"Eight Yan's in Qinhuai" refers to eight famous prostitutes in Nanqu on Qinhuai River in Nanjing in the late Ming and early Qing Dynasties, so it is also called "Eight Yan's in Jinling". Who are the eight people? The relevant information is not consistent. Yu Lianxin, an old man of the Ming Dynasty, recorded in Banqiao Miscellanies as Liu Rushi, Gu Hengbo, Ma Xianglan, Chen Yuanyuan, Koubaimen, Bian Yujing, Li Xiangjun and Dong Xiaowan. Taiwan Province Zheng Jingsheng replaced Ma Xianglan with Zheng Tuoniang in the article The Mystery of Dong Xiaowan. The book Shunzhi and Hubei Princess, co-authored by Wang Deheng and Chen Yuyi, has changed greatly. It adds Li Shiniang, Gong Zhilu and Huang Yanqiu, and removes Ma Xianglan, Koubaimen and Bian Yujing. Yu Lianxin, the author of Banqiao Miscellanies, and "Eight Colours in Qinhuai" are contemporaries and have lived in Jinling for a long time. They are frequent visitors on Qinhuai River, so it seems that what they said is true. In addition, the names of "Eight Colours in Qinhuai" carved by Ye Yanlan in the late Qing Dynasty, the description of "Eight Colours in Jinling" in Rugao Water Painting Garden, the former residence of Dong Xiaowan and Maobijiang, and the novel "Dong Xiaowan, a famous prostitute in Qinhuai" co-authored by Liu Peilin and Zhang Deyi are also the same as Banqiao Miscellanies.

—— Chen Yuanyuan Chen Yuanyuan, a famous courtesan in Kunshan, once lived in Qinhuai. Because of her superior color and art, she was associated with major historical events, so people in Chen Yuanyuan in the Qing Dynasty

listed her as one of the "Eight Colours of Qinhuai". Chen Yuanyuan's original surname was Xing, Yuan, Yuan and Fang, and she was adopted by her foster mother Chen, so she changed her surname to Chen. She is beautiful in color, beautiful in flowers, good at singing and dancing, and the best in color and art. In the last years of Chongzhen, the peasant uprising army in Li Zicheng was a great threat to the imperial court, and Emperor Chongzhen was restless day and night. Zhou Kui, a consort of Jiading Bo, wanted to find a stunning beauty for the emperor, so as to relieve the emperor's anxiety, so he left Tian Fei's brother Tian Wan to find beauty in the south of the Yangtze River. After Tian Wan found Chen Yuanyuan, he was fascinated by his beauty and took it for himself privately. Soon Li Zicheng's team approached the capital, and Emperor Chongzhen called Shanhaiguan in Wu Sangui Town. Tian Tian was worried about the peasant uprising army all day, so he gave a grand banquet for Wu Sangui's farewell dinner, and Yuan Yuan led the chorus to perform in the hall. After seeing Yuanyuan, Wu Sangui was ecstatic and hugged Yuanyuan as a hostess. After drinking too much wine, the three patrolmen reported that it was protruding. Tian Yi stepped forward to Wu in fear and said, "What will happen if you arrive?" Wu Sangui said: "If you can see the gift with a round face, I will protect your family first." Before Tian Tian answered, Wu Sangui took Yuan Yuan's farewell speech. Wu Sangui persuaded his father, who was in charge of the imperial camp, to leave Yuan Yuan in the capital mansion to prevent his peers from causing trouble and let the emperor know. After Li Zicheng entered Beijing, Wu Sangui's father surrendered to the insurgents, and Chen Yuanyuan was plundered by Li's men. When Wu Sangui promised to surrender to Li Zicheng, Wen Yuanyuan was occupied by Li Zhi's Ministry, and he was furious and shouted, "What can a gentleman do if he can't protect himself?" So he surrendered and the Qing army went to war with the peasant army. This is what Wu Meicun said in "Yuanyuanqu": "The six armies are all mourning, and they are a beauty when they are angry." After Li Zicheng's defeat, he killed Wu's father and 38 people in his family, and then left Beijing. Wu Sangui took revenge for killing his father and wife, and pursued the peasant army to Shanxi day and night. At this time, Wu's Ministry will search for Chen Yuanyuan in the capital city, fly and transmit, and lead Wu Sangui and Chen Yuanyuan from Qin to Shu, and then monopolize Yunnan. Wu was promoted to the title of Queen Yunnan, and Yuan Yuan wanted to be the real princess. Yuan Yuan excused her dismissal, but Wu Sangui didn't marry her. I don't want to be jealous of the princess I married, so I framed and killed Wu's love, and Yuanyuan lived alone in another hospital. After Yuan Yuan fell out of favor, she gradually turned away from Wu. Wu had conspired to kill her. When Yuan Yuan learned about it, she begged for a haircut and embroidered Buddha in Wuhuashan Huaguo Temple. Later, Wu Sangui declared independence in Yunnan, and Emperor Kangxi sent troops to Yunnan. In the winter of 1681, the city of Kunming was broken. After Wu Sangui's death, Chen Yuanyuan also sank in the lotus pond outside the temple and was buried beside the pond after his death. Until the end of the Qing Dynasty, there were still two frames of Chen Yuanyuan's small film in the temple, and Chi Pan left stone poems.

