After Lu You and Tang Wan married, they were a loving couple deeply devoted to each other, perfectly harmonious in every way. Yet Lu You's mother came to detest her daughter-in-law and forced Lu You to divorce Madam Tang. Despite all of Lu You's pleas and arguments, the two were ultimately forced apart. Tang Wan remarried Zhao Shicheng, a member of the Southern Song imperial clan, and they lost all contact with one another.
One spring day several years later, Lu You happened to encounter Madam Tang, who was touring Shen Garden with her husband. After Tang Wan and her husband left, the sight stirred profound feelings in Lu You. Drunk, he composed a lyric called "Chai Tou Feng" and casually inscribed it upon the garden wall:
Delicate crimson hands, yellow-rattan wine, spring filled the city, palace walls lined with willows. The east wind was cruel, joy was fleeting; a heart brimming with sorrow, years of lonely separation. Wrong, wrong, wrong!
Spring remained as ever, but she had wasted away; tears had soaked the gauze, staining it red. Peach blossoms fell, idle ponds and pavilions. Though our mountain vows remained, no brocade letter could be entrusted. No, no, no!
The following year, for reasons unknown, Tang Wan returned to Shen Garden to enjoy the spring. Sadly, she never saw Lu You again, only the lyric on the wall. She wept like rain, her heart cut as if by knives, and wrote a poem in reply:
The world was cold, human hearts cruel; rain sent flowers falling easily at dusk. Dawn winds dried, tear stains remained; wishing to write my feelings, I spoke alone beside the slanting rail. Hard, hard, hard!
People had gone their separate ways; today was not yesterday. My ailing soul was ever like a swing's rope. The