After the princess offered a huge reward for poems about "Liangzhou's Ten Scenery Spots," people scrambled to …
After the princess offered a huge reward for poems about "Liangzhou's Ten Scenery Spots," people scrambled to present their works, hoping to gain her favor.
At first, pedantic scholars tried to guess her preferences, thinking the imperial princess must favor elegant, obscure verses. They piled up flowery words, quoting classics in every line, making their poems incomprehensibly rigid.
Unexpectedly, the princess wrote a red comment, "Such stale, pedantic nonsense, mixed with bookworm dust, utterly stinking!"
In contrast, a shepherd boy's playful poem "Snowy Purity" won her enthusiastic praise and was ranked first, "A pure tower pierces the sky, covered in three layers of snow like cotton. Immortals passing by huddle their necks, afraid of knocking off the Jade Emperor's hat."
Once, Cao Zijian composed a poem in seven steps. Today, the common people of Liangzhou create charm in seven steps, this is the true meaning of "natural beauty like lotus emerging from clear water."
That shepherd boy was originally a Suli merchant caravan's drummer left behind in Liangzhou. He yearned to go to distant Samarkand, his dreamland of bliss. He wanted to see if trees there truly bore the legendary golden peaches.
Having received the princess's reward, the shepherd boy bought a white horse and set off.
Several years later, the shepherd boy returned to Liangzhou. Hearing the princess had passed away, he led that same horse to pay respects.
The white horse became an old horse and the shepherd boy became an old man. The old horse carried the old man before imperial capital. After exhaling its last breath, both died together.
That night, the moon before imperial capital was bright as water. Some said they saw the princess's spirit, still looking as she did when she first met the shepherd boy.
The shepherd boy who had seen the golden peaches gifted the white horse back to the princess who had spent her life confined to Liangzhou. The young white horse carried the far-traveling Tang daughter, treading the moonlit-paved road, step by step back to Chang'an.