Li Shishi, Beauty of a Turbulent Age

Li Shishi was a famous courtesan in Bianjing at the end of the Northern Song dynasty. Her surname was originally Wang, and she was the daughter of a dyer. After her father died when she was four, she was taken in by the Li family, who were registered as courtesans. Li Shishi was both talented and beautiful, skilled in music, chess, calligraphy, and painting. She was especially gifted at singing, and her dancing was graceful and light. She was close with many cultured scholars, including Qin Guan and Yan Jidao, who greatly admired her talents. Emperor Huizong doted on her, and she also had a romantic relationship with Zhou Bangyan. After the Jingkang Incident and the fall of the Northern Song, Li Shishi vanished. There are many stories about her fate: that she took her own life, drifted south to Jiangnan, or became a nun. Her story became an important subject of later literature and art, and her image came to symbolize the flourishing popular culture of the Northern Song. The plot is fictional. Any resemblance to actual events is purely coincidental.