Drawing inspiration

When they escape to a village, they meet a young man named Hao Jun who makes rouge and powder. The princess immediately falls in love with him. The young man helps the princess to apply the rouge and powder, which makes her look pretty. The princess offers to marry Hao and is accepted.

She asks him: "Don't you think I'm ugly?" Hao says that, as a cosmetics seller, he has seen a lot of beautiful girls, but few are as interesting as her.

The princess takes Hao back to the palace and, as the original version goes, the king happily marries his daughter to him together with bestowing a high official position, a good fortune and a palace.

But unlike the original story, Hao helps the princess to put on makeup before leaving for the feast. So when the curious officials open the door, they find a beautiful princess.

In Chang's version, it is not Buddha, but the husband, that helps the princess－unlike the story featured in cave No 98, showing that the princess became pretty because of her prayers.

Similarly, Chang imparts charming personalities and interesting stories to other female characters from the frescos in Mogao, such as Cao Shijiuniang from cave No 98 and the three daughters of Mara－Tanha, Raga and Arati－in cave No 254.

Mara's three beautiful daughters were actually very powerful, but they were tragically turned into ugly old ladies by Buddha.

"It's so unfair, so I made up some stories to highlight their power and personalities," Chang says.