JY Beauties

[Suet Seung]

China had four beauties.

Well...almost all JY's female characters are beautiful but amongst them considered most beautiful is Wang Yu Yan, Xiao Long Nu, Ah Ke (WXB's wife, daughter of Chan Yuan Yuan), who else?

[TommyH]

How about Kwok Seung? Isn't she beautiful?

[Suet Seung]

How about Kwok Seung? Isn't she beautiful?

I'm not talking about normal beautyl but unsurpassing and unmatching beauty.

[Bai Qi44]

China had four beauties.

Well...almost all JY's female characters are beautiful but amongst them considered most beautiful is Wang Yu Yan, Xiao Long Nu, Ah Ke (WXB's wife, daughter of Chan Yuan Yuan), who else?

Ah Ke wasn't as beautiful as Chen Yuan Yuan herself. Even the middle-age Chen Yuan Yuan was thought to be more beautfiul than Ah Ke in Wai Siu Boe's mind.

And I heard Princess Fragrance ain't too bad looking either.

[LTD]

Wasn't Xiao Zhao's mother one of the most beautiful women of her time?

[strife_au]

xiao long nu?

[hinako442003]

The most beautiful as described per JY is arguably Xiang Xiang Princess.
JY likes to lavish praises about his female characters' beauty. Some others to add on the list are Bao Xieruo (Yang Kang's mom), Xiao Zhao, Zhou Zhiruo. But it never got to the point where everyone (male & female) stands astonished looking at a woman as they do for Princess Fragrance. Huo Qingtong, her sister, was described to have exceptional beauty, but is still "much less" beautiful than she is. JY takes the time to write, "and he/she gazes perplexly at the breathtakingly beautiful maiden" each time someone meets the princess..."Soldiers stand in awe, dumb-struck, not hearing the Emperor's commands." I don't think any other character has that effect. Xiao Long Nu and Wang Yu Yan didn't create that much oohs and aahs.

[TommyH]

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[Ken Cheng]

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That's Suet Seung.

[TommyH]

That's Suet Seung.

That's Suet Seung's avatar . A beautiful avatar . THIS MESSAGE DOES NOT SAY ANYTHING ABOUT SUET SEUNG BEING NOT BEAUTIFUL!

[Suet Seung]

The most beautiful as described per JY is arguably Xiang Xiang Princess.
JY likes to lavish praises about his female characters' beauty. Some others to add on the list are Bao Xieruo (Yang Kang's mom), Xiao Zhao, Zhou Zhiruo. But it never got to the point where everyone (male & female) stands astonished looking at a woman as they do for Princess Fragrance. Huo Qingtong, her sister, was described to have exceptional beauty, but is still "much less" beautiful than she is. JY takes the time to write, "and he/she gazes perplexly at the breathtakingly beautiful maiden" each time someone meets the princess..."Soldiers stand in awe, dumb-struck, not hearing the Emperor's commands." I don't think any other character has that effect. Xiao Long Nu and Wang Yu Yan didn't create that much oohs and aahs.

Well despite the oohs and aahs. They're still considered most beautiful in JY Universe.

So we have this list:

• Wang Yu Yan
• Xiao Long Nu
• Princess Fragrance
• Dai Qi Si (Xiao Zhao's mom)
• Bao XieRuo
• Chan Yuan Yuan
• Ah Ke

I put Ah Ke in because I thought out of all 7 wives of WXB, she was considered most beautiful right?

Now to lower the list to four main beauties.

[Ken Tran]

China had four beauties.

Who they were?

[Candide]

I thought we're only going to pick 4. It's pointless to list all of them. Based on JY's descriptions and mostly the impact their beauties have on others in the novels, the list would be:

1. Princess Xiangxiang - undisputable #1 (JY went way overboard with his descriptions IMO but his intention is clear).
2. Purple Dragon Lord (Xiaozhao's mother)
3. Chen Yuanyuan
4. Xiao Long Nu

#2 and #3 in their 40s still stop the heartbeats of young men whose GFs/lovers were considered the most beautiful of their time.

#4 could be Huang Rong instead of XLN. I put XLN there because she's popular. Yang Guo himself, when he was young and madly in love with XLN, noticed that a near 40 year old Huang Rong was just as beautiful as his Gugu.

Other women are of course beautiful but usually we would see their beauty described or praised by their admirers (the heroes of the stories), and not much from others. Wang Yuyan obviously was very beautiful but she hardly had any impact on others except Duan Yu. The 36 cave and 72 island masters were quite willing to kill her without having second thought. Contrast that with Princess Xiangxiang's. Nobody dared to think of harming her. One who upset her even killed himself to apologize.

As readers, we often give more credits to characters we like, as we mostly see them through their portrayed personalities, not their looks (descriptions are often poetic and vague). People who watch adaptations would do the same to actresses they like. Neither is a valid way to rank these fictional beauties. I think the fairest way is to rank them based on how much impact they have on others in the same novel.

[Suet Seung]

Who they were?

You know, 4 most beautiful women in Chinese History.
Here look:
http://china-empire.blogspot.com/200...ful-women.html

Yeah, Candide, I thought we'd pick 4, I'm just listing out the ones considered.

[Candide]

Who they were?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Beauties

[Linda]

i agree with ur first and thrid, and although XLN is my favorite character, i don't believe she ranks that high on the list. i never thought HR was that beautiful when i was reading it. she had less of an impact on the people around her then XLN did. XLN at least 'stopped traffic' whenever she appeared.

i can't recognise the english name of the 2nd character. would u care to elaborate?

i don't remember much about Princess Fragrance. read that book a very long time ago.

but i do know that Chan Yuan Yuan's beauty caused major changes in a country's faith. she basically caused the downfall of a dynasty. (it would have fallen anyway, but thats not the point)

[Extremer88]

So we have this list:

• Wang Yu Yan
• Xiao Long Nu
• Princess Fragrance
• Da Er Shi (Xiao Zhao's mom)
• Bao XieRuo
• Chan Yuan Yuan
• Ah Ke

Da Er Shi? It's Dai Qisi (it's a persian name translated to chinese though).

What about Ren Yingying? And DFBB?

[strife_au]

Da Er Shi? It's Dai Qisi (it's a persian name translated to chinese though).

What about Ren Yingying? And DFBB?

lol DFBB... don't think found him/her attractive

[The Khan]

You can probably add the main heroine in all of JY's novels to the list. I think all of them could probably stop traffic.

[TommyH]

Xi Shi (c. seventh to sixth century BC, Spring and Autumn Period), said to be "so beautiful as to make swimming fish sink"
Wang Zhaojun (c. first century BC, Western Han Dynasty period), said to be "so beautiful as to make flying geese fall"
Diao Chan (c. third century, Three Kingdoms period), said to have "a face that would make the full moon hide behind the clouds"
Yang Guifei (719-756, Tang Dynasty period), said to have "a face that would make all flowers feel shameful"

Did JY ever include any of these characters in his novels? I doubt it since he never wrote beyond the time period of DGSD (except that short story). Did his characters ever mention these beauties?