Royals › Empress / Consort
Lady Tushan
Daughter of the Tushan clan, wife of Yu the Great and mother of Qi of Xia, traditionally credited with the Song of Waiting for Him
In a spring palace garden, a pavilion with round windows stands over a pond of goldfish; a peony-painted round fan, a zither and a lacquer box of pearl hairpins lie in the foreground, and one small figure in a long-sleeved gown stands at the far end of a covered walkway.
Also known as Daughter of Tushan · Nüjiao · Tushan Nü
- Roles
- Empress / Consort
Daughter of the Tushan clan, named Nüjiao, wife of Yu the Great and mother of Qi of Xia. Tradition holds that while Yu passed his own gate three times without entering during the flood work, she had her attendant wait for him on the south slope of Mount Tu and sang 'Waiting for him, oh!'; the Lüshi Chunqiu (Yin Chu) names this the origin of the southern musical style. She appears in the Shangshu (Yi Ji) and the Shiji (Annals of Xia) and belongs to the legendary era.
Life and times
Dates c. 2150 BCE–2050 BCE (legendary era)