Li Shunxian

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Li Shunxian 李舜弦 (c. 900 – 926, Sichuan) was an Iranian-born Chinese poet celebrated for her beauty and poetic talent.[1] She was a concubine of Wang Yan (Wang Zongyan), the Chinese Emperor of Former Shu. She was famous for being a non-Chinese woman who was an accomplished poet in the Chinese language.[2][3][4]

Her Persian family had adopted the Chinese surname Li. After they fled the Huang Chao rebellion into interior China (Sichuan), they rose to prominence in the Chinese court of the Later Shu Kingdom.

It is unknown whether she had a Persian name or whether she spoke Persian. It is also unknown whether her parents were immigrants to China or were born in China.

It is believed that Shunxian's family was Zoroastrian because of one line in Shunxian's poem mentioning a "golden bullet for a catapult" which Veshparkar, an Iranian god was known to deploy. However, other scholars such as Chen Mingyuan reason that they were more likely Nestorian Christians because in China the Nestorians were known for their medicine, as Shunxian's brother Li Xu 李珣 was known to have written on. A third possibility is that following the Islamization of Persia, Shunxian's family was Muslim. Nonetheless there is no direct evidence for any of these.

Life[]

Following the Huang Chao rebellion, Shunxian's family fled to Sichuan in the year 880. This migration was also along with many other Chinese including Emperor Xizong. She had an older brother Li Xun, who was also a poet and pharmacist at the court and wrote a Chinese book on drugs.[5] They were born in Zi prefecture, Sichuan.[6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17] The family's Persian ethnicity is mentioned in historical texts.[18][19][20]

As a concubine in the imperial court, Shunxian held the rank as Madame (夫人) which was just below the title of Empress (consort).[21] Their husband Wang Yan was born in 899, became emperor in 919 at 20 years old, and reigned until 924. He was known for his indulgence in women and wine. It is speculated that Shunxian was around the same age as Wang. It was here in the harem that she began writing her renown poetry.

The Ten-Thousand Quatrains of the Tang collected by Hongmai (洪邁) contains three poems by Shunxian. In medieval China, she is the only non-Chinese woman who composed literature in Chinese.[22] Both she and her brother were known for their poetry, and Shunxian's poems are still preserved and read today.[23][24][25][26][27]

In 926, Shunxian, Wang Yan, and his other concubines were all brutally massacred by Emperor Li Zhuangzong of Later Tang.

In the same Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period another Persian woman called Mei Zhu was a concubine of another young Chinese Emperor called Liu Chang. He engaged in aphrodisiac fueled sex games with her.[28][29] During the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period (Wudai, 907–960), there are numerous other examples of Chinese emperors marrying Persian women. Chen Yuan writes: "In the times of Wudai (907–960) the emperors preferred to marry Persian women, and the Song dynasty official families liked to marry women from Dashi [Arabia]."[30]

See also[]

References[]

  1. ^ Needham, Joseph (1986). Science and Civilisation in China: Volume 6, Biology and Biological Technology, Part 1, Botany. Vol. 6 of Biology & Biological Technolog (reprint ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 276. ISBN 0521087317.
  2. ^ University of Hawaii at Manoa. Center for Chinese Studies (2007). China Review International, Volume 14. University of Hawaiʻi, Center for Chinese Studies and University of Hawaii Press. p. 219. While in the first years of the Former Shu many of the literati in Chengdu were aristocratic Émigrés who had fled from the upheavals in the Yellow River Valley (such as Wei Zhuang ## (836–910]), within a decade or two (if we can judge from the poets of the Huajian ji) there were both commoners (such as Yan Xuan soliń) and foreigners (such as Li Xun ##!, a poet from a Persian family that had moved to Shu before the fall of the Tang; Li's sister was one of Wang Yan's consorts and a ...
  3. ^ Larsen, Jeanne, ed. (2005). Willow, wine, mirror, moon: women's poems from Tang China. Lannan translations selection series. BOA Editions. p. 137. ISBN 1929918747. Wang's capital was a haven for literati and artists in that difficult era. When his son Yan ascended to the throne, both women were promoted to ranks suiting the mothers of princes and wielded considerable power. They — and Wang Yan — were killed after Shu's conquest by a short-lived dynasty called the Later Tang. Li Xunxian (d. 926?), daughter of a Persian immigrant, had a reputation as a poet. She became a consort of Wang Yan, dissolute monarch of the state known as ...
  4. ^ National Translation Center (USA) (1995). Delos. p. 91. He joined the Li Bamboo-Hat Poetry Society in 1970, and later served as the editor of the magazine. Since the eighties, his creative works and critical essays show strong social, political, and cultural concerns. Li Xunxian (d. 926?), was the daughter of a Persian immigrant to the Sichuan basin in the Tang empire's southwest. Her elder brother, Li Xun, was also reputedly a fine poet. Li became a consort of Wang Yan, dissolute monarch of the short-lived "Former Shu" dynasty.
  5. ^ [[At times like these I only fear lest your passion has worn thin.6 Though the court poets in Chengdu wrote primarily of the pleasures of the flesh, the reputation given them by later historians, claiming that they indulged only in pleasure and debauchery, is perhaps not completely warranted. Several members of the Shu court compiled impressive works of serious scholarship, especially in the field of pharmacology. Li Xun, a poet and scholar of Persian ancestry who served in Wang Yan's ...|Faurot, Jeannette L.]] (1992). Ancient Chengdu. Chinese Materials Center Publications. p. 101. ISBN 0896446794.
  6. ^ 蜀中广记 (四库全书本). Vol. 卷004.
  7. ^ 蜀中廣記 (四庫全書本). Vol. 全覽1. 宗壽酒也成都文類雲李珣梓州人其妹為蜀王衍昭儀有詞藻即所稱李舜絃夫人矣洪邁絶句載舜