ABSTRACT
Xi Shi (b. ca. 500 B.C.), who lived during the Spring and Au tumn period of the Eastern Zhou dynasty, was the most famous of the four great beauties in Chinese history responsible for the collapse of various Chinese kingdoms or states and the downfall of their rulers. Her name became synonymous with beauty in China, especially in Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces. Xi Shi was bom in a village in Zhuji county, Zhejiang. Most of the inhab itants of her region shared the same surname, Shi, and, as her village was on the western slope of a mountain, she was given the name Xi (western) Shi. Her father was a woodcutter, and she contributed to family finances by washing silk in a stream near her home.
