The Chinese historical drama *Empresses in the Palace* (甄嬛伝) won a huge following — and the name of its heroine, “Zhen Huan” (甄嬛), in fact carries a deep literary background and an aesthetic all its own. This time, let’s trace where this beautiful name comes from, back through classical poetry.
The image of beauty folded into the surname “Zhen”
The surname “Zhen” (甄) calls to mind Zhen Mi (甄宓, zhēn mì), the peerless beauty of the late Han. Zhen Mi became the wife of Cao Pi, Emperor Wen of Wei (and was posthumously honored as Empress Wenzhao). Her beauty was told and retold for generations, and she is even said to have been the figure laid over the goddess in Cao Zhi’s “Rhapsody on the Goddess of the Luo River.” To choose this surname is, in itself, already to fold in a longing toward “beauty.”
The poetry hidden in the character “Huan” — Cai Shen’s “Yi Jian Mei”
The beauty of the character “Huan” (嬛) comes from a *ci* poem, “Yi Jian Mei” (一剪梅), by Cai Shen, a lyricist of the late Northern Song and early Southern Song.
**Original:**
堆枕烏雲堕翠翹。午梦惊回，满眼春娇。嬛嬛一袅楚宫腰。那更春来，玉减香消。**In English:**
Dark clouds of hair heaped on the pillow, the kingfisher hairpin slipping loose;
startled awake from a midday dream, her eyes full of spring’s soft charm.
*Xuan-xuan* — slender, gently swaying — the fine waist of the Chu palace.
And now that spring has come again, the jade grows thin, the fragrance fades.
The aesthetic held in “xuan-xuan, the slender Chu palace waist”
The most beautiful line in this *ci* is “嬛嬛一袅楚宮腰” — *xuan-xuan, a single sway, the Chu palace waist.* Here “huan/xuan” (嬛) means calm, supple, and beautiful. It is a celebrated line that paints the graceful curve of a woman: the slender waist of the Chu court, swaying softly.
> **On reading “嬛.”** The character 嬛 has several readings — *xuān*, *huán*, *qióng*, and more. In the drama *Empresses in the Palace* there is a famous scene in which, asked by the Yongzheng Emperor how her name is read, Zhen Huan answers: “嬛 is read *xuān*. The *xuān* of *xuān-xuān, the slender Chu palace waist*.”
The story behind “the Chu palace waist” — the King of Chu who loved slim waists
“The Chu palace waist” (楚宮腰) carries a famous old story. King Ling of Chu was known as a king who loved slender waists, and so the women of the Chu court, hoping to win his favor, are said to have competed for a beautiful slim waist even to the point of cutting back on food — “the King of Chu loved slender waists, and many in the palace starved.” “The Chu palace waist” is the phrase for that waistline, drawn fine to its very limit.
The line the Yongzheng Emperor loved
In the drama, the Yongzheng Emperor murmurs this line, “*xuan-xuan, the slender Chu palace waist*,” again and again. Onto this line — which paints the graceful curve of a calm and beautiful woman — the emperor surely laid the image of Zhen Huan herself. The name itself becomes the doorway into the story of the two of them.
In closing
The name “Zhen Huan” is not merely a beautiful sound. A longing toward beauty, through the surname “Zhen”; a classical grace, through the character “Huan” — it is a name calculated to its last stroke, with the rich tradition and aesthetic of classical Chinese literature standing behind it. The meaning carried in the character “Huan,” born from a single line of classical verse — “a woman blessed with a calm, beautiful, supple grace of line” — is laid over the heroine herself. That a single name can be made to hold this much: here is the depth of China’s culture of naming.
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◀ Around Zhen Huan: [The Real Woman Behind Zhen Huan (Empress Xiaosheng)] |
[The Real Yunli, Prince Guo] | [Hongyan Jie] · [Feng Huang Yu Fei]
◀ Series index: The Late Qing Dynasty Series — Complete Guide