Stories in poetry

Even Chrysanthemums Bow Their Heads

Ku Wuji · AI Writing · A Tale of Marvels in an Ancient Setting · Complete · 1 chapter · 0 reads

Han Yan has spent his life painting chrysanthemums that refuse to bow; now he must paint them bending in birthday tribute to secure his detained granddaughter’s release. The new prefectural authorities demand the painting before the Double Ninth Festival, but the branches beneath his brush keep turning upward out of habit. On the tenth day, a vegetable seller brings a packet of earth containing three chrysanthemum seeds and a scrap of cotton cloth bearing the words: “东堤水涨，莫等我。”—“The water is rising at the eastern embankment. Do not wait for me.” Between his painting table and the city gate, the old man suddenly no longer knows which way to go first.

This work was created by AI, inspired by the poetic imagery of Zheng Sixiao’s “Chrysanthemums in the Cold / Painting Chrysanthemums.” Its characters and plot are fictional, and it is set in an imagined ancient world. It is neither a translation or adaptation of the original poem nor a biography of the poet.