The name of Concubine Yang is Yuhuan. Originally she was the wife of Xuanzong's son. However, Xuanzong fell in love with her and accommodated her into the palaces. She went by the name Taizhen, in which the palace was named after. After several years she left Taizhen palace and she was ennobled high-ranked imperial concubine and ranked with the empress. At that time Xuanzong was 56 yeas old and Yang was 22.

Concubine Yang is not only beautiful, but also talented in music and dancing. It is said that Emperor Xuanzong gave her his music piece Melody of Plumage.  After reading it only for a short time she is able to perform it very well. Equally important, Emperor Xuanzong loved her very much. It is also said that Emperor Minghuang went to the girl mountain. He drowned into the beauty of the scene and suddenly heard a song being sung around him. After returning to the palace, he wrote down what he heard and mixed it with a melody from India. Another story happened in an autumn. Emperor Xuanzong took Yang to see the beautiful white lotus, and hereby he was very proud of his concubine and said, "The lotus is beautiful without spirit, it cannot be compared with my concubine. My concubine is the best flowers in the world."

Because Yang is the beloved of the emperor, her three sisters are entitled Madame of the country and her brothers are all became the high rank officials. The emperor Guo Zhong, meaning loyalty to the country, is renamed yang Zhao. Yang Guozhong is ennobled as the right director and nearly took the whole power of the country. Emperor Xuanzong was too occupied with drinking and playing with his concubines that he neglected to pay attention to domestic affairs. Domestic politics became more corrupted contradictions began to form. The chaos started by An Lushan and Shi Siming came out. Emperor Xuanzong decided to escape to Chengdu. When they escaped to Mawei County, the soldiers had a rebellion and they demanded Emperor Xuanzong to kill Concubine Yang. Xuanzong has no way except ordering Gao Lishi to let her commit suicide by hanging herself from a pear tree. She was only 38 years old. It is said that when transporting the body of Concubine Yang, one of her shoes was lost in the soil. One old lady found her shoes and displayed it. If a traveler wants to see it, he must pay 200 dollars. Needless to say the old lady became very wealthy.

There are also a lot of tales regarding the death of concubine Yang. A lot of people argued that she didn't die and that another woman died instead. Concubine Yang finally fled to Japan with her brother Yang Guozhong's daughter in law and grandson. Yang also beat a coup d'etat with the tenno and now there are two Concubine tombs in Japan.

In 1963 a Japanese girl showed the general public a genealogy and announced that she was the offspring of Concubine Yang. The famous movie star Shankou baihui also claimed that she was the offspring of Concubine Yang.

There are also a lot of speculations about Concubine Yang in Japan. For example, another person died instead of Yang and Yang fled to the Shankou County of Japan. The stand-in of Yang was a maid. The head of the army, Chen Xuanli was not willing to kill Yang because of her beauty, so he consulted secretly with Gao Lishi to make a maid to die for her. Because Chen Xuanli was in charge of examining the body of Concubine Yang, they managed to make Concubine Yang to escape to Japan.

After the pacification of Chaos of An Lushan and Shi Siming, Emperor Xuanzong sent people to go across the sea to search for Concubine Yang. Afterwards, Concubine Yang was found in Jiujing, Shanko County. They gave the Concubine two figures of Buddha, and in return Yang gave them a jade hairpin. The two Buddha figures are still being displayed in Jiujin and Concubine Yang finally died in Japan. Now Japan is ready to open Yang's tomb as a tourist resort.