Performers › Stage Performers
Li Xiangjun
Nanjing courtesan who, according to Hou Fangyu, warned him against Ruan Dacheng and turned away a rich suitor, and who became the heroine of The Peach Blossom Fan
Backstage of a theatre troupe, an open trunk spills embroidered red and blue robes, one worked with a phoenix, beneath a jewelled headdress with long plumes; a mirror stand, a stool and a row of painted drums stand beside it, with a red curtain hanging at the right.
Also known as Li Xiang · Xiang Jun
Li Xiangjun, whose name was Li Xiang, was the adopted daughter of the Nanjing courtesan Li Zhenli of the Qinhuai quarter, and most of what is known of her comes from Hou Fangyu's Biography of Li Ji. According to Hou, she could read a little, learned at thirteen to sing Tang Xianzu's four Yumingtang plays from Zhou Rusong of Wu, and was especially skilled in songs sung to the pipa, though she did not perform them lightly. She met Hou in Nanjing in 1639, and when Ruan Dacheng tried to win Hou over through a friend, she warned him not to betray Chen Zhenhui and Wu Yingji for Ruan's sake, and he broke off contact. When Hou left after failing the examination she gave him a farewell feast at Taoye ferry, urging him to remember how the scholar Cai Yong had disgraced himself by serving Dong Zhuo. Afterwards the former governor Tian Yang offered three hundred taels to see her, and she refused. Kong Shangren built his play The Peach Blossom Fan around her and Hou, inventing episodes such as the fan spattered with her blood.
Life and times
Dates c. 1624 CE–c. 1653 CE