Performers › Stage Performers
Chen Yuanyuan
A celebrated late-Ming stage performer of the Suzhou area, later counted among the Qinhuai Eight Beauties, whose image was repeatedly rewritten in later memories of the 1644 crisis and Yuanyuan Qu.
Mural of the event “The Beauty that Shook the Dynasties”, which this person took part in.
Around 1641, Chen Yuanyuan became celebrated in Jiangnan for her Kunqu artistry and was counted among the Qinhuai Eight Beauties; she was later taken to Beijing by Tian Hongyu, entering the later memory of the 1644 dynastic crisis.
Also known as Xing Wanfen · Chen Yuan
Chen Yuanyuan (also known as Chen Yuan and Xing Wanfen) was a celebrated stage performer of the Suzhou area in the late Ming; Mao Xiang's memoir Yingmei'an yiyu records hearing her sing, and she was later counted among the Qinhuai Eight Beauties. Accounts of her relationship with Wu Sangui and her seizure after Beijing fell in 1644, together with the ‘fury for a beauty’ formula, are late narratives with disputed evidentiary weight; Wu Weiye's 1651 Yuanyuan Qu decisively shaped her literary afterlife.
Life and times
Dates 1623 CE–1695 CE
- 1641The Beauty that Shook the DynastiesTook partage 18
- 1641Chen Yuanyuan Acclaimed for Kunqu Artistryage 18
- 1644Wu Sangui Opens Shanhai Pass Gateage 21
- 1651Wu Weiye Composes Yuanyuan Quage 28