Chapter 181: Poetry Competition

Compared to writing a chrysanthemum poem, as soon as she said this, not only Qiao Lili laughed, but all the noble ladies also covered their mouths and giggled.

These noble ladies in the capital began attending various flower-viewing banquets when they were in their teens. The peach blossom poems, magnolia poems, lotus poems, chrysanthemum poems, and plum blossom poems they wrote at the banquets have been accumulated so much that I'm afraid not everyone could publish a collection of poems.

How could a girl's calligraphy be easily displayed in public? This Tuan Garden was called a royal garden, but in fact, not many royal family members came here. Emperor Yong'an never came here. The ladies in the harem would close the palace door and embroider handkerchiefs. Concubine Yun would never do anything as high-profile and vulgar as visiting the garden.

In the past, the one who loved to do this the most was the Third Princess. The eldest and second princes would come occasionally, and the two princesses would occasionally use it to hold banquets or something. However, most of the time, this garden was lent to important officials in the court, or borrowed by various private organizations, such as poetry societies, forums and the like. Of course, these organizations had famous initiators.

The most famous Qiuyu Forum in the capital has a special activity area in Tuanyuan, and the forum owner is Murong Mo. This is also an important reason why the third princess likes to come to Tuanyuan. However, she has never met Murong Mo here. On the days when the forum has meetings, no unrelated people are allowed to enter, and the princess is no exception. This is a privilege given by the emperor.

Yu Xinyao could only come to the place where Murong Mo stayed the next day after the forum ended to pay tribute to him.

This chrysanthemum exhibition was not specially set up to receive Princess Rong Jiang. There is a chrysanthemum exhibition every autumn. The poems are written by members of Tuanyuan Poetry Society. The exhibition will last for an entire autumn, during which time they will receive various guests. Rong Jiang thought that there were no poems by noble ladies here because they were illiterate. She was really blinded by one thing.

All the noble ladies in the capital are good at playing the piano, chess, calligraphy and painting. Poetry and etiquette are engraved in their bones. Even the six arts of a gentleman are dabbled in. She thinks that she is a great person just because she has read a few books, recognized a few words, and has some understanding of Dayan's culture. This is nothing but arrogance.

Qiao Lili was taught by the Imperial Concubine and studied under a hermit scholar. From the age of ten, she never won second place in any flower-viewing banquet or poetry competition she participated in. In recent years, she rarely participated in banquets, and her reputation as the most talented woman in the capital faded.

She dared to challenge Qiao Lili to write a poem. Even if she could take out the one she wrote when she was six years old, she would be able to defeat this ignorant little princess in seconds.

"You can compete in any way you want, but don't bring the Sixth Prince. It's a blasphemy to him." Qiao Lili said seriously. Competing in poetry writing, are you trying to commit suicide? Fine, she will take care of both the killing and the burial.

"Then if you lose you have to agree to one of my conditions." Rong Jiang understood clearly that the condition she would propose would be for him to give up the position of Crown Princess. However, by then, maybe she, Qiao Lili, would not be alive, so that would save trouble.

"Okay, what if you lose?" Qiao Lili asked. She would not lose, so she didn't care about the conditions, but she couldn't involve Brother Jing in the game. This was disrespectful to Brother Jing, and he would be angry if he knew.

"I lose. I am at the mercy of the Crown Princess." Rong Jiang recited the chrysanthemum poem again in his mind and said with confidence.

"Okay, a gentleman's word is as good as a whip to a galloping horse. Tell me, how do we compare?" Qiao Lili walked to the pavilion beside the chrysanthemum poetry wall. Cai Qi and Cai Xing put the cushions in the right position and helped Qiao Lili and Princess An Ning to sit down. Rong Jiang also sat down. Some of the noble ladies sat inside the pavilion, while others found chairs outside the pavilion to sit down.

"Then each of you write a poem. Whoever writes the best will win." Rong Jiang said. She only knew one chrysanthemum poem, and she was not good at connecting sentences. She was still thinking in her heart that it was fortunate that the competition method allowed her to make suggestions.

