Note 159 — XXIV. MISS A-PAO; OR, PERSEVERANCE REWARDED.
Herbert Allen Giles translation
The so-called “golden lilies” always come in for a large share of criticism. See No. XII., note 86. This term originated with an emperor who reigned in the fifth century, when, in ecstasies at the graceful dancing of a concubine upon a stage ornamented with lilies, he cried out, “Every footstep makes a lily grow.” return to text