Zhang Fei and Guan Yu
Qu Yuan
Qu Yuan was a famous patriotic poet during the Warring States Period (476 - 221 BC) and is listed as a world cultural celebrity.
Qu Yuan was born into a noble family in Danyang, Chu States. He was well educated and entered the palace of the Chu Kingdom when he was 18. At the age of 22, he began to participate in the political affairs of the state. He believed that the Chu State should take a leadership role in unifying the country so he developed a policy of uniting the Chu State to resist the Qin State. He also tried to weaken the priorities of the nobles and create a system to appoint people based on merit. The nobles were threatened by this and slandered him and subsequently exiled him from the kingdom.
During his exile he wrote many works including the famous Suffering Throes (Li Sao); Asking the Heaven (Tian Wen) and Addressing the Soul of the Dead (Zhao Hun). In 278 B.C., when Qu Yuan heard that the capital of Chu State had been captured by the Qin army, he drowned himself in the Miluo River. It is said that occurred on May 5 on the Chinese lunar calendar and that is how the Dragon Boat Festival came to be. Local people also built the Quyuan Temple to commemorate him.
Wang Zhaojun
Wang Zhaojun was born in a small village near the Fragrance Stream (present Zhaojun Village of Xingshan County in Yichang) during the Han Dynasty (206 BC - 220 AD). She made great contribution to the communication between Han Dynasty and the Huns and was listed as one of the four Chinese beauties in ancient times.
Zhaojun was the youngest in her family, and even though girls in ancient times were not educated, he parents encouraged her to read write and play the lute. At the age of 16, the beautiful Zhaojun was selected to be one of the emperor's concubines. At that time, the emperor would choose the ones he liked most to be his wives--he would do this by examining portraits of the concubines. Most of the concubines would bribe the painters to enhance their beauty, but not Zhaojun. This painter became angered with her so he painted an ugly face for her portrait. Three years later she had still not been chosen by the emperor. In 33 B.C., the leader of the HUns, Huhan Ye approached the Han Dynasty to form an alliance through marriage. Wang Zhaojun agreed to marry Huhan Ye. When the Han emperor finally saw how beautiful Zhaojun was. He became enormously regretful. After the marriage, the enmity between the Huns and the Han Dynasty ceased for fifty years and the cultural and economic communications between the two nations was also strengthened.
Zhang Fei
Zhang Fei’s home town was in Hebei Province, but he was buried in Yunyang and the local people also built a Zhang Fei Temple to commemorate him.
Zhang Fei was a valiant general of the Shu Kingdom during the Three Kingdoms Period (220 - 280). According to the famous Chinese novel, Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Zhang Fei was a dark, burly, and bearded large man given to boldness and rashness. It is said he was a butcher before he met Liu Bei and Guan Yu. However, in historical records, Zhang Fei was a well-educated rich man in Zhu County, Hebei Province, and was also a famous calligrapher and painter.
Yangtze River and Other Chinese Celebrities
Ouyang Xiu, the famous poet of the Northern Song Dynasty (960 - 1127), had been a local official in Yiling (presently in Yichang, Hubei Province) for eighteen months and wrote over 140 poems and essays.
Lu You was a patriotic poet during the Southern Song Dynasty (1127 - 1279).In the year 1170, he cruised along the Three Gorges areas and wrote the first travel notes there, the Notes of Visiting Sichuan (Ru Shu Ji).
Li Bai, known as the God of Poetry in China was a romantic poet during the Tang Dynasty (618 - 907). One of his famous poems, Leaving White Emperor Town at Dawn, describes the magnificent view in the Three Gorges area:
We set sail at dawn from Baidi Town under a rosy sky,
A thousand-li trip down to Jiangling and back the same day.
The noisy chatter of apes from the shores followed us all the way.
Lightly, our boat skipped past ten thousand green mountains high.
Bai Juyi was one of the famous poets of the Tang Dynasty. On a trip to Xiling Gorge with his brother and another friend, they visited cave near Nanjin Pass and left poems in the cave. The cave has hence named Sanyou Carven (three celebrities visiting the cavern) and became a hot destination.
