My clothes were drenched by Spring drizzle
though I took Tenger's singing as my raincoat*

Dark clouds were intended to camouflage the sun;
The thunderclap was widely rolling in the heaven.
A wild goose flying for home was a scene,
with long wings fluttering time and again

The fresh grass afar seemed to be green
But nearby no green color could be seen.

The orioles fly over the south of River.
The vernal grass grow thicker and thicker.
The Beauty's tomb is higher but colder
With no grass turning much greener.
Her 1000-year-old lute has kept silent.
I'm not excited though the breeze is sweet.
No tears drop but I hate that painter
who drew black dots in Beauty's mouth corner*
In ancient times, there was no camera;
Painter Mao sought for his briber
With no bribe, Zhaojun not selected
as a favorite of the emperor.
If the Beauty was not distorted,
then no poem would be written as her ode.
[epilogue]
I often dream that her tomb is cold
but never thought beauty to be buried
[written by Manfield Zhu]

Note:(1)Tenger, today's well-known folk singer born in Inner Mongolia.
(2)something about Beauty Zhaojun could be found in my own paper
《昭君出塞与昭君文化浅说》<Beauty Zhaojun Married the Nomadic Hun Chieftain Far from the Great Wall>

There must be some ever-lasting girl stories in each nation all over the world, such as ‘Romeo and Juliet’ in England, ‘Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai’ in China,’‘Jeanne d'Arc’[approximately 1412-1431]in France,‘Heroine Zoya’in the former Soveiet Union’etc. which were too numerous to mention one by one. If I were asked to tell one of Chinese traditional cultural stories about girls, I'd like to talk something about an ancient Chinese love story,‘Beauty Zhaojun Married the Nomadic Hun Chieftain Far from the Great Wall’.
Those who speak like a book would like to mention that the well-known beauty, Zhaojun (Wang Qiang) looked like a lovely bird that was descending with her balanced wings for there was a popular saying used to describe the so-called 4-Great-Beauty love stories in ancient China, the saying goes like this, they are so beauttiful that ‘make fish sink and birds alight’or ‘it's their features that can make fish sink and birds alight, and it's their looks that can outshine the moon and put the flowers to shame’.And there was another poetic line,namely,‘a lonely wild goose was vanishing in the Hun's sky’where the big bird could also be used as a symbol of such a well-known beauty Zhaojun.One of the greatest poets of the Tang Dynasty (618-907) Du Fu wrote a noted poem full of great sympathy to Zhaojun while visitng her tomb.He wrote like this:

The charming Beauty born in a hamlet
far away from the Vitex-mountain gate.
She had to marry a Hun Ruler in the Desert,
spent her whole lone life and left
dusk a tomb within her candlelight.
Once her pretty face painted with a black dot,
she failed to be a Chinese queen candidate.
The daisy thought of native land day and night,
playing her lute as the Hun words that
had lasted for 1000 years with no end,
deeply telling her sorrow or hatred.
（Tr.Manfield Zhu）
The poem has never stopped being spread all over China for more than 1000 years,which reflects what an important role she was playing in China's historical culture.
Why does her love story of marrying a Hun chieftain or something like a king far away from China last so long? I don't think it's the main reason that she looks beautiful just in apperance or manner for the later generations had never seen what she looke like.However, even some modern starring actresses or key persons in art circles have no such magic power as Zhaojun had much longer and stronger effect on Chinese artistic creation.
Up to now she has kept to be worthy of the Chinese people's praise with great sympathy.Not only she brought glory to her birthplace but also her tomb location, to which travelers or pilgrims must visit thanks to her well-known name. Were Zhaojun sesible of her own worthiness in the paradise,she would be to say “it's no regret that I contributed my youth”. Thus, the Chinese people's traditional idea will be attacked that giving birth to a son is more important than a daughter as a poem pointed out that “All the parents wish to give birth to a daughter rather a son, and that means a condidate of a queen” written by poet Bai Juyi(772―846) in his long poem Eternal Love Song.
Nowadays Zhaojun's love story is no longer her own story with too much sorrow or regret but turns a kind of culture, namely, Zhaojun Culture.
Zhaojun's family name was Wang,and her first name is Qiang in an English naming way.She was born in today's Xingshan County, Hubei Province,China. In the 33rd year before century,it was told that she was willing to marry a Hun Chieftain. And as a princess of the Han-Dynasty (206BC-220),China, she became a queen of the Hun kingdom [in today's Mongolia or Inner Monoglia] . That is her afar-married story Beauty Zhaojun Married the Nomadic Hun Chieftain Far from the Great Wall recorded in a classical book entitled General Encyclopedic Dictionary compiled by Du Youh in the Tang Dynasty.
Her story or her fate was connected with how she was uglified by an imperial painter Mao Yanshou who was the best one to paint portraits with vivid appearance. Emperor Yuan possessed plenty of concubines except a queen, but it's impossible for him to have an interview with them one by one,so he asked imperial painters to paint their portraits one by one before he would like to ask one of the beauties to touch personally.
In the Han-Dynasty, most of concubines were snubbed, who were living melancholily bitter lives. So all of them had to pay their much gold cash to the painter in order to be painted better to attract the emperor.
Zhaojun was a fairy girl being selected as a concubine at her age of 17. Painting her eyes, the painter said “right now a vivid touch would turn your eyeballs worth a 1000-piece gold ”But she was intended to care of nothing of his speech with a hint for payment. She said that “My eyes are worth a 1000-piece gold but you see nothing so your eyes worth nothing.”Although she had not any financial spport to the painter,still she was so sure of her own beautiful look that would attract emperor to love her ; therefore, she did pay nothing to the painter. Due to her pround manner,the painter was too angry to paint her better but put black dots on her mouth corner and eyebrows, which distorted her charming face.