—— Dong Xiaowan Dong Xiaowan was one of the famous eight beauties in Qinhuai in the late Ming Dynasty. Dong Xiaowan, whose name was Bai, was known as violet, and her nickname was violet female history. Both her name and Dong Xiaowan

were admired by Li Bai. She is smart, witty, beautiful and graceful, and she is a first-class woman in Qinhuai Old Courtyard. Her beauty has caused a group of famous public officials and businessmen to fight against each other. But this dusty woman despises powerful people, juggles skillfully and struggles bravely. Dong Xiaowan, one of the four gifted scholars in the late Ming Dynasty, fell in love with him at first sight because he was brilliant and charming. Maobijiang is handsome in appearance and natural and unrestrained in manner. He is called "beautiful boy" and is a talented person in the society. Xiaowan got along very well with Maojia after entering Maoshi's gate. Ma Gong-ren (the mother of the frontier) and Su Yuanfang (the wife of the frontier) especially like Xiaowan, and Xiaowan is also very respectful and obedient, serving them more diligently than her maid. In their spare time, Xiaowan and Bijiang often sit in the study of the painting garden, splashing ink, enjoying flowers and tea, commenting on landscapes and identifying epigraphy. When Xiaowan first entered the family, he imitated Zhong You's post and Cao E's tablet, and wrote thousands of words every day, without typos or omissions. Xiaowan also wrote small letters for relatives and friends instead of Bijiang. Once upon a time in Suzhou, Xiaowan had studied painting for a period of time, and she was able to draw a small bush of cold trees, and her pen and ink were touching. When she was 15 years old, she painted "The Butterfly Map", which is now collected in Wuxi Museum. There is an inscription by Xiaowan, a seal of two sides, and a poem that is highly praised by people close to her. Xiaowan's painting is rarely handed down from generation to generation, and it is a rare masterpiece. After arriving in Rugao, she kept a special interest in painting, and always exhibited new scrolls and scrolls or old collections at home. The most impressive thing about Xiaowan is that she leads a romantic and beautiful everyday life. Xiaowan is indifferent by nature and doesn't like fat and sweet food. Cooking rice with a small pot of tea, accompanied by one or two dishes of watercress and fragrant black beans, is her meal. Bijiang likes sweets, seafood and smoked food. Xiaowan knows the taste of Bijiang, and the food she makes for Bijiang is fresh, clean and delicious, with various patterns. If the wine is brewed into dew, dozens of kinds of flower dew will be filled in white porcelain cups after drinking, not to mention tasting it with your mouth. The five colors floating and the strange fragrance overflowing are enough to quench your thirst. In terms of drinking tea, Xiaowan and Bijiang have the same hobby. They are often one person and one pot, silently facing each other before and after the flowers, savoring the color, fragrance and temperament of tea. Xiaowan often studies recipes, and when she sees a strange flavor, she goes to ask for its making method and makes it with her own clever hands. Tiger skin meat, which people often eat now, is the invention of Dong Xiaowan. Therefore, it also has a little-known name "Dong Meat". Although this dish is somewhat abrupt and beautiful, it is in harmony with Dongpo Meat. In addition, Xiaowan is also good at making candy. When she was in Qinhuai, she used sesame seeds, fried noodles, caramel, pine nuts, peach kernels and sesame oil as raw materials to make crisp candy, which was cut into cubes with a length of five points, a width of three points and a thickness of one point. This crisp candy was yellow outside and crisp inside, sweet but not greasy. People called it "Dong Tang", and now Yangzhou famous pastry is filled with fragrant Dong Tang (also called inch gold) Some people have listed Dong Xiaowan, Yi Yin, Yi Ya, Taihe Gong, Shanzu, Fanzheng, Liu Niangzi, Wusao Song, Xiao Meiren and Wang Xiaoyu as the top ten famous chefs in ancient China, which is not an exaggeration. Moonlight is like water, and the smallest one falls in love with it. In the cool summer night, Xiaowan likes to recite poems about the moon, fireflies and wanfan in the Tang Dynasty. In order to appreciate the beauty of moonlight, she often moves several couches with the rise and fall of the moon. Back indoors in the middle of the night, she still pushed open the window and let the moonlight wander between the pillows. When the moon goes west, she rolls up the curtain again, leans against the window and looks at it, reluctant to part with it, and often recites Li He's poem "The moon is lingering, the waves are full of smoke and jade" repeatedly. "You and I love to enjoy this bright moonlight all year round, and the Xianlu Zen Pass will be opened in silence." In this way, Xiaowan appreciates subtle and elegant cultural interest in natural and plain daily life, and yearns for detached and clear poetic life in humble life. Bijiang said that he enjoyed all his life's happiness in the nine years he lived with Xiaowan. This happiness also includes sitting in the fragrant pavilion and savoring the fragrance. Bijiang appreciates "horizontal sinking" most, which is an agarwood with firm internal quality and horizontal texture. Xiaowan cherishes the "daughter fragrance" that Dongguan people regard as a masterpiece, and they also have a lot of "Penglai fragrance". Bijiang once found a kind of "raw yellow incense" that tasted like fragrant orchid from the south of the Yangtze River. He gave one or two pieces to his friend Li Suiqiu in Guangdong for appreciation, and Li Suiqiu was amazed. Xiaowan has also made hundreds of fragrant pills with western fragrant prescriptions obtained from Neifu. They pay attention to the mood when tasting incense. In a small room on a cold night, jade hangs down, two or three red candles are lit, agarwood is burned in a few Xuande furnaces, and the nose view is quiet, as if you have entered the depths of the fragrance of Rui Zhu.

