nor the heavens yields an answer; half a ring finally convinces the emperor because it joins an object he knows with a private memory. Yet the reunion remains a promise, and Yang Gui Fe says there is no road back.

Draw the search as a sequence of places, then place the ring beside it. What kind of knowledge does each offer? Read the opening again from Yang Gui Fe’s viewpoint: which accusations concern actions she actually takes, and which concern what other people fear she might do?

Talk about it

• Why were the soldiers angry, and why did the emperor give in to them?
• Where did the magician search before he found Yang Gui Fe?
• Why did the half ring and private message convince the emperor within the legend?

Related stories

• The Herd Boy and the Weaving Maiden — the star-lovers Yang Gui Fe and the emperor looked up at
• The Monk of the Yangtze-kiang — the historic legend that follows this one
• The Golden Canister — another Tang-era legend from Wilhelm’s book