In the 33rd year BC, the Hun's top leader Huhanxie Chanyu got to Capital Chang'an to meet Emperor Yuan of the Han Dynasty,China and show his desire to be a son-in-law of the emperor who thought it's a good opportunity to develop diplomatic and political relations with the Hun so that he decided to dedicate five members of his maid-in-waiting to Chanyu. Zhaojun did not think she would turn the emperor's favorite so that she had to apply to marry the alien Chanyu. Emperor agreed to her application for he found her portrait was not so beautiful just according to her picture made by painter Mao.
However,the emperor was surprised to see Zhaojun look extremely beautiful. He was deeply intoxicated with Zhaojun's charm in good manners as she waved good-bye to him. Even he would like to check her on the way to the Hun,but he did not want to break his word in advance so that he was reluctant to see her off. Emperor Yuan was furious with the painter who uglified Zhaojun for he kept on thinking of her with ood looks and decided to kill the painter.
In China's history, Zhaojun was considered as a great heroine to contrubute to develop friendship between different nations. Virtually, she became an enbodiment of beauty. Something about her legend,story or various kinds of fiction has been widely known and spread all over China for thousands of year.Dring the past dynastues, writers,poets or playwrights tried their best to eulogize her in different artitistic ways and it's too numerous works about her to mention one by one. Therefore the so-called Zhaojun Culture was formed. 　　
The Chinese famous historian Jian Bozan(1898-1968) once said:She was not o [by Manfield Zhu]nly a beauty but a symbol of national friendship; and her tomb was not only a tomb but a historical monument as an ode of ever-lasting friendship between two different nations. It is said that
Her ancient lute song has been still sang today,
her 1000-year-old tomb will always newly stay.
[by Manfield Zhu]
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Note (1) Hun: A member of a nomadic pastoralist people who invaded not only China repeatedly in history but also Europe in the fourth and fifth centuries AD. As a warlike Asian people,they devastated or controlled large parts of eastern and central Europe, and were defeated in 455.
(2)appendix : the poetic version quoted in my paper originated from the following poem written by Du Fu (712―770) as a great poet in the Tang Dynasty (618-907) [by Manfield Zhu]
[附]杜甫《咏怀古迹》中有关昭君的唐诗原文：

“群山万壑赴荆门，
生长明妃尚有村。
一去紫台连朔漠，
独留青冢向黄昏。
画图省识春风面，
环佩空归月夜魂。
千载琵琶作胡语，
分明怨恨曲中论。”
(the end）

内蒙古草原走笔
<昭君墓>

我披着腾格儿歌声
淋了一身草原春雨

阴云有意遮日
霹雳一泻千里
目击一只归雁
继续运送羽翼

“草色遥看近却无”
无疑就是这里草地

江南草长莺飞时
昭君墓高撒寒意
长眠青冢草未青
千古琵琶已无语
游兴难随春意浓
欲哭无泪忆画局
今昔易解毛延寿
汉代难觅投影仪
巧借职权敛大财
古今中外皆有之
若无怪痣起事端
绝代佳人可有诗？
[尾声]
梦断魂飞梦坠地
方知草原葬美丽

[朱曼华 Manfield Zhu 写于乍暖还寒时 556]