China's Four Most Handsome Men
| China's Four Most Handsome Men | |||
| Chinese | 四大美男 | ||
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The Four Most Handsome Men of China (四大美男) are four ancient Chinese men, renowned for their looks. There have been a variety of versions and sayings, but the most popular one is Pan An (潘安), Song Yu (宋玉), Prince Lanling (兰陵王)and Wei Jie (卫玠). The scarcity of historical records concerning them meant that much of what is known of them today has been greatly embellished by legend.
Pan was famous not only for his appearance but also his literature prowess. Equal in popularity with another litterateur, Lu Ji, there was a saying that “Lu’s literary talent is like a sea; Pan’s literary talent is like a river (陆才如海，潘才如江)”.
The tale of Song Yu's handsomeness is known from the literary work "The Poetic Exposition of Deng Tuzi's lust (登徒子好色赋)". Together with Pan'an, the two were known to be the top 2 most handsome man of China, producing the famous saying "Beautiful like Song Yu and Pan'an (美如宋玉 貌似潘安)".
However, competence, talent and reputation led Prince Lanling to his death. When his cousin Gao Wei ascended the throne, Prince Lanling’s existence upset him a lot. After he listened to the “Prince Lanling in Battle”, he said to Prince Lanling, “it is too dangerous for you to get into the enemy’s battle array. In case you lose, you will have no chance to regret.” Without realizing it was a test, Prince Lanling answered, “I don’t think so, it is for the family business.” This raised the emperor’s suspicions about a possible coup. To protect himself, Prince Lanling often pretended to be sick, stayed away from wars and politics. However, his low profile didn’t save him. Finally in 573 A.D, the emperor sent him a cup of poisonous wine, Prince Lanling drank it and died in his early 30s.
When Wei travelled from Yuzhang to Jianye, people eager to look at him gathered together and blocked the street. Since Wei had been weak in health since birth, after being watched for several days, he became sick and died later. People described his death as “Wei Jie was watched to death (看杀卫玠)”. His beauty is later noted in the Book of Jin.
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Wikipedia