王牆
Wang Qiang was born in Baoping Village, Zigui County (in current Hubei Province) in the Western Han dynasty in 50 B.C. She is described as being from “a good family,” which usually meant those not belonging to the medical, shaman, merchant, or laboring classes.
In 36 B.C., Wang Qiang was chosen by Emperor Yuan as a concubine. Wang left her hometown and entered the harem of Emperor Yuan in early summer. However, during her time in the Lateral Courts, Wang Zhaojun was never visited by the Emperor and remained as a palace lady-in-waiting.
In 33 B.C., Huhanye visited Chang'an as part of the tributary system that existed between the Han and Xiongnu governments. He took the opportunity to request to become an imperial son-in-law, which is recorded by Lou Jingde. Typically the daughter of a concubine would then be offered, but unwilling to honor Huhanye with a real princess, Emperor Yuan asked for volunteers and promised to present her as his own daughter.
The idea of leaving their homeland and comfortable life at court for the grasslands of the far and unknown north was abhorrent to most of the young women, but Wang Zhaojun accepted. So in 33 B.C., Wang Qiang was given in marriage to Huhanye, a khan of the nomadic Turkish-speaking Xiongnu tribes who roamed the northern grasslands of what is now Outer Mongolia. She was sent by Emperor Yuan in order to establish friendly relations with the Han dynasty through marriage.
Wang Qiang was merely one of Huhanye’s many consorts, of equal rank with several Xiongnu wives who had between them given birth to at least ten sons. Wang Qiang also bore him a son named Yituzhiyashi. When Huhanye died, the oldest son (his name was Diaotaomogao) of his senior consort assumed leadership of the Xiongnu as Khan Fuzhulei Ruoti. It was the custom of the Xiongnu for a man to marry his stepmothers when his father died and to marry his brother’s widows, so Fuzhulei Ruoti took Wang Zhaojun as his wife.
The History of the Han Dynasty says no more of Wang Zhaojun after recording her second marriage and gives no indication of when or where she died. However, the hope of peace between the Han and the Xiongnu that was the reason for her marriage lasted less than half a century.
Wang Qiang was known as a famous character in Chinese folklore. Wang Qiang's story and the legends associated with her have been celebrated by poets through the ages. There are about 700 poems and songs and 40 kinds of stories and folktales about Wang Zhaojun from more than 500 famous writers, both ancient and modern.
Wang Qiang was endowed with dazzling beauty and an extremely intelligent mind. She was also adept in pipa and master of all the Four Arts of the Chinese Scholar – Guqin, Weiqi, Calligraphy, and Chinese painting.
Wang Qiang was the wife of Huhanye Chanyu. She bore him two sons and one daughter.
After Huhanye Chanyu's death, she became a wife of Fujulei Chanyu. This marriage produced two daughters.
