May-Ling Shen

ca. 790 C.E.--A girl-child found abandoned in a field is raised by the Shen family. Since she is of small stature and delicate features, they have her instructed in the ways of the concubines. They plan to sell her when she is of age.
810--May-Ling arrives in the Forbidden City, having been purchased by a petty official at the Emperor's court as his newest concubine. Yat Yang Ku becomes inordinately fond of his newest and youngest concubine. A few months after the new concubine's arrival, Yat's senior wife, becomes jealous and poisons May-Ling to dispose of her. When May-Ling revives, she flees the Forbidden City in confusion.
after 810--While wandering through China, May-Ling is found by immortal Yau Chuan Chou who takes her in and teaches her what she is. While grateful to him, May-Ling understands that he is not skilled enough to teach her all that she needs to know to survive in the game of immortals. She leaves him and seeks out the greatest martial arts expert in China and beseeches him humbly to teach her. He at last agrees and teaches her all he knows. May-Ling is a determined and skillful student. When she can finally defeat him, she moves on; becoming in later centuries, a teacher to many other immortals. She becomes known as a warrior who happened to be a woman, not a woman warrior.
1276--Chinese warrior Kiem Sun of the Sung Dynasty dies his first death in battle against the Mongol hordes. May-Ling becomes his first teacher. In five hundred years, he still reguards her as a master and sends his young friend Duncan MacLeod to learn from "Master Shen." He doesn't mention that she is female.
1774--Kahn Hsing is assigned to Watch May-Ling Shen following the death of his previous assignment, Zhang Shi in 1773.
1776--Settling in Outer Mongolia, May-Ling has told villagers that she is a wealthy widow. It takes her less than two months to become an integral part of village life. May-Ling's watcher Kahn Hsing finds great amusement in her repeatedly sending prospective students flying through the air to land in the dirt.
1780--When Duncan MacLeod arrives in the village seeking the "great teacher Shen" Kahn Hsing takes note of the upstart's arrival and enjoys the sight of the barbarian hunched over and holding his "assets" just before May-Ling flips him into the dirt. The barbarian, however, seeks enlightenment and trains for months with Master Shen. Hsing fears his Western thinking will never allow the barbarian to become proficient in Eastern methods of fighting.
Winter 1781--When she deems him skilled enough to defeat her, May-Ling takes Duncan MacLeod as a lover. They part soon after as friends.
1789--When May-Ling moves on, Kahn Hsing asks the tribunal to let him retire. The Tribunal purchases him a modest farm in his home village.
ca. 1990--May-Ling Shen settles in Hong Kong under the guise of being a professional diver. She has a lap pool added to her palatial home and swims there daily when she is in residence.
1993--Following the murder of his previous assignment Darius at the hands of renegade Watcher James Horton, Ian Bancroft is re-assigned to Watch the stable and proficient May-Ling Shen. He hopes to retire and write his memoirs after his time with her.
8 Feb 1995--While swimming in her Hong Kong pool, May-Ling is surprised by young up-start immortal Michael Christian. He refuses to let her arm herself and takes her head. Bancroft is saddened but journeys to Seacouver to ask Joe Dawson for another assignment.