"As you wish, Princess. Bring out the four treasures of the study." Qiao Lili gave the order and placed the writing brush, ink, paper and inkstone on the table in the pavilion. The pavilion was not small. The chrysanthemum poems on the three walls were written in this pavilion when the poetry club was founded a few days ago. There was still an ink-stained felt pad on the table, which was used to pad the rice paper when writing, and it had not been removed in time.

Because there is a poetry club here, the four treasures of the study are all ready, so they came up right away. With the writing brush, ink, paper and inkstone laid out, Caiqin looked at the dryness of the inkstone, and then at the softness and hardness of the Hui ink in her hand. She roughly estimated the number of words in a poem in her mind, and dripped a few drops of water into the inkstone. She held the ink block in one hand and pulled her sleeve with the other, and began to rotate the inkstone with even force. After a while, she stopped when she saw that the ink color was just right. Just these few movements are not a dance, but they have a more elegant charm than dance.

The one who ground ink for Princess Rong Jiang was also her personal maid. She poured half a cup of water into the inkstone, stuck an ink stick in, and two or three drops of water splashed out of the inkstone. Then as she ground the ink, ink kept splashing out. The table, her hands, and her sleeves were all covered with ink. The noble ladies sitting next to her quickly moved away, as it would be too rude if they were splashed with ink.

Qiao Lili had already picked up the brush to dip it in ink. Rong Jiang put too much water and the ink was not ground well enough. But Rong Jiang was impatient. He stretched his head to see that the ink in the inkstone was black, so he also picked up the brush and said to the maid, "It's done, you can leave." He dipped the goat-hair brush into the inkstone and started writing on the rice paper with confidence.

Qiao Lili picked up the pen and was still hesitating, while Rong Jiang was already writing quickly. While writing, he looked up at Qiao Lili with a smug look. Qiao Lili was still thinking with a slightly frown on her face, and Rong Jiang looked at her again and again.

The noble ladies also moved to the pavilion, wanting to see from a close distance how the little princess of Lanna lost miserably. Is there no possibility that Rong Jiang will win? It can be said that at this moment, except for those people from Lanna, no one thought so.

But I didn't expect that the little princess in front of me could wield her pen as if assisted by God. When she composed poetry, she seemed to have everything planned out in her mind. She wrote fluently without thinking at all. If she didn't have the talent to compose a poem in seven steps, then she must have been well prepared.

However, the maid ground the ink too carelessly, and the words written on the paper were of varying thicknesses, obviously not yet dissolved.

At this time, Qiao Lili also started writing.

Light purple and yellow, exuding fragrance in autumn.

Loneliness is wet with heavy dew, and loneliness is proud of the snow and frost.

The color in front of Tao Gong Mountain, the fragrance under Yi An’s sleeves.

Without dancing after the falling leaves, the west wind stands in the setting sun.

August 14th: Chrysanthemums in the Garden

Qiao Lili signed her name, and Cai Qi took out her small seal, used it, and the poem was completed.

The noble ladies also finished reading Qiao Lili's poem. The poem was just like her, elegant and modest. The five-character regulated verse was elegant and beautiful, which was her usual style.

The first couplet is easy to understand, the second couplet is neatly matched, and the third couplet uses two allusions, from Tao Yuanming's "Picking chrysanthemums under the eastern fence, leisurely seeing the southern mountains" and Li Qingzhao's "Drinking wine under the eastern fence after dusk, with a faint fragrance filling my sleeves". The last couplet writes about the chrysanthemum's proud character of not following the crowd.

It is not really that outstanding, but poetry needs to be scrutinized and pondered. A good poem sometimes requires several and long revisions and polishing. A quick poem like this one, which was written at the drop of a hat, is quite good.

The noble ladies felt that if it were them, they would never be able to do it so well, and they were still convinced in their hearts.

Although Qiao Lili started writing late, she wrote faster than Rong Jiang. Princess Rong Jiang wrote like a child writing big characters, one character at a time, stroke by stroke, and her writing was quite slow.

At first, the noble ladies were reading what she wrote, but as soon as Qiao Lili put pen to paper, everyone's attention turned to that place. After waiting for the end of Qiao Lili's poem, they saw that Rong Jiang had also stopped writing, so they hurried back to read the poem she had written. It didn't matter what they saw, they were really shocked.

Qiao Lili's poem about chrysanthemums is a clumsy work by Shui Shui, please forgive me for laughing.

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