By afternoon, these young men and women had formed a gathering to compete in poetry and the arts of Qin, Chess, Calligraphy, and Painting.
Ye Shiqi did not shamelessly plagiarize a private collection of 300 Tang poems, nor did she frivolously display modern poems and prose about love.
She was just herself, and if she truly had literary talent, then at her current age it wasn't appropriate to show it off too much, especially since she was someone who had not attended an academy.
The teacher Scholar had taught her to read and write, choosing a method suited for teaching girls, which included understanding and applying poetry. The educational approach was different from that for boys, and somewhat simpler.
Seeing her own sister, Ye Fengqi, not prominently displaying her talents though she had also learned to recognize characters over several years, she still did not perform well in poetry.
