Tang Shi-xia

Tang Yiying was born in 1904 and passed away in 1993. Her courtesy name was Yiying, and her given name was Shixia. She was of Manchu Tatar descent. She was a painter during the Republic of China's mainland period and later moved to Hong Kong. She was the daughter of Zhiqi, younger brother of Zhenfei and Jingfei. Her brothers Tang Junwu and sister Tang Shunjun served as representatives at the First National Congress of the Kuomintang; Tang Shunjun was acclaimed as "the flower of the National Congress." On January 12, 1924, at the age of 17, Tang Yiying married Pujie, the younger brother of Emperor Puyi. She first met Zhang Xueliang at a dance at Beijing Hotel in 1927. Afterwards, they maintained frequent contact, and she became Zhang Xueliang’s extramarital lover, allegedly influencing Pujie to go to Fengtian to study at the martial academy. Subsequently, Tang Yiying's relationship with Pujie’s family broke down, and the two separated, entering a long-standing divorce controversy. During Pujie’s studies in Japan, there were rumors that Zhang Zongchang accused Tang Yiying of stealing a large amount of property from the Prince Chun Palace in Beiping. During the same period, she became the mistress of Lu Xiaojia, son of Lu Yongxiang, and cohabited with him at the Six Nations Hotel in Beijing. After her divorce, Tang Yiying turned to painting as her profession, adopting a style of Northern School brushwork, specializing in meticulous landscape painting. In 1949, she flew from Shanghai to Taiwan, then later moved to Hong Kong, where she taught at the School of Oriental Languages at the University of Hong Kong, serving as a senior instructor in Chinese painting and Mandarin. She held numerous exhibitions in Taiwan, with Xue Dake composing "Shixia Song" to praise her art. Before her death, she donated many works to the Cultural University, which are now preserved at the Huagang Museum of Culture and Education. She died in Hong Kong in 1993 at the age of 89.