The Four Great Beauties of China: Xi Shi

She was known as one of the Four Great Beauties of ancient China: Xi Shi. Born in the western village of Zhuluo in Zhuji, she grew up in a poor family and washed silk with her mother from an early age, earning the name “Silk-Washing Girl.” The legend of “the fish sinking in shame” came from the tale of fish sinking to the bottom of the water when they saw her washing silk. “Xi Shi clutching her heart” and “Dong Shi imitating her frown” are also associated with her. As a child, Xi Shi underwent rigorous training. With her feet hidden beneath a long skirt and wooden clogs for dancing, she used a single performance of the clacking-clog dance to throw the Wu palace into disarray. During her ten years imprisoned in the Wu palace, she humored Fuchai while secretly passing military intelligence through a hidden compartment in the clacking-clog corridor. She watched helplessly as Wu Zixu was forced to take his own life, yet when she heard news of Yue's victory, she clutched the jade pendant Fuchai had given her and wept until her robe was soaked. The decisive battle between Wu and Yue was over. Fuchai killed himself on Gusu Mountain, and Xi Shi refused Goujian's offer to make her his consort, asking only to return to farm by the Zhuluo stream. But she discovered that she had become a “historical blind spot,” erased from the record. Would she retire to the Five Lakes with Fan Li? Be drowned in the river as a political sacrifice? Or transform into a fish to protect her homeland forever? A Han dynasty bronze mirror suddenly appeared, and the portrait of a “princess” on its back unraveled a mystery a thousand years old: her fate had never been limited to just one possibility...