Xie Xinghan's reasoning had some merit in the Northern and Southern Dynasties, when knowledge was monopolized and the people's minds had yet to be enlightened. Judging people this way, she probably could distinguish gentry from commoners with an unerring eye.
But she could never have imagined that Wang Yang had traveled back from more than fifteen hundred years in the future. His vision, breadth of mind, knowledge, and learning could not be measured by ordinary standards, so her method of distinguishing the noble from the lowborn failed when applied to him.
This was also one of the main reasons Wang Yang had managed to maintain his false aristocratic identity until now.
Looking as though she held the pearl of wisdom firmly in her grasp, Xie Xinghan continued, "Furthermore-"
"Furthermore, your poetry also bears out your identity. 'We danced until the moon sank low beyond the willows by the tower; we sang until the breeze beneath our peach-blossom fans fell still.' That line alone reveals the grace of someone from a great house. These days, ordinary people writing about wealth and nobility insist on gold and jade, not realizing they have already fallen into an inferior class. Take Bao Zhao: 'Embroidered rafters with golden lotus flowers; cassia pillars with jade coiling dragons.' His poem is called 'On Behalf of King Chen Si: Luoyang.' He claimed to take up the brush on a king's behalf, yet he knew nothing of true wealth and nobility. True wealth and nobility are like King Chen Si's 'Gathering my robes, I emerge from the inner chamber, strolling at ease between two pillars,' or 'Autumn orchids cover the long slope; crimson blossoms rise above the green pool.' That is true nobility. Noble bearing lies in the bones, not the outward form. Heaps of gold and jade, brocade