This book is about Yuan Zhen, a poet who was prime minister in the mid-Tang Dynasty, and Xue Tao, a female poet with a low status who was appointed as a "principal scholar". The love and hatred are the main lines. It describes the rough lives of many poets in the declining middle and late Tang Dynasty, such as Bai Juyi, Liu Yuxi, Li He, Han Yu, Liu Zongyuan, etc. These men of letters were both literary greats and important officials in the imperial court. It was they who supported and promoted the cultural prosperity of that era. And their fates are inextricably entangled with the emperor, court and local officials, with numerous grievances and grievances. After several eras and spanning hundreds of years, poems about immortals, saints, Buddhas, demons, ghosts, or ghosts appear, either as protagonists or as supporting characters.
Purpose: The book can be described as a novel, because it has real life sources, as well as fictional character stories and exaggerated descriptions; it can also be described as a biography, because it is a description of the life of a group of people of the era, with official and unofficial records and folklore. In short, the author is based on real history, trying to use fictional plots, "stream of consciousness" form and fluent language to praise the steadfastness of love, sympathize with the ups and downs of life, and expose the darkness and cruelty of feudal society and rulers.