-chivalrous, righteous and courageous Li Xiangjun In the very decadent era of the late Ming Dynasty, most court ministers were so numb that they could not feel the situation they were facing, just as Li Xiangjun

became increasingly troubled at home and abroad. On the Qinhuai River in Nanjing, there are a group of women in the world of mortals who are very worried about the future of the Ming Dynasty. Meixiang Building, located in the middle section of Chaoku Street, is one of these embroidered buildings. Its owner, Li Xiangjun, a geisha, is a household name. In fact, Li Xiangjun's fame was not as great as that of Liu Rushi or Chen Yuanyuan in the Eight Gorgeous Qinhuai at that time. Now, walking around Qinhuai old alley, this is the only embroidered building that can be found. This is a two-storey embroidered building with narrow stairs, and the footsteps of walking clearly upload through the floor. In the autumn of the twelfth year of Chongzhen, Hou Fangyu, who was only 21 years old, had just arrived in Nanjing from Shangqiu, Henan Province, and left the coming after having obtained the provincial examinations, and went directly to this dark red staircase. That year, Li Xiangjun was in her prime at the age of sixteen. "She was gentle and slender, and she only accompanied the banquet of hawksbill, but she turned shy and didn't enter the account of Lotus." She sat in front of the window where the embroidered curtain hung, overlooking the Qinhuai River, waiting for the love in her dream. When Hou Fangyu suddenly appeared in front of her, she must have felt that the marriage she was expecting had arrived. This should have been a romantic affair of a talented person and a beautiful woman, but it's a pity to choose the wrong background of the times. With the entry of the Manchu iron hoof, the Ming Dynasty building collapsed rapidly. Prince Zhu hastily crossed the south, and in a smoky atmosphere, he hastily established the Nanming regime in Nanjing. Ruan Dacheng, the sworn enemy of Fu She, seized this opportunity and walked out of the deep alley of Jinling. He took refuge in Ma Shiying, a courtier of Nanming, and appeared at the front desk of the political stage. Ruan Dacheng was originally a figure spurned by the clean class, but he still wanted to change his face. So, he tried to buy off Hou Fangyu with money to achieve his personal political goals. This trick was quickly seen through by Li Xiangjun, a talented person. She resolutely rejected Ruan Dacheng's money temptation, and demanded that Hou Fangyu immediately break off relations with him and draw a line. Ruan Dacheng, who became angry from embarrassment, retaliated by despicable means. Hou Fangyu was helpless and left Nanjing with tears, and this short-lived love came to a sad end hastily. Regardless of Hou Fangyu's later performance, it should be said that Li Xiangjun is beyond reproach in his love life. Afterwards, she was still in this embroidered building and sighed deeply to her friends: "Is Tian Gong different from Ruan Gong? What do I say to those who praise Hou Gongzi? I'm going there for my money, and I'm selling my son! " The pursuit of love is so steadfast, and it happened to a Qinhuai geisha, which is really rare. In the third year of Shunzhi in Qing Dynasty (AD 1646), Nanjing fell, and Nanming became a bubble in history. For Li Xiangjun, the external environment in which she lived has undergone tremendous changes, and the love she pursued was finally shattered by Hou Fangyu's return to the north. Hou Fangyu, a celebrity who was advertised in books as having the ambition to serve the country, did not stick to his political integrity for long. He was forced to take the imperial examination organized by the Qing Dynasty in the eighth year of Shunzhi, and the result ended in failure again. In love life, he didn't meet Li Xiangjun in Qixia Mountain as written in Peach Blossom Fan. Looking back at Hou Fangyu's life, he should be a tragic figure. In the late spring of the twelfth year of Shunzhi (1655), the peach blossoms full of trees had withered and fallen red everywhere. Li Xiangjun quietly closed the fan inscribed with Hou Fangyu's poems, packed his bags sadly, and bid farewell to the past. She came to Qixia Mountain alone and became a monk in a silent Taoist temple. According to historical records, Li Xiangjun went nowhere after his death.

