The flowers of Chengdu are fantastical

John Anster Fitzgerald, Fairies in a Bird’s Nest (ca. 1860). Collection of the Legion of Honor, San Francisco.

A Vision of Spring at the City of Silks, with Zhuo Yingying 
Lu Meiniang

The silkworm markets open up, 
And everywhere I look is spring.  
This brightly-coloured bustling crowd 
Of fragrant buds is opening. 
This world is full of spectacles 
That in their glorious flowering, 
Conspire to match transcendent worlds, 
And faery folk who live within. 

卢眉娘  和卓英英锦城春望 
蚕市初开处处春，九衢明艳起香尘。 
世间总有浮华事，争及仙山出世人。 

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We’re back in Chengdu, in a companion piece to Zhuo’s.

Lu Meiniang (792-unknown) was a child prodigy who achieved fame for her needlework, was invited to the capital, and narrowly escaped becoming an imperial concubine.

The City of the Silks was Chengdu, now the capital of Sichuan Province. Sichuan is a major centre for silk production, and the name City of the Silks came from the presence of the Silk Bureau, the official government body responsible for regulating the silk industry.