Yang Fei

Yang Fei's birth and death years are unknown; she was likely born in the 14th century. Her full name and background remain unclear. She was a consort of Ming Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang of the Ming Dynasty, and is sometimes described as an imperial beauty. She was the biological mother of his seventeenth son, Ning Xian Wang Zhu Quan. On the first day of the fifth month of the 11th year of Hongwu (May 27, 1378), Yang gave birth to Zhu Quan. The Ming History records her as "Yang Fei," but the reason for this designation is unknown. The Tianguang Yudie refers to her and the mother of King An Hui Zhu Ying as "Imperial Beauties." The exact date of Yang's death is not recorded, and it is possible that she was buried with her husband, Ming Taizu, after his death on the tenth day of the leap fifth month of the 31st year of Hongwu (June 24, 1398). The Ming-Qing scholar Mao Qiling's "Sheng Chao Tong Shi Shi Yi Ji" records that after Ming Taizu's death, forty-six consorts were buried with the Ming Xiaoling Mausoleum, but only about a dozen attendants were buried with her. In July of the 31st year of Hongwu, Emperor Jianwen Zhu Yunwen, newly enthroned, promoted several Jinyiwei officials. It is claimed that some of their fathers and brothers may have been attendants buried with the emperor—referred to as "Chao Tian Nu Hu"—which might include Yang Fei's father and brother, Yang Zhong, though their exact identities are unclear. In popular media, in the 1993 TV drama "Zhu Yuan Zhang," the role of Yang Fei was played by Wu Chi.