Xi Shi and Diao Chan are the images of beauties in Chinese literature, and the stories of their beauties have an important place in literati creation and folklore, but they are slightly different.
Xi Shi is the first to have the name of beauty, and her story has gradually formed and developed with the spread of beauty's fame.
Diao Chan has a story first, and its image is constantly evolving and gestalt in the story.
So what are the different stories between the two beauties?
In the history of Chinese literature, the stories of beauty tricks emerge in endlessly, from Meixi, Bao Xi, Xi Shi, Diao Chan, etc., all of which are well-known and famous.
Among the many stories of beauty schemes, the most eye-catching ones are Xi Shi's Wu Yue hegemony and Diao Chan's serial scheme.
They both belong to the four beauties, have the same vivid and wonderful storyline, and their endings are equally confusing.
The formation and development of the story of the beauty of Xi Shi The story of the beauty plan has a long history, and according to the available information, Xi Shi can be said to be the prototype of this kind of story.
The image of Xi Shi's beauty appeared in the works of the pre-Qin princes as early as in the words.
In this narrative, it is only mentioned that Xi Shi has amazing beauty, but there is no mention of her life and her experience.
Mozi, Mencius, and others only briefly mentioned Xi Shi's beauty in their books, and did not record any other aspects of her.
Xi Shi, as the protagonist of Wu Yue's struggle for hegemony and the beauty plan, has never mentioned the name of Xi Shi in the historical records of Wu Yue's struggle for hegemony.
Whether the Xi Shi in the Wuyue hegemony is the Xi Shi mentioned in the works of the pre-Qin Zhuzi has been verified, but since the history books do not contain it, it is very fictitious.
The story of Xi Shi is based on the clues of the former, that is, the latter is built on the basis of the former.
The story of Xi Shi was formed in the Eastern Han Dynasty, and can be found in the history of Zhuye, "Yue Jue Shu" and "Wu Yue Spring and Autumn".
"The Book of Yue Jue" is based on the story of Wu Yue's struggle for hegemony in the "Historical Records", and deduces the story of Xi Shi.
There are two mentions of Xi Shi in the book, one is the beauty palace, and the other is the beauty juice.
These two accounts, although incoherent, can give a glimpse of the story of Xi Shi.
The section of the Beauty Palace says that Xi Shi is from Ramie Mountain, and she is a simple village girl in the mountains.
In order to complete the great cause of recovering the country, Gou Jian took advantage of the weakness of his husband's lust and cultivated Xi Shi into a professional-level beauty to more successfully confuse his husband.
An eagle pavilion was once built outside the capital of the Yue Kingdom for Xi Shi to practice court etiquette songs and dances.
The beauties in the Nine Techniques of Destroying Wu are said to be dedicated to King Wu by the doctor's literature, and King Wu was confused by the beauty and did not listen to Wu Zixu's advice, accepted these two beauties, and planted the bane of the country.
Later, he listened to Bo's slander and killed his loyal minister Wu Zixu.
The king of Yue planned for 18 years, taking advantage of the fact that his husband sent a northern expedition to the Qi country and the Wu country was empty, he destroyed Wu in one fell swoop.
The state of Wu is dead, and the husband is dead. He also ended up dying.
Wu Yue Chunqiu also recorded the implementation of the beauty plan by Goujian, the king of Yue, and this narrative is more detailed than the Yue Jue book, connecting the story of the beauty palace and the beauty plan.
Xi Shi's identity is more specific, she is a salaried girl; The content of the study at the hotel was also concretized, and the study time was as long as three years. And the messenger who sent him Wu became Fan Li.
According to the records of these two books, the story of Xi Shi can already be revealed, and the prototype of Xi Shi's beauty story was born.
The story of Xi Shi Meiren was initially formed in the history of the Eastern Han Dynasty, and gradually gestalt in the operas of the Song, Yuan, and Ming dynasties.
After experiencing the silence of the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, Xi Shi frequently appeared in the pen.
In the late Tang Dynasty literati Xu Yinzhi's "Gou Jian into Xi Shi Fu", he told the story of Xi Shi's beauty scheme.
In Xu's pen, Xi Shi was not praised for helping Gou Jian to restore the country, but was designated as a bewitching queen with Daji and Li Ji.
