Chen Shimei and Qin Xianglian

Chen Shimei is a Chinese opera character and a byword in China for a heartless and unfaithful man.

The character was based on the historical court records of the Qing dynasty government official Chen Shumei (陳熟美), whose wife was Qin Xinglian (秦馨蓮).

These officials created two fictitious husband-and-wife characters based on the couple by changing the middle Chinese characters of their real names and brought Bao Zheng of the Song dynasty era into their fictitious story to slander and smear Chen Shumei and his wife Qin Xinglian.

The story most familiar to modern people no longer contained superstition, and instead had Chen's assassin Han Qi (韓琪) commit suicide to let Qin escape.

Still, aware that his position was in danger plus that he had lied to the Emperor to marry the princess, Shimei not only claimed to not know Xianglian and their children, but also secretly ordered his bodyguard Han Qi (韩琪) to murder them.

Ordering his subordinates to help Xianglian, Bao Zheng indignantly resolved to proceed with the execution in spite of the edict.

When the Empress Dowager pointed out that the penalty for defying an imperial edict was also death, Bao Zheng took off his official headwear and declared that Shimei should be executed first before himself.

After the foundation of the People's Republic of China, Changchun Film Studio (長春電影製片廠) produced the colorful opera film “Qin Xianglian” in 1964 to preserve the stagecraft of Beijing opera performers such as Zhang Junqiu (張君秋), Ma Lianliang (馬連良), Li Duokui (李多奎) and Qiu Shengrong (裘盛戎).