Su Xiaoxiao

Su Xiaoxiao ( Chinese  蘇小小 , Pinyin Sū Xiǎoxiǎo , * 5th century; † 501) also known as Su Xiaojun and sometimes with her nickname Little Su , was a famous Chinese courtesan and poet from Qiantang (now Hangzhou, Zhejiang) during the Southern Qi Dynasty (479–502). She had a sister named Su Pannu.

life and career

Well known for her intellectual talent and great beauty, Su Xiaoxiao pursued the values ​​of love, beauty, and humanity, as shown in her writings and popular stories about her. There are many stories about Su Xiaoxiao's life, none of which can be checked for historical accuracy. One of these stories describes her meeting a young, traveling, appallingly poor scholar on her way to the capital in the hope of being admitted to the exams. She gave the scholar several pieces of silver from her purse, but unfortunately he never returned to her after taking the exams. It seems that under no circumstances did she want to be a man's wife or mistress because she preferred to share her beauty with the common people while showing contempt for the rich.

Before she was 20, Su Xiaoxiao developed an incurable disease during which she believed that Heaven gave her a special opportunity to leave a legacy of remembrance of her beauty through her death at a young age. She died when she was only 19 years old. For more than a thousand years, her grave stood on the Xilin Bridge next to her beloved West Lake .

Su Xiaoxiao's life and poetry provided ample inspiration for later Chinese writers and artists. She was the romantic heroine of the Tang Dynasty poets Bai Juyi , Li He , Wen Tingyun and the Ming Dynasty writer Zhang Dei, and the heroine of the story "Romantic Paths of Xinlin" in "Beautiful Tales of the West Lake". A woodcut of unknown origin was used to paint porcelain objects in the Ming Dynasty and the early Qing Dynasty. The woodcut is based on the short story "Dreaming of Qiantang", told by the scholar Sima Yu . While visiting Hangzhou, he wrote a poem about one of his dreams in which Su Xiaoxiao was made to come up to him and sing at his window by three gusts of wind. Su was also a common character in Chinese theater. Su Xiaoxiao is a heroine of the TV series "The Loving Courtesan Su Xiaoxiao".

Su Xiaoxiao's reconstructed tomb, 2004

Another view of Sus's grave, 2009

Su Xiaoxiao's tomb was destroyed during the Cultural Revolution but was completely reconstructed in 2004. A new pavilion has been built around the tomb, which is adorned with twelve poetic dedications handwritten by famous calligraphers. Si Xiaoxiao's tomb has become a popular tourist attraction in Hangzhou.

The poem by Su Xiaoxiao

The poem is known by the names "Song of the Western Tomb", "Song of Xiling Lake", "Song of Su Xiaoxiao" (in a poetry collection of the Imperial Music Bureau) and "Song of the Same Heartbeat". It became very famous and inspired many later poets. In the original text, the poem is a quatrain with four lines of five words each.

妾 乘 油 壁 车,
郎 跨 青 骢 马,
何处 结 同心,
西陵 松柏 下.

I drive a decorated carriage,
my love rides a blue and white horse.
Where should we tie the knot for our heart?
Under the xiling pine and cypress.

literature

• Zhang Dai: Search the West Lake in dreams . 金楓 出版 萬通 總 經銷, Hangzhou 1999, ISBN 957-763-132-0 (Chinese: 西湖 夢 尋 .).
• Melangzhi: Nice stories from the West Lake . Jiangsu Ancient Books Publishing House, Nanjing 1993, ISBN 7-80519-440-8 (Chinese: 西湖 佳话 .).

Web links

Commons : Su Xiaoxiao  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Wikisource: 苏小小  - Sources and full texts (Chinese)

• Elmar Krekeler: Su Xiaoxiao (5th century). In: The world. October 10, 2009, accessed November 27, 2015 . 

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Year of Funeral, Shanghai CHINA Tourism: Exploring Hangzhou - SideStep. Archived from the original on March 11, 2007 ; accessed on November 27, 2015 (English). 

Note: This article places the family name before the person's first name. This is the usual order in Chinese. Su is the family name here, Xiaoxiao is the first name.