"The Story of Huansha" starts from the acquaintance of Xi Shi Fan Li and ends with Xi Shi Fan Li boating on the five lakes.
It runs through the process of Wu Yue's struggle for hegemony, and the role of Xi Shi in it.
It changed the tone of the previous opera condemnation and gave Xi Shi a happy ending of retreat.
The formation and development of the story of Diao Chan's beauty plan, and the most famous story of the beauty plan after Xi Shi is Diao Chan's separation between Dong Zhuo and Lu Bu.
The name of Diao Chan is not contained in the history books. In the Book of the Later Han Dynasty, the record of Dong Zhuo in the Chronicles of the Three Kingdoms does not mention Diao Chan.
When mentioning the contradiction between Dong and Lu, Yu Yue of the Qing Dynasty believed that the so-called Diao Chan was attached to it because of his servants.
Judging from the available information, Diao Chan is a beauty constructed by literature. Returning to Diao Chan's Zhu Dong, there is a story first, and then Diao Chan joins.
Wang Yun and Lü Bu conspired to punish Dong Zhuo, which is scattered in the biography of Dong Zhuo and Lü Bu in the Book >of the Later Han Dynasty and the Three Kingdoms.
After Diao Chan entered the story, it became the key to killing Dong Zhuo.
In the Song Dynasty opera, there are two remnants of the song "Diao Chan Girl", which is the earliest song in the existing Diao Chan opera.
These two songs are sung by Diao Chan, which is a sad spring.
The complete opera of the existing story of Diao Chan's beauty plan includes the miscellaneous drama of Yuanren's anonymous "Jinyuntang Beauty Serial Scheme> and Wang Ji's "Serial Story> legend of the Ming Dynasty.
In these two texts, the story of the serial plan is slightly different.
The first is Diao Chan's identity: in the anonymous serial scheme, Diao Chan was originally Lu Bu's wife, who was separated in the Yellow Turban Uprising and lived in Situ Wang Yun's mansion.
Under Wang Yun's persuasion, Diao Chan agreed to persuade Lu Bu to eliminate harm for the country. In the legend of Wang Ji's serial series, Diao Chan's identity has changed to the maid raised by Wang Yun since childhood.
Out of patriotic enthusiasm, she voluntarily sacrificed herself to separate Lu Bu and Dong Zhuo in order to achieve her plan to kill Dong Zhuo.
Diao Chan's identity continues to evolve in the opera, from Wang Yunyi's daughter to Wang Yun's maidservant, from Lu Bu's original partner to an unmarried woman, and her personality has changed from ignorant to intelligent and clever.
Its story has also evolved from simple to complex, and has been continuously concretized.
Regardless of Diao Chan's identity and personality, in many texts, her ending is ethereal, and in novels and operas, she is not provided with a good home, and she always disappears after completing her tasks.
It was as if she had come from nothingness and returned to nothingness. This may be the best ending for her, and if it weren't, she would have died.
Comparison of the stories of Xi Shi and Diao Chan beauties In literature, Xi Shi and Diao Chan belong to the four beauties, who also participated in a vigorous historical event and played an important role.
The two are both four beauties, and they are both the protagonists of beauty schemes. The beauty trick is actually the subversion of a strong man by a weak man using a woman.
This is a demand for women who take advantage of men's sexuality, and women are objectified and instrumentalized. A woman has only a use value in the whole process, and after the task is completed, her value disappears.
At this time, her best ending is to disappear invisibly. The ending of Xi Shi forms two poles: one is to sink into the water and die; The second is to return to seclusion with Fan Li.
From the perspective of etiquette and religion, Xi Shi is probably the former ending.
Yue Guo does not have a place for her, and it is impossible for Gou Jian to reward her as a meritorious hero, or even give her a chance to appear in public.
If Xi Shi returns to her hometown in Yueguo, others will still look down on her, a woman who has no dignity and relies on beauty to confuse men, even if it is for the country, will she have face? For Shih Tzu personally, she has lost her footing.
She sank into the water and died, which can still make people nostalgic, for herself, it is a good way to die for the country and leave a good name for herself.
Returning to seclusion with Fan Li is the common ideal of the folk and upper-class literati.
Liang Chenyu's "The Story of Huansha", which can be loved by people, has been passed down to this day, and has been performed forever, is a good example.
