[交流] 【Share】Four beauties of Xinjiang's lakes

   
    The four lakes in Xinjiang are compared to the four beauties in ancient China, which present different beauty and charm.

                          Diao Chan --- Tianchi Lake
The scenery of Tianchi Lake is compared to Diao Chan, luxurious and bright.
    Tianchi Lake (Heavenly Lake) is located at the waist of Bogda Peak, which is at the center of Tianshan Mountain. It is about 40 kilometers east of Fukang county and 110 kilometers east of Urumqi. Heavenly Lake gives the impression of dignity, elegance and beauty. The lake is crystal clear as it has heavenly blue water, the mountains surrounding the lake blend with pines and marvelous flowers.
    According to the legend, the Heavenly Empress would hold a gala by this lake whenever a local peach tree bore fruit. As this only happened about once every 3,000 years, the banquets were understandably grand affairs. All the mortals would gather for such a long-awaited occasion, making the lake area into something of a Little Heaven, hence the name, Heavenly Lake.

Diao Chan: She was one of the Four Beauties of ancient China. She was said to have been born in 161 or 169 or 176 AD. However, unlike the other three beauties, she is not mentioned in any historical sources and may possibly be a fictional character.
    Diao Chan appears in the classic novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms in a plot involving the warrior Lǚ Bu and the warlord Dong Zhuo. In the novel, Diao Chan assisted the official Wang Yun in a plot to persuade the warrior Lǚ Bu to kill his adopted father, the tyrannical warlord Dong Zhuo. Wang presented her to Dong Zhuo as a concubine but at the same time, Wang also betrothed her to Lǚ Bu. Diaochan used her beauty to turn Dong Zhuo and Lǚ Bu against each other by inciting jealousy between them.

                              Xi Shi --- Kanas LakeKanas Lake is compared to Xi Shi, finely shaped and graceful.
    Located north of Burqin county in Xinjiang, the Kanas Lake is the deepest freshwater lake in China. In Mongolian, "Kanas" means "beautiful, affluent and mysterious". Encircled by virgin forests, the lake reaches 180 meters in depth at the deepest point. Kanas Lake Natural Reserve, with the lake as its core, takes up an area of 5,588 square kilometers. The Kanas region is home to 798 species of plants and 117 varieties of birds.

Xi Shi: Xi Shi was one of the renowned Four Beauties of ancient China. She was said to have lived during the end of Spring and Autumn Period (770BC–476BC) in Zhuji, the capital of the ancient state of Yue.
    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 gradually sunk away from the surface.
    Gou Jian, king of Yue, was once imprisoned after a defeat in a war by Fu Chai, king of the State of Wu. The state of Yue later became a tribulatory to Wu. Secretly planning his revenge, Gou Jian's minister Wen Zhong suggested training beautiful women and offering them to Fu Chai as a tribute (knowing Fu Chai could not resist beautiful women). His other minister, Fan Li, found Xi Shi and Zheng Dan, and gifted them to Fu Chai in 490 BC.
    Bewitched by the beauty and kindness of Xi Shi and Zheng Dan, Fu Chai forgot all about his state affairs and on their instigation, killed his best advisor, the great general Wu Zixu. Fu Chai even built Guanwa Palace (Palace of Beautiful Women) in an imperial park on the slope of Lingyan Hill, about 15 kilometers west of Suzhou. The strength of Wu dwindled, and in 473 BC Gou Jian launched his strike and put the Wu army to full rout. King Fu Chai lamented that he should have listened to Wu Zixu, and then committed suicide.
    In the legend, after the fall of Wu, Fan Li retired from his minister post and lived with Xi Shi on a fishing boat, roaming like fairies in the misty wilderness of Tai Lake, and no one has seen them ever since. This is according to Yuan Kang's Yue Jueshu. Another version, according to Mozi, is that Xi Shi eventually dies from drowning in the river.

                 Wang Zhaojun --- Sayram Lake
Sayram Lake is compared to Wang Zhaojun, deep and elegant.
    Located in the Bortala prefecture near the Tianshan Mountain in Xinjiang, the Sayram Lake is the largest alpine lake in Xinjiang. It is an ideal habitat for many species of birds including swans and mallards. Surrounded by verdant pastures and snow capped lofty peaks above the timberline, stepped on densely forests, the lake area will definitely consume you rolls of films. The large lake area is also a great place for hiking or riding.

