Romance of Sui and Tang: Sui Dynasty Princesses
Colored in the paintchainer website.
Historically, Emperor Wen of Sui and Empress Dugu are known to have five daughters. Four of them have been named and are also pictured here. The two remaining figures are apocryphal. There are no contemporary portraits of any of the women from the Sui Dynasty, so I made up my own designs, based somewhat off of the terracotta figures and murals of the period.
From left to right, they are: Yang Li-Hua the Princess Leping (historical), Princess Guangping (historical), Princess Xiangguo (historical), Princess Miaoyang (legend), Yang A-Wu the Princess Lanling (historical), and Princess Qionghua (legend).
Yang Li-Hua: Appears in Book of Sui, Northern Histories, and Book of Zhou. The eldest daughter of Emperor Wen, she was married at a young age to the second-to-last emperor of the Northern Zhou Dynasty. Her husband was one of the worst tyrants of his generation, but Li-Hua herself was a kind, gentle, graceful woman. Their marital spats grew to the point that he tried to kill her. Fortunately, he died after only ruling for a year. The Sui Emperor Yang Jian became regent because he was the father of the now Empress Dowager, and he soon seized the throne, established the Sui Dynasty, and put most of the royal family of the Northern Zhou to the sword. Li-Hua spent the rest of her life mourning the loss of her husband, her son, and her kingdom, but unable to hate her birth family. Instead, she led a quiet and lonely life as a widow, devoting her energies to raising her remaining daughter and grandchildren. Because she was a widow and a remnant of a vanquished dynasty, I drew her dressed in austere colors, her clothes in the fashion of the Northern Zhou, wistfully observing her sisters’ antics.
Princess Guangping: Appears by name in an appendix to the Biography of Yuwen Qing, found in both Book of Sui and Northern Histories. She married Yuwen Qing’s son Yuwen Jing-Li, but her husband died young. Her youngest son Yuwen Xiao was raised in the imperial palace by her brother Emperor Yang of Sui. When he reached adulthood, he was kept on as a court favorite, and if I might guess, some sort of male lover. He used his position to behave inappropriately with the palace maids, and even made flirtations toward Emperor Yang’s princesses. Yet Emperor Yang never punished him for his behavior. Since Yuwen Xiao was so irresistible, his mother must have also been a charming, vivacious person. She’s dressed in bright colors and has a confident smile. Her hairstyle comes from a Taoist stele from the end of the Northern Zhou period and is adorned with two jade double prong clips and comb. She wears a golden hinged jade bracelet and carries a metal perfume censer.
Princess Xiangguo: Appears by name in the Book of Sui in an appendix to the Biography of Li Yan. She married Li Zhangya, grandson of the Grand Marshal Pillar of the Nation Li Bi, nephew of the aforementioned Li Yan. He was commissioned as the Military Governor of Qinzhou, an area directly to the west of the Capital, facing the area of Tibet and Middle East and all the myriad kingdoms in the region. It was a crucial area that had to be guarded carefully, so Li Zhangya and the Princess must have have had a certain position of trust within the imperial court. The only other mention of her is in her sister A-wu’s biography, noting that she, along with the two other middle sisters, behaved arrogantly due to their high positions. She was a devout Buddhist, and one of her hand-copied sutra scrolls survive into the modern day. Thus, I’ve portrayed her as serene and literate. To reflect her husband’s position, her jewelry has more steppe nomad influences. She has a golden bull’s head ring and bracelet of jingle bells around her wrist, along with typical Chinese style bangle and a pair of golden “tiaotuo”/”chuan”, spring-clasped helical bangles copied from ancient India. Her golden chain necklace decorated with ornaments in the shape of weapons (billhook, halberd, axe) is an steppe nomad style that remained popular into the Tang Dynasty. Her fur headband is called “mo-e” or “wa-e”, both meaning “forehead covering”. At first, the forehead covering as a primitive and practical accessory used by northern nomads to keep their heads warm. Usually it was a band of cloth or fur, which could be decorated with brocade, or with gold ornaments sewn on. Toward the Ming dynasty, it became a pure fashion statement, consisting of a chain of jewels tied around the head. Finally, in her hair, Princess Xiangguo has two golden clips and a “buyao”, a hairpin shaped like a tree branch, covered in delicate golden ornaments that moved and rustled with the wearer’s every step.
Princess Miaoyang: She appears in legends surrounding Mount Cangyan. Since she was born, she was afflicted with runny bowels and a skin condition, an unhealthy, not to mention unattractive combination that put a hamper on her marriage prospects. At their wits’ end, her parents heard of a miraculous healing spring deep in the heart of Mount Cangyan, and sent Miaoyang over in hopes of finally finding a cure. Miaoyang was indeed healed after her bath in the mountain spring, but was so impressed with the miracle that she had a religious epiphany and decided to become a nun. Her parents were pious Buddhists, so they built her a temple right next to the spring and gave her custody of both. She then adopted a pet monkey, and after many years, they reached nirvana together. I drew her lesions and all, holding a small rosary. The Sui Dynasty’s most distinctive hairdo, the strange flattened cloud shaped bun, might have been an trend that started in Southern China. China was only unified a few years into Emperor Wen’s reign, so the three older princesses dress in Northern Dynasty trends. The younger Miaoyang has the trendiest hairstyle. Her hairpin is a kingfisher feather ornament called “diancui”. It was one of the few luxuries allowed at the notably frugal and modest court of Emperor Wen.
Yang A-Wu: Appears in Book of Sui. Her name means simply “the fifth.” She was the youngest out of the five sisters, and the smartest and most sweet-tempered and modest. She was her brother, the future Emperor Yang’s favorite sister. She first married Wang Fengxiao. After he died, she had a failed engagement to Xiao Yang, before finally marrying a man called Liu Shu. They were a happy couple, and A-Wu fulfilled her wifely duties excellently. She was a loving wife and a filial daughter-in-law. Emperor Wen liked his young son-in-law very much, and elevated him to high positions in his government. Unfortunately, Liu Shu was an arrogant man who let his personal grudges get in the way of his work. He mistreated his subordinates and made enemies out of superiors, including the most powerful man in the government, Yang Su. He was one of Emperor Wen’s confidants during the final days of his life, and had the misfortune to be caught in the Crown Prince’s coup against the Emperor. When Crown Prince ascended as Emperor Yang of Sui, he exiled Liu Shu to Canton. A-wu pleaded to be exiled alongside him, but Emperor Yang refused and forced her to divorce her husband, exclaiming in frustration, “Are there no other men in the world, that you must stay married to him?” The princess refused to even consider another suitor, and soon entered into a deep depression and died. The Emperor refused to mourn and buried her with few honors, but everyone throughout the realm pitied her misfortune. Here, she has not yet reached adulthood, and has long to go before her tragic romance. At the age of 15 (or before marriage for aristocratic women), ancient Chinese women underwent a coming of age called the hairpin ceremony. Before that, they were not supposed to wear hairpins or clips, and wore their hair in simple, symmetrical styles such as the bun and hoop combo shown here.
Princess Qionghua: She appears in legend as a heavily warped version of Princess Lanling. Due to Emperor Yang’s prior affection for A-Wu and his final mistreatment of her, rumors started that he actually harbored an incestuous infatuation for her. From there, the stories mutated into the story of a fictional youngest princess, Princess Qionghua. Like her namesake, the Chinese snowball flower, she was delicate and short-lived. On the cusp of maturity, she was strolling in the gardens one day when her brother saw her and was so infatuated that he made advances on her. She was so humiliated that she killed herself. Like Princess Lanling, she is shown as a happy, innocent child.
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