Madame Huarui

Madame Huarui

An illustration from a Chinese book named as 《百美新詠圖傳
Chinese 夫人
Literal meaning Lady Flower Bud

Consort Xu (徐惠妃) (c. 940 – 976) was a concubine of Later Shu's emperor Meng Chang during imperial China's Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period. More commonly known as Madame Huarui (花蕊夫人), she was also a notable poet.

When Emperor Taizu of Song defeated Meng Cheng, Madame Huarui was captured. Emperor Taizu had heard of her fame as a poet and asked her to compose a poem for him. Madame Huarui immediately sang (as translated by Anthony C. Yu):[1][2]

君王城上竪降旗 The king on the rampart flies the white flag.
妾在深宮那得知 Deep within the palace how could I know?
十四萬人齊解甲 One hundred forty thousand all disarmed!
更無一箇是男兒 Among these was there not a single man?

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