Yu Youwei (also known as ‘Yu Xuanji’) comes from a literary family that has lost its fortune. She admires her teacher Wen Tingyun for his scholastic gift, but due to their great disparity in age, they cannot marry
Later Xuanji marries Li Yi, but it is after the wedding that she discovers that he already has a wife. Li Yi sends her to live at the Xianyi Taoist Nunnery, but his wife wreaks havoc there, ending in Xuanji’s favourite maid being killed. She cries as she walks in the snow, and sees an abandoned little girl called Luqiao...
‘It’s easy to get a priceless treasure, but hard to find a true lover. You’ll find someone as fine as Song Yu, so why lament over the loss of Wang Chang?’ – Yu Xuanji
Ten years have passed. Xuanji asks Luqiao to invite the well-known musician, Chen Wei, to a party of wine and song with friends. Lady Liu, wife of a senior minister, makes a scene. The chivalrous Chen protects Xuanji, and the arrival of Wen Tingyun brings relief.
One day, Xuanji falls ill and Luqiao is too languid to play the lute. Chen Wei comes to visit Xuanji, and discerns her illness as one of lovesickness. Chen stays for the night, and their affair is accidentally witnessed by Luqiao.
Xuanji teaches Luqiao the first lesson on sex, and the sensual awakening takes Luqiao into real womanhood. Wen Tingyun cannot bear to see Xuanji’s propensity to wallow in sensual pleasures, and proposes to marry her, but she declines.
In a ceremony marking her fifteenth birthday, the nubile Luqiao performs a dance much to the guests’ applause. Xuanji suddenly feels she has passed her prime and is saddened.
Luqiao and Chen Wei become lovers and their tryst is found out by Xuanji. She kills the couple and discovers that...
‘Beautiful flowers thrive best inside a palace, and verdant leaves cannot be tainted by the roadside dust.’ -Yu Xuanji
