A Consort Hidden in the Mountains

The Consort Hidden in the Mountains

During the Jingkang era of the Northern Song, the Jin army invaded on a massive scale and breached the capital, Bianjing. Members of the imperial family fled in every direction. To escape the turmoil of war, an imperial consort abandoned her life of luxury and fled south.

After enduring countless hardships, she eventually reached the heart of Xiangzhong. Seeing its range upon range of mountains, dense forests, treacherous roads, and simple, honest people, she hid in the wilderness to wait out the turmoil. Once a pampered favorite of the imperial palace, she now lived in plain clothes and without makeup, concealing her name and making a home in the mountains, far from court intrigue and the Jin army’s iron hooves.

Moved by her plight, the local villagers secretly helped and sheltered her. The consort waited there for the situation to settle. And so, a legendary tale of the Jin invasion and an imperial consort taking refuge in the mountains was passed down through generations, becoming a cherished local story that endures to this day.