Perhaps Li's familiar verse "A silkworm produces silk until it dies / A candle weeps until it burns itself out" is also a reference to this love affair. Yeh Chia-ying suggests that the really touching part of this passion play from Chinese history is that the lovers were brought together by the sublime feelings expressed through a chanted poem, and not by crude physical attraction.
膾炙人口的「春蠶到死絲方盡，蠟炬成灰淚始乾」，詠的可是這段情？葉嘉瑩指出：這個中國詩史上的美麗愛情故事，令人神往之處是，他們的相識相戀是透過詩歌吟誦的心靈相通，而不僅只是色相的傾慕而已。