Light as a Swallow
Source: From Zhao Feiyan, it is said that Zhao Feiyan was thin, light and graceful, and danced as gracefully as a swallow.
Zhao Feiyan is a dancing girl from Princess Yang's family. She has a delicate face and a light body. There is a saying in history that "Yan is thin but Huan is fat". Yan refers to Zhao Feiyan; Huan refers to Yang Yuhuan, the imperial concubine of Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty. Once, Emperor Cheng of the Han Dynasty passed by Princess Yang'a's house on a "micro trip". The princess entertained her with a feast and called out several beauties to sing and dance to add to the fun. Emperor Cheng couldn't help but be swayed when he saw a radiant girl among them, with a clear singing voice and graceful dancing. He begged the princess to give Feiyan to him and take her back to the palace, so that she could become the new owner of Zhaoyang Palace.
Zhao Feiyan’s father, Feng Wanjin, was a servant of Prince Jiangdu. He had an affair with Princess Gusu, the granddaughter of Prince Jiangdu, and gave birth to two twin sisters, Zhao Feiyan and Zhao Hede. Because the princess of Gusu was married to Lieutenant Zhao Man of Jiangsu, the Feiyan sisters adopted the surname Zhao. When she grew up, she was sold to Princess Yang'a's family, Zhao Lin, to learn singing and dancing. Because of her light body, her sister got the title of "Feiyan".
After Queen Xu was deposed, Zhao Feiyan became the new queen due to various reasons.
In order to please the new queen, Emperor Cheng ordered craftsmen to build a gorgeous royal boat called "Hegongzhou" in the Taiye Pool of the palace. One day, Emperor Cheng took Feiyan to go boating to enjoy the scenery. Feiyan wore a Yunying purple dress and blue Qiong gauze tribute sent by South Vietnam. She sang the song "Returning Phoenix to Send Away" and danced gracefully. Emperor Cheng ordered his servant Feng Wufang to play the sheng to accompany Feiyan's song and dance. When the boat was in the middle of the river, a strong wind blew up and almost knocked down Zhao Feiyan, who was as light as a swallow. Feng Wufang followed the emperor's order to save Zhao Feiyan, threw away his instrument, grabbed the queen's feet and refused to let go, while Feiyan continued to sing and dance. After that, the legend spread in the palace that "flying swallows can dance on the palms of their hands".
It's hard to get off the tiger. The original work of "It's hard to get off the tiger" is "It's hard to get off the tiger". This statement is found in the records about Empress Dugu in the "Book of Sui: Biography of the Concubines".
Queen Dugu was the queen of Yang Jian, the founding emperor of the Sui Dynasty. She is the daughter of Dugu Xin, Duke of Henei, Great Sima of the Northern Zhou Dynasty. Her elder sister is the empress of Emperor Zhou Ming, and her eldest daughter is the empress of Emperor Zhou Xuan. She has been a relative of the emperor for generations, so one can imagine how powerful she is. At that time, Yang Jian was first the governor of Suizhou in the Northern Zhou Dynasty and was named Sui Gong. After Emperor Xuan of Zhou died, Emperor Jing succeeded to the throne. On the pretext that Emperor Jing was young and needed help, he served as prime minister, lived in the palace, and gently seized the power of the country and held it in his own hands. Emperor Jing is just a little puppet, the actual emperor is Yang Jian.
Seeing that her husband Yang Jian had fully grasped the political power, the Dugu family encouraged him to seize the throne further and said to him:
The situation has become overwhelming, and we must not get rid of the power of riding a beast. Encourage it!
Yang Jian also believed that the situation for launching a coup had been created and the time was ripe, so he killed Emperor Zhou Jing and proclaimed himself emperor. He changed the word "Sui" in the original title Sui Gong to "Sui". As the country's name, it was the Sui Dynasty. His wife Dugu became the queen. After Yang Jian's death, he was given the posthumous title Wen, so he was called Emperor Wen of the Sui Dynasty in history.
According to the "Book of Jin·Biography of Wen Qiao", Wen Qiao also said: "It's better to ride a fierce beast than to be safe!" At that time, Wen Qiao was the governor of Jiangzhou, and Su Jun rebelled and forced the capital to attack. , Wen Qiao and others, led by Tao Kan, allied forces to attack, but could not win for a while. Tao Kan was in a negative mood, so Wen Qiao said this to him, which meant: "How can you get off the horse while riding a beast?" It is the same as "If you are riding a beast, you must not get off". This sentence was later simplified into the idiom "It's hard to get off the beast." In the Tang Dynasty, "beast" was changed to "tiger" because of taboo. For example, Li Bai's poem "Farewell to the Dukes of Guangling": "Riding a tiger and not daring to dismount, climbing a dragon and suddenly falling to the sky." Generally, "riding a tiger is difficult to get off" or "riding a tiger with momentum" or "riding a tiger with momentum" are used to describe something that has already been started. Even if you encounter difficulties, you cannot stop halfway and can only work to the end. It's like a person riding on the back of a tiger who finds it very dangerous and wants to get off even more dangerously. Therefore, it describes a dilemma situation.