Xi Shi (Hsi Shih; , ) was, according to legends, one of the renowned

Four Beauties The Four Beauties or Four Great Beauties are four Chinese women who were renowned for their beauty. The four are usually identified as Xi Shi, Wang Zhaojun, Diaochan, and Yang Guifei. The scarcity of historical records concerning them meant t ...

of ancient China. She was said to have lived during the end of the Spring and Autumn period in

Zhuji Zhuji () is a county-level city under the administration of the prefecture-level city of Shaoxing, in north-central Zhejiang province, China, located about south of Hangzhou. It has with a population of 1,218,072 inhabitants at the 2020 census e ...

, the capital of the ancient

State of Yue Yue (, Old Chinese: ''*''), also known as Yuyue (), was a state in ancient China which existed during the first millennium BC the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods of China's Zhou dynasty in the modern provinces of Zhejiang, Sha ...

. In traditional stories, Xi Shi was named Shi Yiguang (施夷光). She was discovered by the Yue minister

Fan Li Fan Li () from the Spring and Autumn period, was an ancient Chinese military strategist, politician, and businessman. Fàn Li was an important political and military advisor to Goujian, the king of Yue. He later was known as Tao Zhu Gong (陶 ...

and given to

King Fuchai of Wu Fuchai (reigned 495–473BC), sometimes also written Fucha, was the last king of the state of Wu during the Spring and Autumn Period of Chinese history. His armies constructed important canals linking the Yellow, Ji, and Huai River systems of t ...

by King Goujian of Yue in a sexpionage operation which successfully brought down the State of Wu in 473 BC. This account first appeared in '' Spring and Autumn Annals of Wu and Yue'' published five centuries after the conquest, and is completely absent in earlier works such as '' Guoyu'', '' Zuo zhuan'', and ''

Records of the Grand Historian ''Records of the Grand Historian'', also known by its Chinese name ''Shiji'', is a monumental history of China that is the first of China's 24 dynastic histories. The ''Records'' was written in the early 1st century by the ancient Chinese his ...

''. Xi Shi, Wang Zhaojun, Diao Chan and

Yang Guifei Yang Yuhuan (; 26 June, 719 – 15 July 756Volume 218 of ''Zizhi Tongjian'' recorded that Yang was killed on the ''bingshen'' day of the 6th month of the 1st year of the Zhide era of Tang Suzong's reign. This date corresponds to 15 Jul 756 on t ...

are known as the “Four Beauties in Ancient China”, among which Xi Shi is the first.

Appearance

Xi Shi's beauty was said to be so extreme that while leaning over a balcony to look at the fish in the pond, the fish would be so dazzled that they forgot to swim and sank below the surface. This description serves as the meaning behind the first two characters of the Chinese idiom 沉魚落雁, 閉月羞花 (), referring to the Four Beauties, which is used to compliment a woman's beauty, meaning one is so beautiful she sinks fish and entices birds to fall, eclipses the moon and shames flowers, ().

Story of Xi Shi

King Goujian of Yue was once imprisoned by

after a defeat in war, and Yue later became a

tributary state A tributary state is a term for a pre-modern state in a particular type of subordinate relationship to a more powerful state which involved the sending of a regular token of submission, or tribute, to the superior power (the suzerain). This to ...

to Wu. Secretly planning his revenge, Goujian's minister Wen Zhong suggested training beautiful women and offering them to Fuchai as a tribute (knowing Fuchai could not resist beautiful women). His other minister,

, found Xi Shi and , and gave them to Fuchai in 490 BC. Bewitched by the beauty and kindness of Xi Shi and Zheng Dan, Fuchai forgot all about his state affairs and at their instigation, killed his best advisor, the great general Wu Zixu. Fuchai even built Guanwa Palace (Palace of Beautiful Women) in an imperial park on the slope of Lingyan Hill, about west of Suzhou. The strength of Wu dwindled, and in 473 BC Goujian launched his strike and completely routed the Wu army. King Fuchai lamented that he should have listened to Wu Zixu, and then committed suicide. In the legend, after the fall of Wu,

(范蠡) retired from his ministerial post and lived with Xi Shi on a fishing boat, roaming like fairies in the misty wilderness of

Taihu Lake Taihu (), also known as Lake Tai or Lake Taihu, is a lake in the Yangtze Delta and one of the largest freshwater lakes in China. The lake is in Jiangsu province and a significant part of its southern shore forms its border with Zhejiang. With ...

