Chapter 175: Beauty Ranking, Sixth: Zhen Shi (Zhen Ji)

Beauty Ranking, Sixth: Zhen Shi (Zhen Ji)

Era: End of the Thus: Eastern Han → Three Kingdoms (Cao Wei)

Title: Luo Shen, Jing Hong Fairy

"Zhen Ji? Luo Shen?"

Many people felt their spirits lift.

Stories of the Three Kingdoms, regardless of the era, are widely spread, filled with legends of heroic beauties.

And Zhen Ji is undoubtedly one of the most romantic female figures among them, tightly linked to Cao Zhi's eloquent "Ode to the River Goddess".

On the left side of the golden list, light and shadow coalesce into an exquisitely beautiful scene:

Moonlight spreads like water over the vast Luo River.

At the center of the ripples, a woman dressed in splendid palace robes and a light veil stands on the water, as if stepping upon it.

Her figure is graceful, like a fleeting glimpse of a startled swan, yet also like a winding dragon; her face, veiled in moonlight and mist, appears faintly, revealing only perfect contours and an ethereal bearing, truly like a celestial concubine, not a mortal.

Beside the scene, the golden inscription "Graceful as a startled swan, gentle as a wandering dragon" appears,

and "Radiant autumn chrysanthemums, flourishing spring pines" in golden seal script emerges, adding further artistic conception.

Heavenly tones sound, this time the voice carries a touch of elegance and lament:

She, Zhen Shi. Her given name is lost; the people commonly call her Zhen Mi, and later generations honor her as Empress Wen Zhao.

Her life is closely linked with two of Cao Wei's most outstanding scholars and a founding emperor of the Three Kingdoms; her beauty and talent, through Cao Pi's timeless masterpiece, became an eternal symbol of "beauty" in Chinese culture—the Luo Shen.

The scene, following the narration, shifts from the dreamy Luo River back to the mortal world.

First, a grand mansion with a swaddled infant girl, whose family seems to see an omen of jade robes covering her body.

Young Zhen Ji reads in the study, her expression focused;

Later, amid the chaotic era, she persuades her family to open granaries for relief, her face kind yet resolute.

Born of the Zhen clan of Zhongshan Wuji, a distinguished Eastern Han family. From childhood she displayed unusual signs, intelligent and benevolent, her name spread throughout the village.

She first married Yuan Shao's second son Yuan Xi, and followed her husband to garrison in Youzhou, enjoying brief peace amid the turmoil.

The scene shows the prosperity of Ye City and domestic moments in the Yuan household; Zhen Ji and Yuan Xi treat each other with equal respect, lacking great passion but harmonious.

In the ninth year of the Jian'an era, Cao Cao captured Ye City, the foundation of Yuan Shao, altering the realm's course, and Zhen Ji's fate turned as well.

The scene suddenly becomes tense and chaotic as Cao's forces breach Ye City, the Yuan household thrown into panic.

The young Cao Pi draws his sword and storms the rear palace; amid the wreckage he sees Zhen Ji, though disheveled, her unparalleled beauty still evident.

A flash of astonishment and possessiveness passes through Cao Pi's eyes; he waves his hand, ordering the soldiers to withdraw.

Cao Pi takes Zhen Ji as a concubine.

In the following years, Zhen Ji, with her stunning looks, gentle temperament, and extraordinary talent, wins Cao Pi's deep affection, remains filial to mother‑in‑law Lady Bian, treats palace staff kindly, bears the Wei Emperor Ming, Cao Rui, and the Princess of Dongxiang, securing her position.

The scene turns warm: early Zhen Ji and Cao Pi harmoniously play the qin and se, teach young Cao Rui to read, and attend to Lady Bian's medicines.

She lifts her brush to write verses, and beside her appears a fragment of her later‑famous "Song of the Pond Shore":

"Reeds grow in my pond, its leaves flutter… All mouths melt gold, the lord brings separation."

The poetic style is mournfully graceful, the sentiment deeply sincere.

However, the palace has never been a place of perpetual warmth.

The heavenly tones drop, carrying a hint of chill.

Cao Pi ascends the throne (as Emperor Wen of Wei), the harem expands, new consorts appear, especially favoring Consort Guo.

Zhen Ji ages, her beauty wanes, love slackens, and as melancholy surfaces, she gradually loses the emperor's favor.