—— Gu Meisheng's chivalrous heart Gu Hengbo was the most prominent among the famous "Eight Charms at Qinhuai" in the late Ming and early Qing Dynasties. She was once grandly named as "Mrs. Yipin" in Gu Hengbo, which was not as good as that in Liu Rushi and Chen Yuanyuan. At the same time, she is also one of the most controversial-it is said that a talented person who privately engaged with her for life died because of her double suicide. Later, her husband, Gong Dingzi, who was in danger in the late Ming Dynasty, said, "I would like to die, but my concubine refused to do anything." It was like a femme fatale, either harming people's lives or ruining people's honor, which was like the chivalrous heart of "Qinhuai Eight Gorgeous" in most people's impression. Meng Sen, a famous historian, tasted the article "An Examination of Mrs. Yokobo", but he greatly disapproved of Gong Guzhi's character. He thought that both husband and wife were snobs and shameless people who were greedy for money. Is Mrs. Yokobo, who was once known as "a virtuous and loving person, a chivalrous person", really so miserable? Gu Hengbo, born in 1619, whose real name is Mei Ku, whose name is Mei Sheng, also known as Gu Mei, whose name is Transverse Wave, and whose name is Zhizhu and Shancaijun, also known as Mei Sheng, was called "Mrs. Transverse Wave". After marriage, she was renamed Shan Xu Zhi and was born in Shangyuan (now Nanjing). According to Banqiao Miscellanies, Gu Hengbo is "Zhuang Yan is beautiful and elegant, with excellent manners. The hair is like a cloud, and the peach blossoms are full of faces; The bow is slender and the waist is light. "She is familiar with literature and history, and works in poetry and painting. Her paintings are natural and beautiful, especially good at painting orchids. At the age of 17, the fan of Orchid Map is now hidden in the Palace Museum. At the age of 18, she joined Li Xiangjun, Betty Wong and others in the" Orchid Society "organized by Yangzhou celebrity Zheng Yuanxun in Nanjing. At that time, people followed Ma Shouzhen with her painting style (that is, Ma Xianglan, who was born earlier, was also a beautiful girl in Qinhuai). He is also good at melody, and he has tasted the cross-dressing of Xiaosheng and Dong Xiaowan in The West Tower and Godson. Gu Hengbo lives in the Mei Lou, "Qi window embroidery, toothpick jade axis, pile up several cases;" Heptachord Jinse, decorated around, cigarette wrapped around, eaves Martin dangdang ",when people jokingly called" lost building "-some people say that" lost building "refers to Gu Hengbo's romantic charm, visitors are all fascinated, it is really looking forward to literature and meaning. The "Mysterious Building" was originally built in the other courtyard of Yangzhou during Emperor Yangdi's reign. It was named "Mysterious Building" because of its "deep twists and turns, scattered attics, hidden by porch curtains and connected with each other, like a fairy tour". Dubbed the "Milou" as the "Mei Lou", Yu Huai, the initiator, was a scholar in the south of the Yangtze River. At that time, he was infatuated with Transverse Wave. What he said was a compliment, referring to the ingenious arrangement of the "Mei Lou" building and its imitation of a fairyland. As soon as this reputation came out, it spread like wildfire and was widely used. Gu Hengbo's personality is bold and uninhibited, and he has a manly style. He is more like Liu Rushi in Qinhuai Eight Colours. At that time, people called him "Brother Mei", which is quite similar to Liu Rushi's calling himself "Brother". But compared with the willow, it is a bit more willful and jealous. According to legend, Huang Daozhou, a Neo-Confucianism scholar at that time (who later fought against the Qing Dynasty and died in Jiangxi Province), boasted that "prostitutes are in his eyes, but prostitutes are not in his heart", and Donglin Zhusheng asked Yoko to go to the couch when he was drunk to see if he really had the skill of Liu Xiahui. This rumor may not be true, but it reflects Gu Hengbo's style of not thinking about secular ethics in people's eyes. Her style of going her own way and not caring about the eyes of the world is probably the important reason why she was able to compete with Gong Dingzi, a talented person in Jiangzuo. However, her controversy is also the result of this personality to some extent. Gu Hengbo is both talented and beautiful, with "South"