Madam Li, Imperial Concubine

By Ban Gu (32-92AD)

Madam Li, a concubine of Emperor Wu the Filial, originally entered service in the palace as an entertainer. Her elder brother Li Yanian who had an innate understanding of music, was skilled at singing dancing and Emperor Wu took a great liking to him. Whenever he presented some new song or musical composition, there were none among his listeners who were not moved to admiration. Once he was attending the emperor, he rose from his place to dance and sing this song:

Beautiful lady in a northern land,

standing alone, none in the world like her,

a single glance and she upsets a city,

a second glance, she upsets the state!

Not that I don't know she upsets states and cities,

but one so lovely you'll never find again!

The emperor sighed and said, "Splendid! ‑-- but I doubt there's anyone that beautiful in the world." The emperor's elder sister Princess Pin Yang then informed him that Li Yannian had a little sister, and he forthwith had her summoned and brought before him. She was in fact strikingly beautiful and skilled at dancing as well, and because of this she won his favor.

She bore him a son, known posthumously as King Ai of Changyi, but died shortly afterwards at a very young age. The emperor, filled with grief and longing, had a portrait of her painted at the Palace of Sweet Springs. Later, Empress Wei was reproved from the position of empress, and years afterward, when Emperor Wu passed away, the general in chief He Guang, following what he knew to have been the emperor's wishes, had sacrifices performed to Madam Li in the emperor's mortuary temple as though she had been his official consort, posthumously honoring her the title Empress of Emperor Wu the Filial.

Earlier, when Madam Li lay critically ill, the emperor came in person to inquire how she was, but she pulled the covers over her face and, apologizing, said, "I have been sick in bed for a long time and my face is thin and wasted. I cannot let Your Majesty see me, though I hope you will be good enough to look after my son the king and my brothers. "

"I know you've been very sick, and the time may come when you never rise again," said the emperor. "Wouldn't you feel better if you saw me once more and asked me face to face to take care of the king and your brothers?"

"A woman should not appear before her lord or her father when her face is not properly made up," she said. "I would not dare let Your Majesty see me in this state of disarray.

“Just let me have one glimpse of you!” said the emperor. “I’ll reward you with a thousand pieces of gold and assign your brothers to high Office!”

But Madam Li replied, “It is up to Your Majesty to assign offices as you please ‑-- it does not depend on one glimpse of me."

When the emperor continued to insist on one last look at her, Madam Li, sobbing, turned her face toward the wall and would not speak again. The emperor rose from his seat in displeasure and left.

Madam Li's sisters berated her, saying, “Why couldn't you let him have one look at you and entreat him face to face to take care of your brothers! Why should you anger him like this!”

“The reason I didn't want the emperor to see me,” she said, “was so I could make certain he would look after my brothers! It was because he liked my looks that I was able to rise from a lowly position and enjoy the love and favor of the ruler. But if one has been taken into service because of one’s beauty, then when beauty fades, love will wane, and when love wanes, kindness will be forgotten. The emperor thinks fondly and tenderly of me because he remembers the way I used to look. Now if he were to see me thin and wasted, with all the old beauty gone from my face, he would be filled with loathing and disgust and would do his best to put me out of his mind. Then what hope would there be that he would ever think kindly of me again and remember to take pity on my brothers?”

When Madam Li died, the emperor had her buried with the honors appropriate to an empress. After that, he enfeoffed her eldest brother, Li Guangli, the Sutrishna general, as marquis of Haixi, and appointed her brother Li Yannian as a chief commandant with the title Harmonizer the Tones.

The emperor continued to think longingly of Madam Li and could not forget her. A magician from Qi named Shaoweng, announcing that he had the power to summon spirits, one night lit torches, placed curtains around them, and laid out offerings of wine and meat. He then had the emperor take his place behind another curtain and observe proceedings from a distance. The emperor could see a beautiful lady who resembled Madam Li circling within the curtains, sitting down then rising to walk again. But he could not move closer to get a good look and, stirred more than ever to thoughts of sadness, he composed this poem:

Is it she?

is it not?

I stand gazing from afar:

timid steps, soft and slow,

how long she is in coming!

He then ordered the experts of the Music Bureau to devise a string accompaniment and make it into a song.

He also composed a work in fu or rhapsody form to express his grief the loss of Madam Li....

Later, Li Yannian and his younger brother Li Ji were tried on charges of immoral behavior with the women of the palace, and Li Guangli, eldest brother, surrendered to the Xiongnu. As a result, all the members of the Li family were put to death.

(from chapter 97, "Accounts of Families Related to the Emperors by Marriage”