Talc (Top and Bottom) (Top and Bottom Volumes)

Author: Ximen
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-06-01
Features: 30-episode TV drama "The Fragrance Family," broadcasted by China Central Television in the summer of 2005 during the prime time slot. Lan Yi once stood for a long time before the open, carved window of the bamboo and wood cabin. At that time, she was like a fairy, immersing her beautiful face in the cool moonlight, making the world's unique moon appear as a pair in her eyes. When she closed her eyes alone, she would gently converse with them in her heart, but she didn't know whether she used the cold light to freeze or warm the vows once made. To this day, I still remember the way the light yellow silk robe swayed lazily in the breeze, and the ripples traced on her soft body by the moonlight. I guess that a woman who can sing "Farewell on the Path" to the point of pain would surely have an unparalleled sorrow in her eyes when she thinks of me.
From countless kalpas of cultivation, I have attained the divine power of smelling, and I have smelled all the infinite beings in the ten directions, knowing the fragrances of virtue and evil, fine and subtle, fire, water, noon, worldly, and Daoist fragrances. Even the fragrances of the Bodhisattva sitting under the tree king, the fragrance of precepts, concentration, wisdom, liberation, liberation of wisdom, teaching the boundless compassion of all living beings, the fragrance of pity for all living beings, the fragrance of joyous and smiling faces, the fragrance of universal release, the fragrance of distinguishing the subtle dust, the fragrance of distant illumination, the fragrance of gathering all beings in harmony, the fragrance of the five aggregates in purity, the fragrance of holding without arising, the fragrance of stopping and extinguishing all stains, the fragrance of hearing precepts and practicing charity, the fragrance of shame and humility, the fragrance of transcendent methods, the fragrance of unimpeded teaching, the fragrance of Sheli Han in the noon, the fragrance of sealing the Buddha's treasury, and the fragrance of the seven treasures in endlessness. — The Broad and Universal Sutra Spoken by the Bodhisattva Descending from the Dharma Heaven of the Four Heavenly Kings
The novel tells a tragic and sorrowful love story in the form of a diary, narrated from the perspective of a ghost who has been lurking in the Qinhuai River for two hundred years, waiting for rebirth. During the Hongwu era of the Ming Dynasty, Lin Yiruo, the young master of Juxia Fang in the Fragrance Family, brought the art of perfumery to its utmost beauty. He was ethereal and transcendent, whimsical and unrestrained, wandering between the palace and the inner chambers, where countless beauties lost themselves in the mists of the Qilin fragrance he exuded. Perhaps by fate, Lin Yiruo fell in love with the beautiful and sorrowful woman, Lan Yi. Lan Yi disliked all fragrances and did not believe in true love in the mortal world. Thus, a love story that transcends life and death and is as extraordinary as it is twisted unfolded.
Later, there was a perfume made from withered flowers on graves, tears of blood from eyes, and the deepest love in the heart—the fragrance of whose Lan Yi. Its scent drifted along the banks of the Qinhuai River, and those who smelled it could not help but grieve deeply.