Ancient Chinese Warrior Mu Guiying
Woman General of The House of Yang
Please note that the true story of Mu Guiying has several variations. It has been retold many times and is featured in a famous Peking Opera. The following is my short version of the story
which I believe is historically correct .
Some Background Story:
The Song Dynasty Army was in a tight battle with the forces of a nomad militia commanded by Great Liao from China's northern borders. The Great Liao sought the advice of a famous military tactition, Lu Zhong who devised an invincible battle formation known as "Tianmen Zhen" or "The Heavenly Gate". This formation involved 72
sections and was believed to be invincible.
The Great Liao dared the Song army to defeat the formation within 100 days. Otherwise, they had to surrender their recently unified motherland to the Great Liao.
The whole Song Army was commanded by generals that all belonged to the House of Yang. Each member of the House of Yang fought with great vigor against the invading forces.
Sadly, they were sabotaged by faction in the Song Court and distrusted by the Song Emperor.
Eventually, the Song Army headed by the House of Yang were defeated by the Great Liao. There were great losses including five of the eight generals of Yang (all brothers).
Of the three surviving generals, one was captured by the forces of Great Liao, and became the son-in-law of Liao (more common than you might imagine - as captured officers of high rank often joined the army of their captors as an honorable gesture and to save face after defeat).
Another general quit and went on a pilgrimage and eventually becoming a monk.
Yang Yanzhao was the only remaining brother, and therefore became the commanding general. The positions of the lost generals were now taken by all the women of the family.
These new generals included Yang Yanzhao's mother, wife, two sisters, and three of his brothers' widows. They are known in China as, "The Women Generals of Yang".
Mu Guiying's Story:
General Yang Yanzhao's teenaged son, Yang Zongbao was sent on a mission to seek out the daughter of a military tactician who was rumored to have the secret to breaking the Heavenly Gate formation.
The girl that he was sent to find was none other than a 19-year-old girl named Mu Guiying.
Yang Zongbao came across a few women in a forest, not realizing that one of them was the woman he sought.
The women toyed with him, and Mu Guiying finally revealed her identity but refused to give up the secret of defeating the Heavenly Gate unless he could beat her in a series of fighting duels. The penalty for losing would be that he would have to marry her.
What the young Yang Yanzhao did not realize was that in this rather chivalrous period in China, Mu Guiying was not only a cunning warrior but was choosing her own husband.
He lost all three duels, secretly married Mu Guiying, and returned, empty-handed, and a day late.
Upon his return, his father was furious with his son and ordered his execution for being tardy and not fulfilling his orders.
Mu Guiying heard about the execution order and came to General Yang Yanzhao's headquarters to plead for her new husband's like.
Of course, General Yang Yanzhao's knew about the secret wedding, and his plan was to draw out Mu Guiying, and never to actually execute his son.
The General demanded that Mu Guiying give him the secret to defeating the Heavenly Gate. Through some negotiation, she agreed and took charge of the army.
Rather than fight in a decisive battle, she sent forces to the flank to burn and destroy the food and supplies of the forces. Since no force can maintain a protracted battle without supplies, they would need to depend on strong supply lines from a base. Mu Gui-Yang knew this, and sent forces to simultaneously attack the base city of the Liao army, and cut off the supply line.
The forces of Great Liao now starving, and without any way to replenish arrows, and other weapons on the battlefield, were soundly defeated.
After defeating Great Liao, the Song Emperor bestowed the official title of General upon Mu Guiying and threw a proper and royal wedding for Mu Guiying and Yang Zongbao.
in China, she is as famous, or perhaps more famous than Hua Mulan (who is only known in the western world from the Mulan Disney movie).
Legend has it that she remained a Commanding General in the Song Army well into her 80's
She was a tough yet feminine woman throughout her life. One legend has it that she led the army in battle while pregnant, and gave birth to her son, Yang Wenguang on the battlefield.
About the Art
This is an elaborate style painting using special black Chinese ink and watercolor on xuan paper (rice paper).
This rice paper was then taken to our mounting shop in Beijing where a hand-made silk wall scroll was created for this painting.
