Admonitions of a poet

Although a nobleman from the same hometown as the poet left and came to the capital to be a civil servant, he neglected his work and immersed himself in entertainment, reveling in leisure. The civil servant would go to the brothel and gamble all night. He lived so unruly that he could not tell the difference between a house and a guesthouse. This made the poet feel very uneasy as the man’s senior and native of the same hometown.

Hundreds of years ago, in the era of WeiJin and Northern Dynasties, a man named Dou Tao led a promiscuous life just like you, living with a concubine from the outskirts and disregarding his hometown wife. However, when his wife embroidered a long poem on her silk, Dou Tao, who realized his wife's sincerity, eventually returned to her. No matter what anyone says, only a couple can understand each other's feelings best, so how foolish is it to give your heart to a courtesan who does not reveal her true feelings. Despite having Zhongyuan restoration in mind, it is plain preposterous to be in agony over a prostitute problem.

Mulanhua (magnolia flowers) is the name of the song in SongCi. Originally, Ci or Chinese lyric songs were characterized by delicate, lyrical, and sweet tendencies as they are lyrics of a song, but Ci of the Southern Song period are inclined to contain stronger social-critical messages than having aesthetic properties. This is why Liu Kezhuang and Lu You are honored as Southern Song Poets who make Ci relate to patriotism.