, and no one saw them ever again. This is according to Yuan Kang's ''Yue Jueshu'' (越绝书). Another version, according to Mozi, is that Xi Shi later died from drowning in the river.

Influence

The Xi Shi Temple, which lies at the foot of the Zhu Luo Hill (苎萝) in the southern part of Xiaoshan, on the banks of the Huansha River. The West Lake in

Hangzhou Hangzhou ( or , ; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ), also romanized as Hangchow, is the capital and most populous city of Zhejiang, China. It is located in the northwestern part of the province, sitting at the head of Hangzhou Bay, whic ...

is said to be the incarnation of Xi Shi, hence it is also called Xizi Lake, Xizi being another name for Xi Shi, meaning Lady Xi. In his famous work of

Song poetry Song poetry refers to Classical Chinese poetry of or typical of the Song dynasty of China (960–1279). The dynasty was established by the Zhao family in China in 960 and lasted until 1279. Many of the best known Classical Chinese poems, popul ...

, ''Drinks at West Lake through Sunshine and Rain'' (飲湖上初睛居雨), renowned scholar

Su Shi Su Shi (; 8 January 1037 – 24 August 1101), courtesy name Zizhan (), art name Dongpo (), was a Chinese calligrapher, essayist, gastronomer, pharmacologist, poet, politician, and travel writer during the Song dynasty. A major personality of ...

compared Xi Shi's beauty to the West Lake.

Li Bai Li Bai (, 701–762), also pronounced as Li Bo, courtesy name Taibai (), was a Chinese poet, acclaimed from his own time to the present as a brilliant and romantic figure who took traditional poetic forms to new heights. He and his friend Du F ...

of the

Tang dynasty The Tang dynasty (, ; zh, t= ), or Tang Empire, was an imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 618 to 907 AD, with an interregnum between 690 and 705. It was preceded by the Sui dynasty and followed by the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdom ...

wrote a poem about Xi Shi. Xi Shi is mentioned in the novel ''

Journey to the West ''Journey to the West'' () is a Chinese novel published in the 16th century during the Ming dynasty and attributed to Wu Cheng'en. It is regarded as one of the greatest Classic Chinese Novels, and has been described as arguably the most popul ...

'', as a sign of grace and beauty. Xi Shi is mentioned in the novel ''

Dream of the Red Chamber ''Dream of the Red Chamber'' (''Honglou Meng'') or ''The Story of the Stone'' (''Shitou Ji'') is a novel composed by Cao Xueqin in the middle of the 18th century. One of the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese literature, it is known fo ...

'', the heroine

Lin Daiyu Lin Daiyu (also spelled Lin Tai-yu, zh, s=林黛玉, p=Lín Dàiyù, rendered Black Jade in Chi-chen Wang's translation) is one of the principal characters of Cao Xueqin's classic 18th-century Chinese novel ''Dream of the Red Chamber''. She is ...

is described as having a sickly appearance like Xi Shi, and has more beauty than her. Both Lin and Xi Shi give readers the image of a beautiful, sickly- looking lady. Xi Shi appears in the wuxia short story by Jin Yong (Louis Cha), " Sword of the Yue Maiden". Her name also inspired the modern name of the

Shih Tzu The Shih Tzu (, ; literally " Hsi Shih dog") is a toy dog breed originating from Tibet and was bred from the Pekingese and the Lhasa Apso. Shih Tzus are known for their short snouts and large round eyes, as well as their long coat, floppy ea ...

, whose Chinese name translates to "Xi Shi dog", but whose English name has been claimed to come from the word for "lion". The moniker "lion dog" in Chinese is actually reserved for the

Pekingese The Pekingese (also spelled Pekinese) is a breed of toy dog, originating in China. The breed was favored by royalty of the Chinese Imperial court as a companion dog, and its name refers to the city of Peking (Beijing) where the Forbidden City i ...

. Xi Shi is referenced in the saying 情人眼里出西施, meaning " beauty is in the eye of the beholder" (literally: "in the eyes of a lover, Xi Shi appears").

References

External links

A Depiction
{{DEFAULTSORT:Xi Shi Zhou dynasty people 5th-century BC Chinese people 5th-century BC Chinese women Ancient Chinese women Wu (state) Yue (state) People from Zhuji Fictional characters from Zhejiang People whose existence is disputed