Stories in poetry

Spring Captivity

Ku Wuji · AI Writing · A Novel of Strange Tales in a Historical Setting · Complete · 40 chapters · 7 reads

The moment Lu Qing paints over the old palace’s south gate with a wall, he forgets which street his mother lives on. He has been ordered to paint his former kingdom in everlasting spring for the new ruler. Towers, terraces, and crabapple blossoms must all remain as they were, but no way out may be left. The flute master in the prison tower is also beginning to forget the river of their old city. As the birthday gift nears completion and the east wind rises outside the window once more, Lu Qing grips his brush, no longer daring to paint a wall lightly.

Written with AI assistance, this original book expands on Li Yu’s “To the Tune of Yu Mei Ren” and this site’s original short story “The East Wind’s Confinement in the Little Tower.” The old city, prison tower, characters, chronology, palace institutions, and painting-paper magic are fictional; this is neither a translation or adaptation of the original poem, a historical record, nor a biography of the poet.