The Legend of Iparhan
Contemporary Uyghur renditions of the legend are considerably less romantic. Stolen from her husband, a Muslim leader who had resisted the army of the Qing, and spirited away to Beijing, Iparhan arms herself with daggers up her sleeves, on guard against the hated advances of the Emperor. Some accounts cast her even more explicitly as a nationalist resistance figure who had risen during Uch Turpan Rebellion (1765) as one of the national leaders but was soon captured by Qing troops and delivered to Emperor. It was suggested that in addition to maintaining her purity Iparhan planned to kill the Emperor in revenge for his conquest of her homeland in Xinjiang. The Emperor, besotted, cannot resist the allure of her beauty, and in the end his mother the Empress Dowager arranges for her murder at the hands of loyal palace eunuchs in the face of Iparhan's unyielding resistance and the threat posed to her son.
Read more about this topic: Fragrant Concubine
Famous quotes containing the word legend:
“We should burn all libraries and allow to remain only that which everyone knows by heart. A beautiful age of the legend would then begin.”
—Hugo Ball (1886–1927)