Qiuxiang and Tang Yin: A Song of True Art

Autumn Fragrance and Tang Yin: A Long Song of True Art

When history major Lin Xiaoman puts on a jeweled gold hairpin, the face reflected in the bronze mirror is none other than Qiu Xiang, a maid in the Hua residence during the Chenghua era of the Ming dynasty! Memories of the original owner flood her mind. Tang Yin, the “romantic genius” who hangs around by the west wall every day, pestering her with flowery poems, is now reciting aloud: “One smile can captivate a city and move the capital~” Xiaoman rolls her eyes. “Brother Tang, do those lines even rhyme? ‘Stars’ and ‘city’ are miles apart!” And so begins a sharp-tongued battle of wits across time.

Determined to escape the fate of being a mere tool, Xiaoman draws on her modern eye for historical research and her classical aesthetic sensibilities to challenge Tang Yin to a series of contests. In a poetry battle, she cites the Shoushi Calendar to expose the astronomical error in “the moon above the willow tips.” In a painting duel, she uses the Song dynasty technique of “full, fleshy forms” to improve his portraits of women, whose heads are too large and bodies too short. In a flute-and-qin duet, she uses the brisk rhythm of “Folding the Willow” to cure his plodding, “old woman’s bound feet” style. Tang Yin goes from astonishment to fascination, progressing from “forcing sorrow into a poem” to understanding that “the value of art lies in its truth.” When they face crises such as sneaking into Prince Ning’s residence at night and exposing a forgery, Xiaoman’s courage and ingenuity win him over completely.

He learns to sketch with her charcoal pencils, memorizes the witty phrases she teaches him, gathers herbs in the rain to make ginger tea, and sends her a poetic handkerchief for the Qixi Festival. When Prince Ning sets a trap with a literary gathering, the two prove through The Long Scroll of True Art that “true hearts make true art,” and become the emperor’s personally appointed “kindred spirits of Jiangnan.” Xiaoman’s hairpin, which brought her through time, begins to glow once more. As they part, Tang Yin gives her A Painting of Qiu Xiang on Horseback, inscribed with the words, “May we admire these mountains and rivers together one day.”

A lighthearted period comedy that brings two talents together through art. See how the modern, outgoing Qiu Xiang uses her sharp tongue to transmigrate...