"This story was also something I heard from the older generation in my family," Lu Zheng said. "It should have taken place several thousand years ago, during the Previous Dynasty..."
Lu Zheng then narrated the story of Emperor Tang Ming and Yang Guifei in a measured, unhurried manner. Naturally, he added a fair amount of artistic embellishment, emphasizing Emperor Tang Ming's love for Yang Guifei, as well as Yang Yuhuan's beauty and talent.
After all, for an emperor, the hardest thing to possess was sincerity; for a consort, what spread the widest was the impact she had on history.
Had they not seen it? The beauties whose names remained in Hua Country's history all had the grand currents of the age as their backdrop: Xi Shi threw Wu into chaos, Zhaojun rode beyond the frontier, Diaochan slew Dong Zhuo, Yuhuan brought down Tang—not to mention Wu Zetian, the empress of a generation.
And among so many women, the greatest force behind Yang Yuhuan securing her place among the Four Great Beauties was none other than Li Bai's "Qingping Tune."
"Clouds think of her robes, flowers think of her face; spring breeze brushes the balustrade, dew blooms rich and bright. Were she not seen atop the jade mountains, then beneath the moon at the Jasper Terrace she would be met."
Once this poem appeared, all other poems lost their color.
"Fine poem!" Si Lingxi nodded. "Not a single word speaks of beauty, yet beauty has been written to its utmost. How could such a poem have failed to survive? Anyone capable of writing such verse could never have been an ordinary person."
Si Lingxi's eyes flickered as her mind raced, considering which great poet in the Central Plains' history best fit this poem.
One had to know that she had lived