The gentle morning light of early summer shone through exquisitely crafted windows into a room that looked simple yet revealed nobility in every detail. Dawn had just broken, and faint patches of light fell upon the gauze curtains, through which two figures could dimly be seen.
A pretty maid stood waiting with washing supplies in her hands. Xishi slowly woke, a little languid, her beauty breathtaking at any hour.
Cloudlike hair, a flowerlike face, a golden dangling hairpin; within warm lotus curtains, a spring night passed.
Luo Yu woke from his dreams and saw that the maid had already begun dressing Xishi's hair and applying her makeup. He teased, "Over these past few years, who knows how many poems and rhapsodies have been written in the name of 'Xi Shi'? My beloved's beauty is known throughout the world. Do you really still need powder and rouge?"
Luo State was the birthplace of the Rites of Zhou and a flourishing center of culture among the states. It had long maintained the custom of singing praises to the Sage King, and the earliest poems were sung only during sacrifices.
But to express their reverence for the Sage King, the Luo State Ruling House created many poems that made extensive use of analogy and evocative imagery.
Within Zhao City, everyone could sing poetry, and everyone sang it well.
Over the years, scholars from every corner of the land discovered how deeply the custom of singing poetry ran in Zhao City, so they brought poems from the various states to Luo State to exchange with one another.
These poems covered a vast array of subjects: astronomy and geography, customs and marriage, sacrifices and warfare. Nothing lay beyond their scope, nothing beyond their embrace. They could be called another form of history.
Confucius, the Academy's