Wang Zhaojun: Wang Qiang, more commonly known by her style name Wang Zhaojun was the consort of the Xiongnu chanyu Huhanye. She is famed as one of the Four Beauties of ancient China.
    Wang Zhaojun was born to a prominent family of Zigui country, Nan county (now Xingshan county, Hubei) in the south of the Western Han empire. She entered the harem of Emperor Yuan probably after 40 BC. During her time in the Lateral Courts, Wang Qiang was never visited by the emperor and remained as a palace lady-in-waiting. When choosing a new wife, the Emperor was first presented with portraits of all the possible women. Wang Zhaojun's portrait was either never viewed by the Emperor, or was not in its true form, and therefore the emperor overlooked her.
    In 33 BC, Huhanye visited Chang'an on a homage trip, as part of the tributary system between the Han and Xiongnu. He took the opportunity to ask to be allowed to become an imperial son-in-law. Instead of honoring the Chanyu with a princess, Huhanye was presented with five women from the imperial harem, one of them was Wang Zhaojun.
    A story from the Hou Han Shu relates that Wang Zhaojun volunteered to join the Chanyu. When summoned to court, her beauty astonished the emperor's courtiers and made the emperor reconsider his decision to send her to the Xiongnu.
Wang Zhaojun became a favorite of the Huhanye Chanyu, giving birth to two sons. Only one of them seemed to have survived, Yituzhiyashi. They also had at least one daughter, Yun, who was created Princess Yimuo and who would later become a powerful figure in Xiongnu politics. When Huhanye died in 31 BC, Wang Zhaojun requested to return to China. Emperor Cheng, however, ordered that she follow Xiongnu levirate custom and become the wife of the next Chanyu, the oldest brother (or her stepson, born by her husband's first wife) of her husband. In her new marriage she had two daughters.

                          Yang Yuhuan --- Bosten Lake
Bosten Lake is compared to Yang Yuhuan (Concubine Yang), dignified and gracious.
    Lake Bosten is a freshwater lake located 57 kilometers northeast of Korla, Xinjiang. Covering an area of about 1,000 square kilometers (together with adjacent small lakes), it is the largest lake in Xinjiang and one of the largest inland freshwater lakes in China.
    A fishery exists on the lake and fish such as bullhead and blunt-snout bream are native to the lake. It is sometimes referred to the 'Oriental Hawaii of Xinjiang' because of its unique lush scenery surrounded by the harsh Gobi Desert.

Yang Yuhuan, an imperial concubine of Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty (618-907), was one of China's four beauties admired by latter people. She was commonly called "Imperial Concubine Yang (Yang Guifei)".
    Yang Yuhuan was born in an old, well-known official family. She was naturally beautiful with a docile character. She was gifted in music, singing, dancing and playing lute. These talents, together with her education, made her stand out among the imperial concubines and win the emperor's favor.
    Emperor Xuanzong, a fan of music, ordered his musicians to play the music Song of Rainbow Skirt & Feathered Dress composed by him to express his cheerful feeling of seeing Imperial Concubine Yang. Latterly, Imperial Concubine Yang was banished twice from the palace, for her envy peeved Emperor Xuanzong. However, Xuanzong, who was so hard to forget her, called her back every time at the end.
    In 755 A.D when the military insurgence "Anshi Insurgence (Anshizhiluan)" was launched by the local forces of the Tang Dynasty, Emperor Tang Xuanzong, together with Imperial Concubine Yang, fled from Chang'an. When they arrived at the Mawei Slope, the army refused to march, for the army thought that the reason of this rebellion by An Lushan was that Imperial Concubine Yang's behavior of attracting emperor ruined the state and that her cousin Yang Guozong colluded with the enemy. To appease the army, Emperor Tang Xuanzong had no choice but to order Yang to commit suicide at the Mawei Slope.
    Today, there is a tomb of Imperial Concubine Yang in Xingping of Shaanxi, in front of which stands her white marble statue.