However, this is only an ideal after all, and it is difficult to realize it in the face of cruel reality.
There are two main endings of Diao Chan: one is to disappear invisibly; The second is to die under Guan Yu's knife. Diao Chan's ending is often unending in the novel.
After Diao Chan assisted in completing the great cause of punishing Dong Zhuo and Zheng Chaogang, he disappeared from the story.
The ending of Diao Chan in the folk tale is very unexpectedly associated with Guan Yu, about the legend of the sable cicada under the feather moon, and later entered the field of vision of the literati, so it is about the play of the public sable cicada.
The ending of Diao Chan is regrettable.
Xi Shi's experience has always been sympathetic to people, and its outcome has always been concerned.
The literati of the Ming Dynasty even debated the fate of Xi Shi. The love story of Xi Shi and Fan Li is also widely circulated in folk literature.
There are many ruins about Xi Shi in the folk, such as the Huansha Stone in Zhuji, the Guanwa Palace, Xi Shi Mountain, Xi Shi Cave, and Xiang Shi Corridor in Suzhou.
In the geographical chronicles of the past dynasties, there are also many records about the Xishi site, such as Lu Guangwei's "Wu Di Ji" in the Tang Dynasty, "Taiping Huanyu Ji" in the Song Dynasty, Fan Chengda's "Wu County Chronicles" in the Song Dynasty, and Zhang Yang's "Ramie Chronicles" in the Ming Dynasty.
It can be seen that after the Tang Dynasty, Xi Shi has become a real and undoubted historical figure, and his story is undoubtedly true.
But it doesn't matter anymore, because people have recognized Shih Tzu as a part of their cultural life.
In contrast, there are almost no poems singing about Diao Chan, and her ending is almost blank.
After she completed the great cause of killing Dong Zhuo, she generally disappeared without a trace.
Compared with Xi Shi, Diao Chan's experience is not as long and bumpy as Xi Shi.
No matter how different the stories in the literary texts are, the origins of Xi Shi are roughly the same.
Xi Shi is from the people, is a poor woman who lives on a salary at the foot of the ramie mountain, and has the characteristics of simplicity in the mountains.
She has not been polluted by the world, and is an innocent and pure girl.
Originally, she had no intention of asking about politics, but it was the national crisis that pushed the responsibility of saving the country onto her, and she had to come to the fore from the historical background and act as a political tool for Gou Jian's restoration of the country.
Eighteen years later, the restoration of the country was successful, but this patriotic hero was treated extremely unfairly, how can this not make people angry and sentimental!
In Xi Shi, it not only reflects the miserable life of ordinary people, but also reflects the widespread cold treatment of heroes, as well as a patriotic feeling.
There are many theories about Diao Chan's origin, one is the daughter of Ren Ang, who was elected to the palace by Emperor Ling of Han and is in charge of Diao Chan's crown; The other is an orphan, who was adopted by Situ Wangyun, or a maidservant, or a righteous daughter.
Although these statements are different, in essence, Diao Chan was born in an official eunuch. In this respect, she has more worldly things than Shih Tzu.
The implementation process of Diao Chan's beauty story is also much simpler than Xi Shi's, just a simple love triangle.
In Yuanren's "Serial Scheme", she was woken up by Wang Yun and then implemented the plan. In Wang Ji's "Serial Story" in the Ming Dynasty, she has been portrayed as a wise and resourceful heroine, who is comfortable between Lu Bu and Dong Zhuo, playing with the two in the palm of her hand.
The story of Xi Shi and Diao Chan's beauty plan can be said to originate from Zhou's prototype.
In a patriarchal society, women are oppressed and vulnerable. Femininity and beauty are the characteristics of women.
Therefore, people are happy to accept Xi Shi, who is known as a sick beauty, but it is difficult to sympathize with the clever and intelligent, intelligent and decisive Diao Chan.
Relatively speaking, Diao Chan is strong, her strength is no less than that of men, Mao Zonggang is appreciative of this, saying that she does not let women shave their eyebrows.
But this is a minority, after all. In the eyes of most people, such a woman is too powerful and can't help but be scared.
Her image does not meet the traditional Chinese requirements for women.
The model set for women in "The Biography of the Daughters" is virtuous, benevolent, chaste, and righteousness, etc., and Diao Chan is an outlier, so it is not accepted by traditional culture.