Princess Fragrance

Princess Fragrance, or 香香公主, is a character in the novel Book and Sword: Gratitude and Revenge, the first novel of Jinyong.

She is the love interest of Chen Jialuo, the leader of the Red Flower Society. She was the beauty of the Hui, a Muslim Chinese tribe, and her body emitted a natural flower-like frangrace (hence the name). At first, Chen Jialuo liked her elder sister, Huo Qingtong, but on seeing her innocence and ethereal beauty, fell for her. Later, she was given to the Manchu emperor, Qianlong, as a tribute of the Hui people and an offering of peace. In the end, she killed herself to warn Chen Jialuo of the trap Emperor Qianlong set for him. Because of her death, Chen Jialuo converted to Islam.

Fiction or reality?

One of the characteristics of Louis Cha's fiction is the frequent use of historical figures, such as Emperor Kang Xi in The Deer and the Cauldron or Genghis Khan in The Legend of the Condor Heroes. It is possible the character of Princess Fragrance was based on a historical figure as well. There is a legend among the Uyghur, a Muslim tribe in China with a different culture than the Hui, about a brave woman named Yiparhan (or Iparhan). She was forced to be Emperor Qianlong's concubine and committed suicide. Iparhan was also known as Xiang Fei or the Fragrant Concubine.

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