Within the history of Chinese imperial families, Emperor Xuanzong and Yang Yuhuan were the exemplary loving and devoted couple. The emperor conferred on Yang the supreme title of imperial concubine in 745, thereby making her his de facto empress (the actual empress’ throne had been empty since 724, when Xuanzong deposed his then empress).From that time onwards, the couple was inseparable, as verified by Tang Dynasty literature, which records how they “traveled in the same carriage, stayed in the same room, dined at the same table, and slept in the same bed”; also that the emperor “had never since appeared at the morning court assembly”and that he “never had any other woman in his bed.” Yang Yuhuan lived a life of unashamed luxury in the Chang’an palace.
The emperor built her a Duanzheng (Propriety) Tower that served as her dressing room, and a luxurious hot spring bathhouse. She had more than 700 personal dressmakers and took delivery of her favorite fruit, lichee, freighted all the way from the southern coast to
the capital of Chang’an by special imperial express.
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