The legend of Zhang Lihua

From the Yilin Press office, located on the top floor of a building on Hunan Road, we catch a panoramic view of the misty cobalt-blue waters of Nanjing's famed Xuanwu Lake, girdled by dark hills on three sides. An apocryphal story about a beauty, who had plunged with her imperial lover into the depths of the majestic Xuanwu Lake, has notched up its romantic appeal for us.

Soon afterwards, Shirley Xie, assistant president of Yilin, clarifies that Zhang Lihua - the maiden's name - did not drown in the lake. In fact, she hid in a well in the temple of Jiming, only a stone's throw away.

"She was the favorite concubine of Emperor Chen Shubao (AD 553-604) of Chen Dynasty (AD 557-589)," informs Xie. "He wrote many poems extolling her beauty, among which the most famous was A Jade Tree Blossoms in the Backyard. The poem later acquired an iconic status - a metaphor for men pursuing beautiful women at the cost of neglecting their vocation."

Zhang Lihua was famous for her hair, which, according to historical records, was 2.33 meters long, silky smooth and so shiny that it could double as a mirror! When the invaders from the north occupied Nanjing, which was the Chinese capital at that time, the emperor, who had been too preoccupied with writing paeans to his luscious-haired lady love, had no recourse but to jump into the well with her.

"When they were discovered and pulled up from the well, the rouge on the cheeks of Zhang Lihua rubbed off, leaving a stain against the side of the well, thereby giving the well a new name - rouge well," Xie says.

We visit the well on our way back. It seems like a really constricted hole to have contained two fully-grown people. What an ignominious and un-romantic end to a love story that, at the outset, had seemed to hold a lot of promise.