This wall scroll then flew with me from China to the USA and is now located at our San Diego, California gallery, ready to be shipped to you.
How I Found This Art and About This Artist...
Visiting an old friend and artist in Chengdu, I notice a woman is politely waiting for me. Soon enough, I finish my business and leave my friend to work on some art that I would pick up several days later. The polite woman greets me as I walk out. She quietly asks if I would just take a look at her artwork.
I walk over to her little booth and take a look. The work is good, and I am surprised that she doesn't have a studio-gallery like a lot of artists. She says that she likes to sell in the market, and put paintings in the hands of "the common man". It is then that I realize we have a similar philosophy.
I look through her whole collection and pick out several pieces that I like. Her husband shows up and helps out getting paintings out of boxes for me to look at.
After we settle and I pay for all of the paintings, he asks if there is any other kind of art that I am looking for. I tell him, in Chinese, "I have been looking for warriors and really cool dragons for a long time". Suddenly he is very excited. Grabbing through several boxes he emerges with a photo album. He hands the album to me and tells me that I must look!
Opening the album, I see a great collection of paintings of "Legendary Warriors of China" and several eye-catching dragons. He tells me that all of the photos are of his paintings.
Now, I get pretty excited, because I've been looking for good warrior-paintings for more than a year and a half, and I am always on the lookout for a good dragon-painting.
He doesn't have any work ready to sell, but we talk about sizes, styles, and which warriors and dragons I want, and even down to what the background of each piece should be. We talk until the end of the day, and finally, we talk about the price. I am expecting something high, but the price he gives me is just too low for this quality of work. So, for the first time in my art-buying career, I "reverse-bargain", and tell him that I will pay 50% more as long as the quality is good. He and his wife look puzzled for a second, and then he remarks in Chinese, "I have been waiting to hear someone say that for a long time". The gesture as they took it was not about money, but more about my personal compliment on the quality and importance of the art itself.
About the artist:
The artist's name is Li Ying-Lai. He lives with his wife and young daughter near Chengdu, in the Sichuan province of China. As if fitting the stereotype, he loves to paint dragons and warriors, but his wife paints beautiful women, flowers, landscapes, and animals.
They both live the en life of artists. Both of them have the attitude that the art itself is more important than money. The honor of knowing that their work will now be on the walls of homes throughout the world is the thing they feel strongest about.
2006 Update
Leaving Kashgar (a 2000-year-old trading post and gateway from China to the Middle East), I was sick as a dog, even incorrectly thinking that I had Malaria for a few days. I wanted badly to just head back home to Beijing, but I knew that I needed to head to Chengdu to see this husband and wife artist duo.
It had been over a year since I had seen them, and due to a phone number change, we lost contact for a while. It was time to rekindle our relationship (relationships or "guanxi" is a very important concept in Chinese culture - it's often about showing mutual respect, exchanging favors, developing a friendship before doing business, and building trust).
I found that Li Ying-Lai is doing pretty well now. His artwork was recently featured in "The 3rd Eye" magazine (a major fine art publication distributed in Mainland China and Hong Kong). Other art critics have recommended investment purchases of Li Ying-Lai's artwork, expecting that it will increase in value during the coming years.
This also means it's time to pay more for his artwork. We talked for a while and decided to increase everything by about 50%. So suddenly a $100 painting from him is now $150, but orders for his artwork pour in from Shanghai collectors that are paying twice as much. The fact that we have "guanxi" from all of my purchases of his artwork before he became famous means that I can still bring his artwork to you at a higher, but still affordable price.
Want a Custom Asian Warrior Painting?
This artist creates many different warrior paintings. If you are looking for a famous warrior of ancient China, just let us know which warrior, and what size you want, and we'll commission the painting and mount it for you in our workshop.
The painting shown to the left is an excerpt (about 2/3 of the whole painting) from a special piece the artist did that is over 11 meters (35 feet) wide. At the time of writing, this painting is for sale at an asking price of $10,000. It's been featured in a couple of Asian art magazines, so the painting itself is getting famous. But it's just waiting for someone with a lot of wall space and the means to complete a very big art framing project.
