Emperor Minghuang Teaching Yang Gueifei to Play the Flute

This hanging scroll by the Japanese artist Choryusai depicts the legendary scene of Emperor Minghuang (also known as Xuanzong, r. 712–756 CE) teaching his beloved consort Yang Guifei to play the transverse flute — a story that became one of the most enduring romances in East Asian literary and visual culture. The emperors passionate love for Yang Guifei and the tragic consequences of their affair — which led to the An Lushan Rebellion and the emperor's forced flight from the capital — inspired countless poems, plays, and paintings across China and Japan for over a millennium. Choryusai was a Japanese painter of the Muromachi period (1336–1573) who specialized in scenes from Chinese literature and history, painted in a style that blended Japanese yamato-e traditions with Chinese pictorial conventions. During this period, Chinese literature and philosophy were central to Japanese elite culture — the study of Chinese classical texts was the foundation of aristocratic education, and Chinese historical and literary subjects provided a rich iconographic source for Japanese painters. The story of Emperor Minghuang and Yang Guifei reached Japan through literature — primarily through the Tang dynasty poet Bai Juyi's "Song of Everlasting Regret" (Chang Hen Ge), which became one of the most widely read Chinese poems in Japan. The tale of the emperor's all-consuming love for his beautiful consort, the rebellion that their affair helped provoke, and Yang Guifei's tragic death at the hands of the emperor's own soldiers resonated deeply with Japanese audiences, who adapted it into Noh plays, joruri puppet dramas, ukiyo-e prints, and paintings like this one. The painting shows the couple in an intimate moment of instruction: the emperor leans toward Yang Guifei, guiding her hands on the flute, while she holds the instrument with focused attention. This iconography emphasizes the romantic intimacy of their relationship — the emperor, who should be governing the realm, is instead sharing his musical knowledge with his beloved, a detail that foreshadows the political catastrophe that their affair will bring. The Chinese-style robes, the elaborate interior, and the garden setting are rendered in a hybrid style that combines Japanese attention to decorative detail with Chinese conventions of figure painting. The legend of Minghuang and Yang Guifei served multiple cultural functions in Japan. For the aristocracy, it was a cautionary tale about the dangers of allowing passion to override duty. For Buddhist and Confucian commentators, it illustrated the transience of worldly beauty and power. For artists and writers, it provided a ready-made narrative of passionate love, political catastrophe, and tragic beauty that could be adapted to express distinctly Japanese themes of impermanence and emotional depth.

The story of Emperor Minghuang and Yang Guifei became one of the most important shared literary and artistic traditions across East Asia, inspiring masterworks in Chinese, Japanese, and Korean visual culture for over a thousand years.

This Japanese hanging scroll transforms a Chinese love story into a meditation on passion and political catastrophe — a scene of intimate instruction that foreshadows the fall of an empire, painted in a style that blends Japanese and Chinese pictorial traditions.