Yu Xuanji, also known as Youwei, was a female poet in the late Tang Dynasty. She came from a humble background. She married Li Yi as a concubine at the age of sixteen. Her original wife, Pei, did not tolerate her, so she had to enter Xianyi Temple to practice. After Li Yi and Mr. Pei moved to Yangzhou to serve as officials, Yu Xuanji posted a notice on the wall, saying that Yu Xuanji was waiting for advice. From then on, she was in full bloom, and it was easy to watch the busy traffic. She herself changed from an abandoned wife to a prostitute, and lived a semi-prostitute's life.
In the name of poetry, Yu Xuanji made friends with powerful and famous people, such as Wen Tingyun and Li Ying, and became famous far and wide. However, her fate soon took a tragic turn. She suspected that her maid Lu Qiao was having an affair with her lover Chen Wei, so she whipped Lu Qiao to death and buried her under the wisteria flowers in the backyard. One summer night, someone found flies gathering on the soil under the flowers, and secretly summoned the government to investigate. The matter was exposed, and the twenty-four-year-old Yu Xuanji was also executed.