Concubine Yang Cemetery

This guide to the Concubine Yang Cemetery in Xi'an follows Yang Guifei, favorite consort of the Tang emperor Xuanzong, through the summer of 756, when a general's revolt sent the imperial court fleeing west and the emperor's own bodyguard stopped moving at a relay station called Mawei. It traces what the soldiers demanded of the emperor there, and what women did at the mound behind the wall in front of you for centuries afterward, believing its soil could borrow her legendary beauty. Stand at the blue wall and consider how many hands, grieving and hopeful alike, have shaped this ground.