Wang Zhaojun

Also known as Wang Qiang · Ming Fei

Wang Zhaojun, personal name Qiang, came from Nan commandery and entered the harem of Emperor Yuan of Han as a girl of good family. When the Xiongnu chanyu Huhanye came to court in 33 BC and asked to become a Han son-in-law, the emperor gave her to him; she was styled Ninghu Yanzhi and bore a son, Yitu Zhiyashi. The History of the Later Han says she had waited years without being summoned and volunteered to go, and that the emperor, seeing her at the farewell, wished to keep her but would not break his word. After Huhanye died she asked to return, but Emperor Cheng ordered her to follow Xiongnu custom, and she married his successor, bearing two daughters. The tale of the painter Mao Yanshou spoiling her portrait comes from the Miscellanies of the Western Capital, not the histories. The Jin renamed her Mingjun to avoid Sima Zhao's name, and Du Fu wrote of the village where she grew up.