The Most BEAUTIFUL Women in Chinese History: Part 1 Xi Shi

Hey guys, it's Mike Chen. You know, China is full of beautiful women. I mean, even right now, if you go to China, you're going to find a lot of beautiful women. But just imagine how many beautiful Chinese women there were throughout 5,000 years of Chinese history. It's like 5, 600. I mean, there's just too many. And there were four women, yes, only four, who were said to be the most beautiful, and I mean the most beautiful in Chinese history. That's like someone nowadays winning Miss America, Miss USA, Miss Universe, basically every single beauty pageant in the world and doing it for like 1,000 years in a row. Now, I know I've talked about them before, the four most beautiful women in Chinese history. They are, of course, Xi Shi, Wang Zhaojun, Diao Chan, and Yang Guifei. But in previous videos, we kind of just rushed through them, giving a little bit of details. So let's start off with the first of the four most beautiful women in Chinese history, Xi Shi. Xi Shi, who was thought to be the most beautiful of the four beauties of Chinese history, was born in 506 BC in China's Zhejiang province in a small village called Xicun or West Village. Because a lot of people in the village had the last name Shi, and because she was born in the West Village, people all referred to her as Xi Shi. Xi Shi was born in a pretty ordinary household. Her father sold firewood for a living, and her mother did silk work. Ever since she was little, Xi Shi would often go with her mother to the riverbank to wash the silk. And it was said that Xi Shi was so beautiful that when the fish in the river would see her that they would forget how to swim and sink to the bottom of the water, which brought about a popular saying, Xi Shi Chen Yu, meaning that Xi Shi was so beautiful that fish would, like I said, forget how to swim and sink away from the surface when she walks by. Another legend that spoke of her beauty said that even when Xi Shi frowned and slouched, she looked so beautiful that local girls would try to imitate her frowning face and slouchy posture. Of course, it probably didn't look so good on them. Even though Xi Shi was born into an ordinary household, her life was anything but. She lived during the spring and autumn period. Basically, back then, China wasn't one country, but made up of several states like many kingdoms, and those states were constantly fighting with each other. Xi Shi was from the state of Yue, which was vanquished by the state of Wu. After the kingdom of Yue was annihilated, the king of Yue, Goujian, was forced to serve the prince of Wu, Fuchai, for three years. According to legend, Goujian and his advisors thought of a way to beat the Wu state because it was widely known that Fuchai, who had then become the king of the Wu state, was a sucker for pretty women. And Goujian knew that if Fuchai was surrounded by beauties, he would be so distracted that he would have no energy to tend to his country. But in order for the plan to succeed, Goujian needed to enlist a loyal woman of stunning beauty who is willing to sacrifice herself for the good of her country. Thus, Xi Shi was chosen. Goujian then ordered his minister, Fan Li, to take Xi Shi to Fuchai as a tribute gift from Yue. But on the way to the Wu state, Xi Shi fell deeply in love with the wise, kind minister, the tall, dark, and handsome Fan Li during the journey. Actually, wait a minute, this is ancient China, so more likely, Fan Li was probably short and pale. Anyway, love is blind. But regardless, they fell deeply in love with each other. Now, of course, they were alone, so they did have the chance to escape. But both Fan Li and Xi Shi were loyal to their country and they were willing to sacrifice themselves and their love for each other for it. But before they parted, they made a secret pledge of undying love. And as expected, when Xi Shi was brought before Fuchai, he was deeply enchanted by her beauty and started to spend more and more time with her and began to neglect his political duties. When he eventually realized that he should not have been so bewitched by Xi Shi, it was too late. By that time, the Yue state had become powerful again. And Gou Jian, leading the Yue army, invaded Wu and forced Fuchai to commit suicide. Thus, Xi Shi's mission was complete. Now, there are two versions of what happened to Xi Shi right after this. One is that she drowned in a river. The other, and the one I, of course, choose to believe, was that she reunited with Fan Li, who quit his position as the minister, so the couple could get away from all the conflict and live the rest of their lives in obscurity, happily ever after. You know, it's kind of interesting. There are a lot of stories in Chinese history where a man and a woman, they want to live a secluded life. So they leave the city and they go somewhere in just the wilderness or climb a mountain or something and they build a hut and they live there for the rest of their lives. Now, my biggest question is, how did they all know how to do that? I mean, their survival skills are like really high. But hopefully you guys enjoyed this story and until next time, I'll see you later.