Su Xiaoxiao

Well known for her intellectual talent and great beauty, Su Xiaoxiao pursued the values of love, beauty and humanity, as reflected in her writing and in popular stories. There are many stories attached to the life of Su Xiaoxiao, with no way of knowing the historical accuracy of any single story. One such story has her meeting a young scholar travelling in a state of dire poverty, hoping to reach the capital to sit the official examinations. She gave the scholar several nuggets of silver from her purse, but sadly he never returned to her after completing the examinations. In any event, it seems that she did not wish to be a man's wife or mistress, preferring to share her beauty with the common people while showing a certain contempt for the wealthy.

In her late teens, Su Xiaoxiao developed a terminal illness, during which she took the view that heaven was giving her the special opportunity to leave a legacy of beauty in her memory through her death at a young age. She died at a mere 19 years of age.[1] For more than a thousand years, her tomb was situated at the Xilin Bridge beside her beloved West Lake.

Su Xiaoxiao's life and poetry provided much inspiration for later Chinese writers and artists. She was the romantic heroine of Tang dynasty poets Bai Juyi, Li He, Wen Tingyun, and Ming dynasty writer Zhang Dai, also the heroine of the story "Romantic Trails of Xilin" in Fine Stories of the West Lake.[4] A woodcut of unknown provenance was used to illustrate porcelain objects[5] during the Ming dynasty and early Qing dynasty. The woodcut was based on the short story "Dreaming of Qiantang", which told of the scholar Sima Yu, who, while visiting Hangzhou, wrote a poem about a dream he had in which Su Xiaoxiao was brought by three gusts of wind to come and sing at his window. Su was also a frequent figure for portrayal in Chinese theater.

Su Xiaoxiao's rebuilt tomb, 2004

Another view of Su's tomb, 2009

Su Xiaoxiao's tomb was destroyed during the Cultural Revolution, but it was rebuilt in 2004, complete with a brand new pavilion decorated with twelve poetry posts handwritten by famous calligraphers. The current tomb is empty.[6] Su Xiaoxiao's tomb is now again a major tourist site in Hangzhou. Since the pavilion the tomb is hosted under is named Mucaiting, which could be misread phonetically as Mocaiting (touch for wealth), many tourist walk by would purposefully touch or throw coins on the tomb for hope of wealth and prosperity.[7] Su Xiaoxiao is also the heroine of TV series Loving Courtesan Su Xiaoxiao.

This poem is variously known as "Song of the West Tomb", "Song of Xiling Lake", "Song of Su Xiaoxiao" (in a collection of Music Bureau poems) and "Song of the Same Heartbeat". It became very well known and inspired many future poets including those named above.[8][1] In the original text, the poem is a quatrain composed of four lines of five words each.

妾乘油壁車,

郎跨青驄馬,

何處結同心,

西泠松柏下。

I ride in a decorated carriage,

My darling rides a blue-white horse.

Where should we tie the knot for our heart?

Under the Xiling pine and cypress.

In 1962, Chinese director, Lee Sun-fung, directed a film about Su Xiaoxiao called Su Xiaoxiao,[9] or Miss Su in some areas.[10] Malaysian born actress Yan Pak played the title role.

A Su Xiaoxiao , poem dedicated by the Italian writer Sabrina Gatti, in the collection La pioggia sui vetri (2011)

• West Lake
• Yongming poetry

• Barnstone, Tony; Ping, Chou (2010). The Anchor Book of Chinese Poetry: From Ancient to Contemporary, The Full 3000-Year Tradition. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. ISBN 9780307481474.
• Berg, Daria (2013). Women and the Literary World in Early Modern China, 1580-1700. Routledge. ISBN 9781136290213.
• Melangzhi : 西湖佳话 (Fine Stories of West Lake) ISBN 7-80519-440-8/I
• Xiao, Zhiwei; Zhang, Yingjin (2002). Encyclopedia of Chinese Film. Routledge. ISBN 9781134745548.
• Zhang Dai: 西湖梦寻(Search The West Lake in Dreams) ISBN 957-763-132-0

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Su Xiaoxiao.

• Tomb of Su Xiaoxiao, a poem by Li He