so I copied the poem that Xie Lian and Hua Cheng wrote together in chapter 97:
Xie Lian would definitely frown upon my handwriting too haha XD
And I suspect that Hua Cheng’s “wild brushwork” that would make calligraphy professors “roll their eyes back and perish on the spot” would look something like this:
The English version I have gave a pretty good translation and explanation of the poem in the annotations, I’ll just copy it here:
No water is enough when you have crossed the sea;
No cloud is beautiful but that which crowns the peak.
I pass by flowers that fail to attract poor me
Half for your sake and half for Taoism I seek.
explanation of the poem: this was a poem written by the Tang poet Yuan Zhen, expressing his undying love and devotion to his dead wife. After seeing the vast sea (his wife), other bodies of water could no longer compare; after removing the clouds and mists of Mount Wu (his wife), no other landscapes could compare. Walking through bushes of flowers (other women), his mind is only focused on his cultivation and his wife.
Hua Cheng wrote down the first half of this love poem, and Xie Lian wrote down the second half. So their collaboration on the poem is basically their declaration of love for each other.
(p.s. Two years after he wrote this poem, the poet Yuan Zhen got married again, but that’s another story…)