Mu Piao

Background

There is no exact information about Piao Mu's family and about the date of her birth.

Career

The name of Mother Piao is often associated with a man named Han Xin. In his youth, Han Xin lacked the talent and virtue to be appointed to an official position and he did not possess the skill to be a trader, so he had no means of earning a living. Once, when he was suffering from hunger, he met Mother Piao. She was an older woman and, realizing that he was hungry, she shared her meal with Han Xin. This continued for over ten days until the work of bleaching was done. Han Xin was moved by Mother Piao’s kindness and promised that he would one day repay her, but it was rebuffed by her.

Several years later, after becoming the King of Chu, Han Xin returned to his hometown and found the woman who fed him and rewarded her with 1,000 taels of gold, as a token of his gratitude for her earlier kindness. The story of Mother Piao’s kindness and Han Xin’s gratitude made its way into Chinese literature.

Achievements

• Mother Piao was known as a famous character in Chinese folklore. The story about Mother Piao and Han Xin was included in the poem Night on Five-Pine Mountain at Old Lady Xun’s by the great Tang dynasty poet Li Bai.
  
  Nowadays the fishing terrace where Han Xin met Mother Piao and Mother Piao’s temple have been preserved in Huaian City and have become popular tourist sites.

References

• Biographical Dictionary of Chinese Women: Antiquity Through Sui, 1600 B.C.E. - 618 C.E This new volume of the "Biographical Dictionary of Chinese Women" spans more than 2,000 years from antiquity to the early seventh century. It recovers the stories of more than 200 women, nearly all of them unknown in the West.
  1998