The Four Most Handsome Men

Song Yu 宋玉 (fl. 298–263 BC), Pan Yue/Pan An 潘岳/潘安 (247–300), Wei Jie 衛玠 (286–312), and Gao Su 高肅 (541–573) are said to be the four most handsome men in premodern China. Song Yu 宋玉 (fl. 298–263 BC) was a Chinese poet from the late Warring States period, and is known as the traditional author of a number of poems in the Verses of Chu (Chu ci 楚辭). Among the Verses of Chu poems usually attributed to Song Yu are those in the “Jiubian” 九辯 [nine arguments] section. Also credited to Song Yu, somewhat improbably, are several fu 賦 collected in the 6th century literary anthology Wenxuan 文選 [Selections of Refined Literature]. Pan Yue 潘岳 (247–300), courtesy name Anren 安仁, was a prominent Chinese fu poet in the Western Jin dynasty. He is popularly referred to as Pan An 潘安 and was well known for his talent and good looks from a young age. “Pan An” has become the Chinese byword for handsome men. According to Shishuo Xinyu 世說新語 [A New Account of the Tales of the World], every time when Pan went out, women would gather around and throw fruits onto his carriage.