Wine shimmered in the cups; whelk meat heaped the plates.
Wang Yang had started with chopsticks, but soon found that unsatisfying and switched to scooping it up with a spoon. Every mouthful brimmed with rich flavor-what bliss.
Beside Xie Xinghan, meanwhile, whelk shells piled into a mountain, and her eyes were full of reproach.
Seeing her expression, Wang Yang laughed. "We agreed beforehand, remember? Cheer up."
"I can't! You wrote two poems in a row to tease me. How am I supposed to cheer up?! No more playful verse this time. Write something sorrowful, something that suits my mood!"
"Picking out a little whelk meat has made you sorrowful?"
"Sorrowful. Very sorrowful!" Xie Xinghan stressed the words, her shimmering eyes brimming with grievance.
You little actress!
"But with such delicious food before us, sorrowful verse hardly seems appropriate!"
"Why not? At joyous banquets in the Han and Wei eras, once the guests had drunk their fill, dirges often followed. Cao Zhi's 'Gathering for the New Year' says, 'Sorrowful songs rang fiercely; we savored the clear Shang mode.' The ancient poem 'Today's Fine Banquet' and Emperor Wen of Wei's 'Song of the Mugwort on the Great Wall' are of the same kind. The ancients regarded sorrow as beautiful. Whenever sorrowful music stirred the senses and pierced the liver and spleen with grief, it moved people most readily. This was precisely what Fan Qin called 'sorrow that moves the stubborn and the alluring alike.'"
Xie Xinghan had actually touched on an important aspect of the literary fashions and aesthetic tastes of the Han and Wei eras. Her words struck a chord deep in Wang Yang's heart, and he could not help praising her:
"Well said! In ancient times, music that evoked sorrow was deemed good music, and listeners capable of feeling that