Female beauty, held in high esteem in the court of imperial China found a poetic metaphor in the guise of the delicate lotus blossom. Many popular idioms using the lotus as the subject have become common in the Chinese language.
而「浮生六記」中，芸娘在夏夜荷花初開時，用小囊「撮茶少許，置花心，明早取出，烹天泉泡之，香韻尤絕」的慧心，則是家居生活的情趣了。