The scene shows Cao Pi frolicking with the young, charming Consort Guo, while Zhen Ji is alone in the palace, gazing at herself with self‑pity, a hint of sorrow in her brows.

She composes more melancholy verses, which a schemer slips into Cao Pi's ears.

In the second year of Huangchu, June, Emperor Wen of Wei Cao Pi sends an envoy to the old palace of Ye City, granting Zhen Ji permission to commit suicide.

The scene turns icy and lethal; a eunuch carries poisoned wine and white silk, reading the decree expressionlessly.

Zhen Ji's complexion is ghastly pale, yet she shows little panic; her eyes hold dead silence, despair, and a hint of mockery.

She looks toward Luoyang and ultimately chooses suicide.

Worse still, Cao Pi, believing the counsel of the "anti‑grudge spirit", orders Zhen Ji to be buried with her hair covering her face and straw stuffed in her mouth, a grave insult and precaution.

This cruel scene is shown by the heavenly backdrop in a subtle yet clear image; Zhen Ji's degrading burial appearance chills viewers and evokes strong sympathy.

A peerless beauty, Empress Wen Zhao, adored in life, yet subjected to such cruelty after death; a beautiful woman meets a tragic fate, truly the utmost!

The scene does not end.

After Zhen Ji's tragic burial, light and shadow flow, arriving at the banks of the Luo River.

Cao Zhi, now Prince of Jun City, appears forlorn, his drunken haze drifting as he walks along the water's edge.

In the dusk, he seems to see Zhen Ji's figure rising slowly from the Luo River, turning to smile at him, then vanishing instantly, like a dream.

His younger uncle, the prodigiously talented Cao Zhi, had long harbored admiration for his sister‑in‑law. After Zhen Ji's death, Cao Zhi passed the Luo River, moved by grief, and composed the timeless masterpiece "Ode to the River Goddess".

In the scene, Cao Zhi, furious at the water's edge, brandishes his brush; his words turn into golden light merging with the Luo River, uniting with Zhen Ji's fleeting phantom.

The ode's famous lines: "Her form, graceful as a startled swan, gentle as a wandering dragon. Radiant autumn chrysanthemums, flourishing spring pines. As if light clouds veil the moon, as if drifting wind returns snow…"

Golden script encircles the Luo Shen illusion, merging the beauty of words with imagination to the utmost.

When this work emerged, Zhen Ji's beauty transcended the mortal world, ascended to divinity, becoming one of the supreme images of "beauty" in Chinese aesthetics.

In the scene, Zhen Ji's Luo Shen image becomes increasingly clear yet ethereal, eventually merging with the Luo River's misty waves and the heavens' stars and moon, leaving only the breathtaking "startled swan glimpse" imprint on the viewer's heart.

Later, her son Cao Rui ascended the throne as Emperor Ming of Wei, posthumously honored his birth mother as "Empress Wen Zhao", reburied her lavishly, providing a belated, modest consolation to the tragedy.

The final frame freezes on Cao Rui's solitary figure worshipping before his mother's new tomb, contrasted with the Luo River's eternal startled swan reflection, adding further melancholy.

Heavenly backdrop commentary: "In the south of the river there are the two Qiaos, in the north of the river Zhen Mi is charming."

Yet the two Qiaos borrow their husbands' names, while Zhen Ji, with Cao Pi's brush, secures a name for eternity.

Light as a startled swan, ending in a final silence; like a wandering dragon, unable to escape the net.

The palace's deep chambers imprison fragrant souls, while the Luo River drifts, bearing lingering resentment.

She is a drifting duckweed in a chaotic age, a king's discarded slipper, and also the eternally unfading, most beautiful illusion in the brush of scholars.

Finally, an eight‑character summary:

Luo River's startled swan, a beautiful woman's fleeting fate.

Sixth: Zhen Ji, tally completed.

Compared with Bao Si's "cold" and "cunning," Zhen Ji's story leans more toward the classic "beautiful woman meets early death" pattern,

her entanglements with the brothers Cao Pi and Cao Zhi, and the boost from the Ode to the River Goddess,

grant her great fame and sympathy among scholars and common folk alike.

The tragedy of her end, sharply contrasted with her beauty in life and her posthumous renown, evokes widespread resonance.