Huai Ying

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Huai Ying ( Chinese  懷嬴 , Pinyin Huai Ying ) was a Chinese prince-consort in the Spring and Autumn period in the 7th century BC. Chr.

Life

Ying was the daughter of the powerful Gong Mu of Qin , the ruler of Qin . In order to bind the state of Jin more closely to itself, she was married in 643 to the (presumably only about ten-year-old) Crown Prince Yu from Jin, who was held hostage at her father's court.

When Hui of Jin , the gong of Jin, was dying, the Crown Prince fled in 637 BC. Chr. Unauthorized from his hostage to the home state to take the throne. Before Ying escaped, the question arose whether she should betray her father and accompany her husband; or whether she would have to betray her duty as a wife and stay at her home court. In the end, she decided on a compromise and stayed behind, but by her silence hid her husband's escape.

Angry about Yu's flight, who as Huai from Jin [hence Huai Ying's name] seized power in Jin, Mu of Qin favored his uncle Cheng'er and supported Cheng'er in the same year in his seizure of power. Five daughters of Mus were married to Cheng'er (who already had wives and offspring), including Huai Ying. According to the chroniclers, Cheng'er was reluctant to accept Huai Ying's hand. After Cheng'er's rise to power with the name Wen von Jin, Wen Ying became 636 BC. Escorted by a Qin army to her husband in Jin, the historians emphasizing her status as a wife (as opposed to a concubine).

Ying was last mentioned in the year 621, now in the status of a former concubine of Wen (Wen von Jin died in 628 BC, followed by his son Xiang von Jin , who was not Wen Ying's son and died in 620 BC): Chen Ying positioned her son with Wen, Le, as heir to the throne for Jin. In fact, Xiang von Jin succeeded his son Ling von Jin ; the further fate of Ying and Les is unknown. Another character described by the name of Mu Ying was probably not identical to Huai Ying.

reception

The dramatic scene when she separated from her first husband Yu / Huai was taken up many times in Chinese literature and made Huai Ying one of the most famous Chinese female figures of her time. Although she was more of a political plaything in the following marriages with Wen and Chen, her later repeated strong appearance and the partisanship for Le was mostly viewed positively by the historians after her.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Ruderich Ptak: Huai Ying . In: The Woman in Ancient China, Image and Reality: Studies on the Sources of the Zhou and Han Periods. Pp. 25-52.
  2. ^ A b Liu Xiang : Lienu Zhuan . Translated as Exemplary Women of Early China : Columbia University Press, 2014; ISBN 978-0-231-53608-0
  3. ^ Antonius Lux (ed.): Great women of world history. A thousand biographies in words and pictures . Sebastian Lux Verlag , Munich 1963, p. 236
Note: This article places the family name before the person's first name. This is the usual order in Chinese. Huai is the family name here, Ying is the first name.
personal data
SURNAME Huai, Ying
ALTERNATIVE NAMES 懷 嬴 (Chinese); Wen Ying; Chen Ying
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Wife of several Chinese princes
DATE OF BIRTH before 650 BC Chr.
DATE OF DEATH after 621 BC Chr.